Women Become the Victims of Eating Disorder

I first developed my eating disorder the night before because I

was rejected by a boy at age fifteen.  Since I liked my self, I really

  felt the only thing wrong with me was my weight. (From a girl’s diary)

          Mirror, mirror on the wall tell me who’s the thinnest one of all?  Have you ever thought that why bulimics mainly women?  We live in a society, which is fundamentally unsatisfying to many women, and eating disorders are the symbols of this inner emptiness (Cohn 25).  Men and women are naturally concerned with their appearance, through childhood, adolescence and adulthood.  Women constantly get the message that how they look like is more important than what they think, do or feel. They are also aware of stereotypically ‘‘feminine’’ traits, such as politeness, cleanliness, docility, and unselfishness.  Therefore, another stereotype is that ideal women bodies should be thin, not just fit enough.  Women bodies are sometimes tools for popularity and power.  Being fat is associated with being ‘’ lazy, ugly, weak and lacking will power.  Researchers from the University of Minnesota investigated the people think that if women are slender or slim, it means they are hard working, beautiful, sexy, and strong and self-disciplined.  As a result, they often feel great pressure to achieve or maintain an imaginary appearance. There are three ways that influence or trigger eating disorders social stereotypes, media and advertisements (products).  They flourish with the help of consumerism. These factors can be held responsible for women’s eating disorder because they glorify the culture of slimness.  That’s why women become the victims of eating disorders.
           It is worthwhile to explain what eating disorder means.  Eating disorders are complex, chronic illnesses largely misunderstood and misdiagnosed (Spearing 1).
The most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder, which are on the rise among families because of the genetic and environmental factors. A girl’s social environment can emphasize the importance of thinness and weight control.  Additionally, women pursuing professions or activities that emphasize thinness like modeling, dancing, gymnastics.  On the other hand, women become the victims of media and advertisements.  Another point is that the idealization of thinness has resulted in distorted body image and unrealistic measures of beauty and appearance.  TV, magazines, movies reinforce the belief that women should be more concerned with their appearance. Melissa Spearing argues that body dissatisfaction, feeling of fatness and drive for thinness has led many women to become concerned their appearance (Spearing 1).
           Before discussing the factors that trigger the eating disorders, it is important to explain what anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are.  Anorexia nervosa includes resistance to maintain minimally body weight for age and height.  Generally, fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even though underweight causes the anorexia. Women with this disorder see themselves as overweight even though they are extremely thin so this process becomes an obsession.  Unusual eating habits develop, such as avoiding food and meals, picking out a few foods and eating these small quantities. Besides, carefully weighing and portioning foods can the exact examples for eating disorder.  People with anorexia may repeatedly check their weight and engage to control their weights such as intense exercise, vomiting and abuse of laxatives.  According to Spearing, the mortality rate among women with anorexia has been estimated at 0.56 percent per year, or approximately 5.6 per decade, which is about 12 times higher than the annual rate due to the all causes of death among females ages 15-24 in the general population (Spearing 2).
           Secondly, bulimia nervosa is another eating disorders and an estimated 1.1 percent to 4.2 percent of females have bulimia in their life time (American Journal).  Symptoms of bulimia include recurrent episodes binge eating (eating too much).  It characterizes by eating an excessive amount of food within a discrete period and by a sense of lack of control.  It is obvious to realize inappropriate behaviors in order to prevent weight gain, such as self- induced vomiting misuse of laxatives. Women with bulimia usually weigh within the normal range for their age and height.  Like anorexia, they may fear gaining weight. They desire to lose weight willingly because they feel intensely dissatisfied with their bodies. These women often perform their acts in a secret way, feeling disgusted and ashamed because of their overweight.
