ering from Anorexia-Nervosa within western countries, compared to that of 3.2% of females suffering from Anorexia-Nervosa in non western countries (DiNicola 1990:253), it is not surprising that Anorexia Nervosa has been labeled a Culture-Bound Syndrome. There have been three prominent hypotheses as to why this particular disease is considered so. The most prominent of these hypotheses is that westernized media’s ideologies of thinness and beauty have influenced young females into developing a “fat-phobia," also responsible is the incompetent ability of western biomedicine in diagnosing the disease, and finally westernized socio-culture’s influence on anorexia outside of western regions.
Culture-Bound Syndromes were first pegged by
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Although no biological issues have been found that cause Anorexia Nervosa, there are many hypotheses as to why this is such a rapidly spreading disorder within Western culture.
This specific culture varies greatly in terms of what is considered socially acceptable, from other cultures. Within the Western world, being thin is glamorized as the ideal female body type. The image of the skinny female body being ideal has infiltrated the collective consciousness of most women within our culture, due in large part to mass media which helps disseminate and exploit this very untenable and unhealthy ideal, in which young vulnerable girls have little escape. This Westernized social factor engraves and stresses upon society 's accepted standards of beauty and social inclusivity, which all too often translates into an overwhelming belief that if a young woman does not physically ascribe to this notion, that she is less worthy of love and affection (Simpson 2000: 65). This dangerous pandering of unhealthy superficiality has caused increased levels of body dysmorphia, which in turn leads to a structural suffering by the aversion of food as a means to loose weight.
Two Psychiatrists, Joel Kevin Thompson and Leslie J. Heinberg (1999), studied the “media’s influence on body image disturbance and eating disorders” (Thompson,.et Heinberg:Dec 17, 2002) , basing their research within the
Incidences of Anorexia Nervosa have appeared to increase sharply in the USA, UK and western European countries since the beginning of the 60s (Gordon, 2001). The increasing prevalence of the disease has led the World Health Organisation to declare eating disorders a global priority area within adolescent mental health (Becker et al. 2011). Anorexia has in many ways become a modern epidemic (Gordon, 2000) and with a mortality rate of 10% per decade (Gorwood et al. 2003), the highest of any mental disorder (Bulik et al. 2006), it is an epidemic that social and biological scientists have been working tirelessly to understand.
Dr. Levenkron talks about Anorexia Nervosa as a pathological distortion of today’s society of being “Fashion-model thin.” This source is reliable because it is told from a doctor's/psychotherapists perspective of the disease. It informs and broadens my research on the pathological aspect of the disease. Dr. Steven Levenkron uses case studies and specific strategies to explain and help cure the disease.
A very prominent and controversial issue related to media-idealized images is that of eating disorders and eating problems. Eating problems include binge eating, purging, and unhealthy eating problems. These disorders are seen in young adolescents who are at a very fragile stage of life. Teenagers experience bodily changes as well as peer pressure and new experiences of going into high school. According to Dakanalis et al. the media portrays individuals with an extremely thin build for females and a slim-muscular build (i.e., muscles along with minimal body fat) for males is considered to be the cause of body displeasure and eating pathology. There is no solid evidence to prove that the media is to blame for the degree of eating disorder symptoms and negative body-image feelings that many feel, hence the reason it continues to be a highly debated topic. There has although, been continuous research and theories comprised over objectification. This occurs when men and women are sexually objectified. A person is treated as a body, where beauty and attractiveness of a person are important and valued. This theory can be found nearly anywhere because of the amount and variety of social interaction. It is common because of the way media represents body images. The media has ideals of men and women’s body images and individuals are compared to how well
NEDA. (2016). Media, body image, and eating disorders. Retrieved March 20, 2017, from NEDA. Finding Hope website: https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/media-body-image-and-eating-disorders
Though this is true, research shows that media does contribute to the increase in body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. “Anorexia means ‘lack of appetite’, but in the case of the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, it is a desire to be the, rather than a lack of appetite, that causes individuals to decrease their food intake,” (Smolin and Mary Grosvenor, 76). “The name bulimia is taken from the Greek words bous (“ox”) and limos (“hunger”), denoting hunger of such intensity that a person could eat an entire ox,” (Smolin and Mary Grosvenor, 94).
Eating disorders have become an increasing public health problem once thought to be an affliction amongst young women, now an epidemic across culture and gender boundaries. Anorexia gives rise to serious socio-economic and bio-psychological circumstances of our ever vast, growing society. Awareness of eating disorders have increased but perhaps only in proportion to its advancement of its research and treatment. That which still leaves us in a position for a much greater demand for education and heightened awareness of this perplexing disease.
Expectations including unatainable beauty standards with young women being objectified and unrealistically portrayed the most in the media. Everyday we as consumers of media are subjected to these images, morphing our mentalities and leaving individuals that don’t meet society’s expectations and standards particularly vulnerable. The encouragement from the media to embody an impossible image for the majority of women can lead to a number of different mental health problems. Statistically unrealistic images formed and reinforced by the media affect young women and girls more so than their male counterparts in regards to mental illness, particularly disordered eating and body image issues. At one treatment facility for anorexia and bulimia, of 138 patients, only four were male. (Bokind-Lodahl) Nearly all of these 138 patients stated that they had developed an eating disorder because they had wanted to be as physically desirable as possible, to them and many other women in America translating to being as thin as possible. All of the patients were very vulnerable to actual and perceived rejection, however the patients that identified themselves as female were more likely to believe that their bodies and sex must somehow be the reason for that rejection. So why are so many girls and women affected by body image issues? Between the ages of thirteen and
Chronic dieting, low self-esteem, depression and, high levels of body dissatisfaction were among the major issues women face when addressing their body image (Gingras, Fitzpatrick, & McCargar, 2004). The severity of body image dissatisfaction have increased to such a dangerous state that it was added to the DSM-IV as a disorder now called body dysmorphic disorder (Suissa, 2008). One of the main reasons for the prevalence of these conditions in women was due to contemporary Western media, which serve as one of the major agent in enforcing an ultra-thin figure as the ideal for female beauty (Saraceni & Russell-Mayhew, 2007). These images and models presented by the media have become the epitome of beauty, pushing women who internalized these images to dangerous extent to attain these norms. According to evidence from previous studies, contemporary Western cultures have influenced women to an acquired normative state of discontent with their bodies, which have become the source of maladaptive eating practices, negative psychological outcomes, and, chronic health conditions associated with eating disorders (Snapp, Hensley-Choate, & Ryu, 2012). The seriousness of these body image conditions among youths and women have also led to congressional actions.
