Blog # 7

Eating disorders affect and drastically change more women in the world than most can even imagine. They have the potential to influence all races, genders, and ages. Some reports even say that one or two out of every one hundred kids will suffer from an eating disorder in their lifetime. To be precise, an eating disorder is any view of one’s body that makes them eat in a way contrary to how they should. There are several types of eating disorders from the well know anorexia and bulimia, to purging and binge eating. Experiencing any symptom of any eating disorder for longer than I would say a few weeks would constitute someone having the beginnings of an eating disorder. From the psychological point of view (as I am a graduating psychology major this year), an eating disorder is a misconception about the body that causes one to think and behave in an unhealthy manner. Also, commonly associated with eating disorders is the psychological disorder body dysmorphic disorder, which is where a person becomes over obsessed with a certain part of their body and focuses on changing it to fit whatever model they have for the ideal. What, then, causes women to feel poorly about their bodies and can lead them to suffer from these disorders?

Sadly, the root causes of eating disorders can come from everywhere; from home, peers, media, anywhere. One of the biggest causes though behind them is from the fashion/film/media industries. With more and more models and actresses getting thinner and thinner, girls see the romantic and idolized responses from their peers and begin to think that they have to fit that model in order to be considered beautiful.







































Models are pressured from their agents and from fashion designers to be the size of store mannequins and that pressure on the models bleeds over into mainstream society. People then view the models (wearing the size zero clothes forced upon them) and either try to look like them or think that everyone around them should look like those models. This can result in a poor self-body image or a ridiculing of people around them, pressure those people to have poor self-body image. What none of them realize is that models demonstrate only about ten percent of the world’s population in body size. What about the other ninety percent? I will tell you plainly, they are not size zero, or even size two or four. Most are ranging size from 8-10 to 16-18, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that! Even in the past, one of the world’s most idolized actresses, Marilyn Monroe was a size 12. But as models became smaller and the ideal weight became smaller, eating disorder rates became larger.
If only more people were made aware of the true ratio of body sizes in the world. Why is it that what is considered ideal in wealthy countries considered starvation in poor countries? If only more people were educated on how to eat healthy and to properly view their bodies. If only people were educated on what eating disorders do to a body and how more often than not they are incurable and can lead to a slow death. If only people better understood the risks and who was susceptible to these disorders (based on family history or genetics). If only people were told that there are successful treatments to these disorders, they just need to seek them out. If only pop culture was not filled with a diet obsession. If only our own wealth and capitalist ideals did not keep us unsatisfied with whom we are and what we already possess (within and outside of ourselves). You could fill up a world with “if only” statements but none of them matter if the world sits idly by and says or does nothing about them.

It begins with each and every one of us. We can be the change that we desire to see in society today. We can throw away the obsession with food and dieting. We can throw away the pressure to conform to ten percent of the real world. We can throw away the idea that beauty only comes in one form. We can decide to educate ourselves about eating disorders and treatments for them. We can embrace each other and our body types and become one unified and broad definition of beauty. And who’s to think any less of us? No one thinks less of Queen Latifah, Kelly Clarkson, Kate Dillon, Nikki Blonsky, Jennifer Hudson, or Aretha Franklin for being who they are, so why should we think less of ourselves?