           Anorexia often begins with an attempt to be slim.  On the other hand, bulimia nervosa develops in %50 of former anorectics when they cannot manage to restrain their eating anymore.  These women give importance to their appearance.  We can see clearly the increasing cultural emphasis on thinness, it shows how women consider the society’s myths, and obsession of weight emerges.  Bennett in his book ’’The Dieter’s Dilemma’’ says that:
                Much evidence has accumulated now for an increasingly demanding thin    body ideal in the Western nations, particularly the United States, but also in Western Europe and probably throughout industrialized world.  The idealization
               of thinness and the emphasis on weight control has been a part of Western culture since the early twentieth century, 1960s, that dieting and thinness attained the status of a mass cultural obsession (Bennett 7).
Cultural obsession encourages women to be thin and slender. Therefore, changing stereotypes, media and diet advertisement or products trigger the desire of thinness among women.
           Firstly, stereotypes cause a visible problem for women, which are anorexic and bulimic.  Stereotypes have actually undesirable and adverse means for overweight women.  There is a common understanding of women appearance among societies as follows: the slim youthful body is beautiful and healthy.  The fat women are slovenly, ugly, prone to disease, and lacks self-disciplined, fat equals to lazy, unintelligent, lack of self-control.  In the Gordon’s book ‘‘Eating Disorders’’ discusses prejudice against fat people is the last acceptable prejudice (Gordon 41).  Some culture thinks heavier women are not qualified to be picked for the job.  On the contrary, there are many overweight women work qualified jobs and they are happy with their kilos.  Therefore, some societies have wrong myths about women appearance so these factors encourage slimming. Due to the stereotypes, being fat women can be understood out of shape.  Women do not want to have bigger chest, hips and bottom because of the stereotypes.  Women are sick and tired of seeing all girls in the magazines and video with no hips.  For this reason, they are admired to be thin as much as can.  They do not prefer being fat women because of the prejudices. Mervat Nasser says that we all experience first hand the powerful anorexic influences that are currently playing upon us, particularly upon the female (Nasser 20).
           Overweight girl has struggle with her appearance because the society’s myths are contradictory to her.  As I wrote the head of the essay, that girl was rejected from her boyfriend because of her overweight.  Actually, every woman may try this way to be loved because if there is no instant choice, eating disorder is the easy way to lose weight but they endanger themselves.  The girl can be excluded from her environment because of her overweight so she has to prove herself in an easy way.  Moreover, fat women are victimized by societies’ prejudices.  Overweight women are supposed to not be attractive to men; they are not considered a real woman.  Ideal body stereotypes are always based on the slim women such as models.  Women are more concerned with their appearance because of the stereotypes. As a result, stereotypes affect the rise of eating disorders among women because the stereotypes glorify the slimness.
           What’s more, Non-western countries have less eating disorder than Western countries because eastern countries have no common prejudice to the fat women.  Hence, some studies show Non-western countries clearly lacked a definition of the syndrome of anorexia nervosa.. Non-western cultures have long been considered relatively immune from developing eating disorders, by reasons of different authentic cultural values that do not overvalue thinness.  According to Ford who is the author of Patterns of Sexual Behavior, these cultures possibly associate plumpness with positive attributes of wealth, fertility and femininity.  Even obesity in some societies was once seen to reflect desirable sexual characteristic (Ford 24). For example, When Anne Becker, a psychiatrist, first conducted research in Fiji in the early 1990s, she found a far greater percentage of Fijian women were overweight (Gordon 45).  According to their life styles if a woman is getting fat, it is acceptance and celebration, it is good for the woman.  Since, to be fat was seen as either strong, capable of work; to be thin was viewed highly negatively like illnesses, poor treatment. It shows the Fiji has no myths to the fat and there is a big difference between the cultures in terms of semblance.
           Another Non-western cultures, which do not promote eating disorders, are the Indians and the Chinese.  The Chinese have been described as being preoccupied with food, and offering good food is seen as means of showing affection, some Chinese would say ‘’ have you eaten’’ as a form of greeting when others would say ‘’Hello’’.  According to Confucianism, human nature has an innate desire for food and sex, which needs to be satisfied (Nasser 53). Non-western cultures are not concerned that means they are happy with their overweight so these culture’s women satisfied with their appearance.  In other words, Chinese and Indian don’t encourage the women slimming.