“Michelle M. Lelwica author of The Religion of Thinness: Satisfying the Spiritual Hungers Behind Women’s Obsession with Food and Weight declared that ‘Thinness is worshipped in American culture. Unrealistic body images are promoted in the media and entertainment resulting in greater numbers of women and men who feel ‘too fat’ and suffer from eating disorders’” (Shell 1). Eating disorders are characterized by abnormal or disturbed eating habits such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating. Eating disorders have several causes including behavioral, psychological, and social factors, and they frequently appear during adolescence or early adulthood, but it may also develop earlier or later in life. In today’s culture media has a more powerful presence than ever before; this causes the individual to be constantly bombarded by what the media portrays as a “good” body. The mass communication transmits both positive and negative messages about body image to the public. The general public unaware of what a positive or negative body image can do in mental and physical health end up trying to meet those unrealistic standards, thus, so inducing harmful lifestyles. Eating disorders can be caused by sociocultural incitements such as unrealistic standards, set by society and culture, and lack of knowledge about positive and negative body image, but regulations and education must be established to help reduce the problems.
In todays’ society, there are more than thirty million people suffer from an eating disorder in the United States, Binge Eating Disorder is one of them. Binge Eating Disorder (BED), also known as Compulsive Eating Disorder, affects more than 2.8% of adults in their lifetime. Statistics show that BED is genetic for some, while others tend to have comorbid mood, anxiety or substance abuse disorders. Even something so small, such as a malfunction in the brain insulin can cause a brain disorder that causes the addiction to food. Our society plays a significant role in eating disorders across the state. Images of men and women are plastered in books, magazines, social media and the television of being fit, lean and very thin. According to pop cultures,
Eating disorders have been found through centuries of doctors records. Some as far back as the seventeenth century through Morton (1694) descriptions of the symptoms of eating disorders during this period in time. Despite this eating disorders were only formally known as a disorder until 1980 when it was published in the DSM and more recent editions have shown that there are two different forms of eating disorders which are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. This assignment will discuss how social, cultural and family environment can contribute to the development of these eating disorders and why
The effect of media on women’s body dissatisfaction, thin ideal internalization, and disordered eating appears to be stronger among young adults than children and adolescents (NEDA, 2001). This may suggest that long-term exposure during childhood and adolescence lays the foundation for the negative effects of media during early adulthood (NEDA, 2001). Also, the pressure from mass media to be muscular also appears to be related to body dissatisfaction among men (NEDA, 2001). For example, a high school girl named Amy had the desire to be thin, and ended up as a powerful, inner, self-loathing endless mental battle from the media encouraging her being skinny is beautiful and being skinny is a better body shape for the world to see. Amy said "I slowly began to lose not only my weight, but my reality, my mind, my friends as well as anything and everything that I cared and loved. Anorexia had 100% control of me and my life. I was no longer Amy. I was an eating disorder, a lying, destructive, conniving eating disorder. It was an out of body experience, a loss of control so intense that I can’t even imagine behaving
Anorexia has biological and psychological causes that contribute to the disorder. Anorexia is not simple it is complex and can develop multiple factors. Examples of psychological causes: family and childhood traumas, peer pressure amongst people, some professions and careers that promote weight loss, and media. Examples of biological causes: irregular hormone functions, genetics, and nutritional deficiencies.
Hudson, Hirripi, Pope and Kessler’s (2007) research indicates that the average onset of anorexia nervosa is 19 years old, but can develop as young as 14 years old, and women are more likely to develop anorexia nervosa than men. Some studies indicate that anorexia affects whites more than Hispanics, African Americans and Asians; however it crosses cultures and socially diverse populations (APA, 2013). According to the DSM 5, Anorexia nervosa predominantly occurs in developed, high-income countries such as in the United States, as well as in many European countries, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Individuals who present with weight concerns that develop eating and feeding disorders varies substantially across cultural contexts. One study indicated that that “the ‘spread’ of Western values regarding slimness (fat phobia) is primarily responsible for the development of anorexia nervosa in non-Western societies” (Rieger et al., 2001). Rieger et al (2001) also looked at the medical records of Asian women and found the absence of fat phobia; the rationale for dietary restriction was commonly related to other external factors. The WHO (2004) also reports that female athletes, ballet students, fashion models and culinary students are at risk of developing anorexia nervosa; unhealthy dieting and society’s
“The attention-grabbing pictures of various high-flying supermodels and actors on different magazine covers and advertisements go a long way in influencing our choices” (Bagley). The media is highly affective to everyone, although they promote an improper image of living. Research proved says those with low self-esteem are most influenced by media. Media is not the only culprit behind eating disorders. However, that does not mean that they have no part in eating disorders. Media is omnipresent and challenging it can halt the constant pressure on people to be perfect (Bagley). Socio-cultural influences, like the false images of thin women have been researched to distort eating and cause un-satisfaction of an individual’s body. However, it