Gender Stereotyping Associated With Anorexia Nervosa

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.

Did you know that women suffer anorexia more than men? Well we know that, anorexia is “a psychological and possibly life-threatening eating disorder defined by an extremely low body weight.” There are several reasons why women suffer anorexia more than men based on the environmental and biological factors of anorexia, the whole anorexia body affects and the anorexia treatments.

Over three million men each year are affected by Anorexia. In spite of this, men are less likely to be diagnosed, and the disorder is often overlooked due to the misconception that it is a “girl’s disease”. Unlike females, who are generally afraid to become overweight in an image obsessed society, males affected by the disorder tend to believe they are overweight, suffer from depression, or from

In America today, there are unrealistic beauty standards women must face daily. When women can not meet this idea of perfection pushed by society, some women will risk their health just to fit a cultural stigma. Women are held to an insanely high criterion when it comes to beauty which tends to lead to negative body image. Ten percent of women in The United States of America report symptoms consistent with eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating. Which concludes that a total of 75 percent of all American women endorse some unhealthy thoughts, feelings, or behaviors related to food or their body image-UNC Medical Department Although eating disorders are not subjective to women only, after reading “Beating Anorexia and Gaining Feminism” Marni Grossman and “Feminism and Anorexia: A Complex Alliance” Su Holmes, I will discuss how eating disorders coexist in the lives of women who struggle with body image, and what feminism can do to give these women a second chance.

"The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says: 'It's a girl.'"

     Studies have shown that over one million males are affected with anorexia nervosa yearly. (Crosscope-Happel, Hutchins, & Hayes, 2000) Some have suggested that these numbers are on the rise as the media continues to assert a more and more unattainable goal of beauty on the public.

Eating disorders are largely considered to be a "female disease". Statistics seem to validate this perception – of the estimated five million-plus adults in the United States who have an eating disorder, only ten percent are thought to be male ((1)). Many professionals, however, hold the opinion that these numbers are incorrect – it is impossible to base the statistics on anything other than the number of adults diagnosed with eating disorders, and men are much less likely than women to seek help for such a problem ((2)). This means that the male population probably suffers more from eating disorders than the numbers show.

tigma occurs when an individual experiences stereotypes since others perceive them as different. Stigma negatively affects every aspect of an individual’s life. For instance, the stigma associated with eating disorders brings negative outcomes such as increase of isolation, decrease self-esteem, and even decline in one’s quality of life (International Journal of Eating Disorders, 2008) Although eating disorder occurs in both genders, society have been routinely characterized as “women’s problems.” (International Journal of Eating Disorders, 2008). People usually think anorexia nervosa is within females when in reality many males have it as well. Men can face worse stigma for having a disorder since they can be perceived as feminine or homosexual

In longing to reach the norm many people fall victim to these detrimental illnesses. Sadly, women are more subject to these eating disorders than men, the number of men suffering from eating disorders is on the rise. Our culture puts pressure on each of its inhabitants to attain this ideal body type that is unrealistic for most people. The images that pollute television and magazines make us all feel inadequate if we don't meet the credentials of slenderness; therefore, continuing the role of our society in the development of eating disorders.

We are very sensitive. Girls easily get offended by everything even by the simplest things, for example if someone says you are ugly even just by joking around it can easily create a feud between the two individuals.

More women worry about their weight than men. It is a fact that among the adults, 38% of the women and 24% of the men were trying to lose weight. When you hear about Anorexia and Bulimia most people think of females. What people do not know is tons of males suffer from the same problem. I believe males should be more looked upon when it comes to this subject. Gymnasts, runners, body builders, rowers, wrestlers, racers, dancers, and swimmers are especially helpless against dietary problems on the grounds that their games require weight limitation. Approximately 10% of eating disordered individuals coming to the attention of mental health professionals were male, and Eating disorders do not discriminate on the basis of gender. Men can and do develop eating disorders.

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 question that I want to address is how psychosocial development/impairments can affect the development of an eating disorder in regards to gender. Psychosocial development is mental illness caused or influenced by life experiences, as well as maladjusted cognitive and behavioral processes. An eating disorder is a “serious medical illnesses marked by severe disturbances to a person’s eating behaviors” (NIH, 2018). Signs of this disorder include obsessions with food, body weight, and shape may be signs of an eating disorder. The disorder can affect the individual's physical and mental health. Eating disorders are biologically-influenced medical illnesses and involve significant psychosocial factors. This topic is important because eating

Anorexia Nervosa is mostly present in western countries. Anorexia nervosa has been increasing over years. Women are more affected by anorexia nervosa than men. (Makino, Tsuboi & Dennerstein, 2004). Anorexia Nervosa is defined as people starving for food as they are afraid to put on weight .People adopting the western culture find their ideal body type as slim, so they need to do exercise and should not eat fat to stay slim. Mass media has contributed a lot in influencing women in the western culture and is contributing to stereotype the ideal body type. Health professionals, need to do a work hard to find the reason behind people self starving as anorexia nervosa is considered as a serious illness which should be treated.

Anorexia nervosa is listed in DSM-5 as a Feeding and Eating Disorder alongside bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013). AN is characterised by symptoms that include dangerously low body weight, intense fear of fat or weight gain, abnormal cognitions that lead to an over-evaluation of the importance of body weight, shape and size, indifference about the disorders seriousness (APA, 2013). It is a multi-determined psychiatric disorder with an interplay between sociocultural, biological, physical and mental factors that make it extremely difficult to treat successfully (Chang & Bazarova, 2016; Boraska et al., 2014). AN affects approximately 3.7% of NZ population, the average duration is five years, with the highest prevalent rate (10%) in teenage females (M = 17 years). While predominantly a young white middle-upper class female disorder, recent research shows a significant increase in diagnosis of males,