           On the contrary, women who belong to the western countries they cannot accept being fat because some stereotypes promote slim beauty. As a result, more women than men began to show higher levels of body dissatisfaction, it causes eating disorders. Besides, many countries in the western world have undergone changes in dietary habits because of the some stereotypes, which originated from people’s prejudices.  In the nineteenth century, thinness began to be positively perceived as showing a beauty and sexiness.  Another stereotype is that, the change in aesthetic values, with more admiration given to thinner and thinner female figure was endorsed by the rich who are able to purchase good organic foods and go gymnastic rooms.  It can be a stereotype comes from the Western society.  If women live in the western countries, they have to be thin in order to be acceptable by everyone.   That is not true because stereotypes can be broken.  People can change their attitudes towards the women who are fat.
           Another way of triggering the eating disorder is the media.  The media is held responsible for eating disorders. The media seek to inform women, entertain them, change them and shape them.  Women should accuse media, by glorifying the culture of thinness.  Kelly Brownell, a US expert in eating disorders, argues that the media contribute to a toxic environment in which eating disorders may be more likely to occur.  This is because of the damaging modern society in which media promotes, in a compelling manner, a low weight sculptured ideal body.  Media makes the woman’s body image thinner and thinner.  On the other hand, because of the proliferation of food every culture, women are getting bigger and fatter.  The gap between actual body sized and the media’s image is getting wider, and giving rise to anxiety among all women.  Therefore, women resort to eating disorders.  There is no doubt that the media provides significant content on body images to young women who read fashion and beauty related magazines.  When women watch these shows that include models, they want to have a similar appearance with models. Briefly, media has a broad influence for women and media causes the consciousness of weight among women.
          The media presents with an idealized shape which is invested with attributes of being attractive, desirable, successful and loveable but which is not attainable without resorting to dangerous eating habits such as using laxatives.  This causes eating disorders directly.  Fashion TV is a big deal because these models are generally anorexic and they are not nice examples for girls.  Unfortunately, the role of commercial interests and the media promotes to have eating disorders.  In the environment of the consumer originated, industrial societies, electronic images, photos have a potent to influence women overweight consciousness.  Anorexia and bulimia are sometimes literally evident fashion.  Richard Gordon is a psychologist who wrote  ‘’Eating Disorders: Anatomy of a Social Epidemic’’ argues that the historical evolution of the thin look and the role-played by the fashion industry and the media representing this idealized image (Gordon 90).   The glamorization of thinness in magazines and fashion was to spread throughout society and they introduced women to standard sizing. 90-60-90 is the best cliché explanation for good model appearance. Therefore, women are so desperate who have not the similar size and they are always in front of the mirror.
           The experts confirm that women and girls are vulnerable to messages and images conveyed through media.  Women and especially girls cannot discriminate between what they see and what the real is.  They are often unaware digital technology and manipulation in the fashion industry; media makes female images without reality.  These images promote unrealistic standards that are impossible to achieve.  Therefore, many girls don’t want to eat anymore or eat a lot and try to vomit in order to be slim.  Magazines accuse the models that are not slim and exaggerate their slim bodies; they never reflect the reality anyway.  Many girls believe the magazines and feel deprived.  However, eating disorders that originated from the media can cause serious problems.  A girl can imitate from catwalks then becomes rejecting eating; the girl can face with the death.  Models are the symbol of social desirability.  Therefore, many women find themselves as an inferior object because they have no slim body.  Briefly, the main explanation for the universal spread of the concept of thinness and the global increase in weight consciousness is the increasing of the thinness ideal through mass media.  For example, the impact of television on the new generation in Japan has been observed: ’’It is interesting that in one of the studies carried out in Japan with the intention of assessing the level of eating disorders in this society, the authors speculated that girls who spent a lot of time watching television could potentially increase their susceptibility to eating disorders ’’ (Nasser 58). Even if Japan is a Non-western county, these girls become the victim of eating disorders by the media.
