or psychological turmoil?
by Sasami
One commonly accepted factor in the generation of eating disorders is the influence of culture, specifically the culture of the West. Everywhere one looks, he or she is bombarded by images of extremely thin women. These images are presented through various forms of media, mainly television and magazines. On television, nearly all actresses are extremely thin, often to the point of emaciation. There are frequent rumors of eating disorders amongst these actresses, but these are often glossed over and left as vague notions, which only serves to perpetuate the idea that eating disorders are necessary to achieve the standards of beauty one sees on televison or in other forms of media. Magazines in particular are an important source of unrealistic beauty standards, as they are an express medium for the modeling industry. Models in magazines are excessively thin; the vast majority are severely underweight and skeletal. These visual presentations of extreme thinness as both a beautiful and necessarily desirable image to have can easily stimulate the onset of eating disorders, as an attempt to obtain this standard of beauty (thinness) which is not otherwise possible to attain. In fact, the thinness of models is simply not attainable by the general population in many cases, because models are chosen who are naturally built waif-like and then are fed on extreme diets and medication. The result is a society and culture that continuously portrays unachievable images, and consequently, creates the need to employ unnatural food-related behaviors in order to feel attractive and achieve the cultural standard of beauty.
There is another potential explanation for eating disorders: that the disordered eating behaviors are manifestations of underlying psychological issues. In this view, cultural images of beauty merely exacerbate the real problem--psychological issues which are manifested as �food issues.� As Marya Hornbacher explains it in her book Wasted, �My culture could have been the most open-minded of cultures, the most accepting, with the healthiest attitudes toward food, and I would still have looked for something else with which to rip myself apart� (83). According to her views, cultural standards are rather ineffectual as compared to inner turmoil.
Considering whether eating disorders are caused by culture or have a psychological root is very important in order to answer the question �What causes eating disorders?� Careful isolation of the responsible factor, whether the cultural effect or the mental condition, can lead not only to better and more effective treatment for those afflicted, but, more importantly, to the prevention of eating disorders in the first place. Two out of every ten anoretics die as a result of this disorder. If we can figure out the true cause of eating disorders, treatment can be centered around the identified cause, which could expedite a full recovery, serving to better solve this problem which threatens so many people.
It is well-known that the women portrayed in the media are unnaturally thin. This is a seemingly bizarre twist in fashion, for a reasonable prediction would state that most people would not find women looking sickly and near death to be attractive. Perception of beauty is, in part, set by the society and external circumstances in which one exists. In nineteenth-century Europe, a plump body type was considered the standard of beauty; now, thinness is the definitive accepted image (The Body Project 92). In the 1950s, Marilyn Monroe, the sex symbol of that era, was distinctly less thin than fashion icons of the present era; today movie stars and models wear clothing at least four sizes smaller than she did. In fact, a size fourteen, once the ideal, is now considered a �plus size� for larger-than-average women, as stated by the health educator of Wellesley College, Catherine Collins, an expert on eating disorders. However, in a point contrary to this, there is evidence that anorexia has indeed occurred throughout history (Wasted 86; www.anorexicweb.com) in relatively the same format as it exists today, regardless of any external circumstances, even in eras when thinness was considered unattractive, and control deemed foolish and unnecessary. This negates several of the arguments for cultural influences, mandating that there be some cause aside from cultural depictions of beauty.
On the other had, it is patent that women are bombarded by images of thinness every day, via models, television actresses, and magazines. Such body types do differ considerably from the bodies of typical people: hence the conflict (www.eating-disorder.org). The body type represented by these models and actresses is nearly impossible to achieve; the fact is that many people simply do not have the metabolism, body type, or bone structure to be extremely thin. There are three basic body types: ectomorphic, endomorphic and mesomorphic. Ectomorphic body types are thin and angular, endomorphic bodies are rounder and less given to thinness, while mesomorphic bodies are muscular (www.fitnesszone.com). As nearly all the thin models seen in the media are ectomorphic, their levels of thinness remain unattainable to the rest of the public who do not share that particular body type. In addition to this, they usually eat very little and consume nutritionally unbalanced diets, combined with unhealthy medication, such as amphetamines that speed up the body��s metabolism. Kate Moss, a five-foot, seven-inch model weighing slightly over 100 pounds, famous for �the waif look,� harbored a dependency on the diet pill Dexatrim for many years, and eventually was hospitalized (www.anorexicweb.com). For those who desire that image, the only seeming solution is unhealthy and extreme dieting, which can quickly accelerate into anorexia.
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