           The access to western media has considerably increased in recent years through the spread of satellite channels.  The Middle East now has several satellite channels but there is a tendency to adopt the western look and style that is perceived as popular.  When Anne Becker went to the Fiji Island in 1998, some stereotypes had undergone a dramatic change.  Not only were large numbers of women, especially teenage girls unhappy with their body size and they are on dieting.  Besides, their level of distorted eating attitudes is comparable with western nations.   Fijian culture encounters with the television.  Fijian women were now exposed to the likes of programs such as beauty and slim, Beverley Hills, diet.  Women, particularly teenagers are obsessed with overweight, they dislike their fat appearance and the media causes the eating disorders directly.  As we can understand, the media easily manipulate the traditional culture and change the beliefs towards weight.  Moreover, fashion and beauty magazines are everywhere such as Chile, Hong Kong, Argentina, Israel, Turkey, India.  These kinds of magazines have a purpose to imitate the women to the slim body ideals and it causes the emergence of eating disorders.  To sum up, women are more concerned their appearance because the televisions, magazines and they are the victim of eating disorders.
           Another way of causing the eating disorders is the advertisements or commercials.  An ice cream and beauty creams have a same actress in the advertisement but they have different goals.  Ice cream helps to gain weight but the beauty creams helps to be more attractive.  The actress has a good looking and slim.  The viewers mostly women believe that when they eat ice cream a lot, they feel they wont gain weight because the actress who play in the commercial is quite beautiful and slender.  Actually, advertisements can misdirect the women.  Most channel gives place to the diet commercials such as how to be fit and they recommend using the product and seeing the difference.  What’s more, when we turn over the pages of any women’s magazine, we can see clearly a lot of commercials that include suggested diet.  These diets glorify the slimness to manipulate women.
           Besides advertisements are the powers of consumerism.  Food consumption relates to personnel identity and statues for the consumerism culture.  Consumerism and eating disorders have a close relationship.  Consumerism provides more and more opportunity to be slim and media give messages on body size. Women are influenced by the consumerism culture.  The media can persuade women that wrong eating habits are right and nature.  Instant dieting and buying expensive dieting goods show importance of consumerism among women.  Actually, it is not correct.  As knows, advertisements presents women with an idealized shape which is invested with attributes of being attractive, desirable and successful but which is unattainable without resorting to sinister or dangerous eating habits.  They cause the misdirection and misunderstanding of health.  Being slim does not mean being healthy.
       There are some solutions to reduce the eating disorders by advertisements and media.  I think, broadcast and written media can be a source of valuable information on health and well being.  In addition, awareness of eating disorders, through magazines, articles and television programmes may educate women the danger of abusing food, and may help to make sufferers aware that they have a problem and they are not alone.  In this respect, media may have useful roles such as health promotion for the public and prevention of eating disorders.  Health promotion seeks to promote healthful behaviors or attitudes to the public.  Primary prevention is defined as an activity designed to eliminate or render ineffective factors.  Media and advertisements should contribute to health promotion and primary prevention.  Media can present a greater variety of body shapes and sized in photos. They should discourage dieting and should assist women/girls with an influence academic people ( such as doctors, psychologists, teachers) from making weight a problem.  Media and advertisements provide positive fat role models. Moreover, the media should not glamorize celebrities who lose weight.  Lastly, media and advertisements should represent the positive way of eating and being healthy.
           To sum up, eating disorders involve serious disturbances in eating behavior such as extreme and unhealthy reduction of food because of extreme concern about body shape or weight.  Women want to be attractive and they believe that slimness is good.  However, it is completely wrong because being slim does not mean to be healthy.  Some stereotypes cause these illnesses.  I mean encouraging slimness can misdirect women and the society cannot be aware of this danger.  Another reason to cause to increase the rate of eating disorders is The media. Media glorifies the women appearance especially slimness but it flourishes the overweight women’s self-esteem.  That’s why, media should not encourage the women to be slender by showing extreme fashion models.  Besides, the advertisements triggers the eating disorders and it reaches the behavior of consumption
                                
WORK CITED
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Ford, C. S., Patterns of Sexual Behavior.  New York: Ace Books, 1952.
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