Eating Disorders Summary

Introduction The homogenization of mental health in all aspects is a focus of Ethan Watters in his book Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche. Watters explores and explains his opinions on how America is globalizing mental health in a negative way. He sets the book up as a compilation of case studies that support his idea of mental health homogenization. The four case studies all occur in places outside of America, naturally, but all of the people involved are affected by America in some way.

A Different Stance I am writing you to respond to the analyzation of Vanessa Friedman’s “Don’t Ban Photos of Skinny Models,” as I recommend that you do publish this article. This article would be interesting to the readers of the Shorthorn because it catches reader’s attention with its title and brings forth necessary ideas for a neutral argument. The article could be used because of its stance on not banning photos of skinny models but also to its appeal to the naysayers who are for the censorship of skinny models. While I believe most of the Shorthorn readers will disagree with what Friedman is saying, I believe it will help spread a different and unique argument to the student body.

Everyday females are exposed to how media views the female body, whether in a work place, television ads, and magazines. Women tend to judge themselves on how they look just to make sure there keeping up with what society see as an idyllic women, when women are exposed to this idea that they have to keep a perfect image just to keep up with media, it teaches women that they do not have the right look because they feel as if they don’t add up to societies expectations of what women should look like, it makes them thing there not acceptable to society. This can cause huge impacts on a women self-appearance and self-respect dramatically. Women who become obsessed about their body image can be at high risk of developing anorexia or already have

Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche begins by discussing the westernization of illness in other countries. The book, which was written by Ethan Watters, gives four examples of the Americanization of illness, discussing anorexia in Hong Kong, PTSD in Sri Lanka, schizophrenia in Zanzibar, and depression in Japan. The first chapter, “The Rise of Anorexia in Hong Kong”, begins with Dr. Lee. Dr. Lee has spent years studying anorexia, and has found the course of the disease has changed throughout history, especially after the introduction of the DSM. In early research, Dr. Lee found that many clients who reported an anorexia- type disease showed physical symptoms, such as stomachaches and feelings of a blocked esophagus.

In today’s modern culture, almost all forms of popular media play a significant role in bombarding young people, particularly young females, with what happens to be society’s idea of the “ideal body”. This ideal is displayed all throughout different media platforms such as magazine adds, television and social media – the idea of feminine beauty being strictly a flawless thin model. The images the media displays send a distinct message that in order to be beautiful you must look a certain way. This ideal creates and puts pressure on the young female population viewing these images to attempt and be obsessed with obtaining this “ideal body”. In the process of doing so this unrealistic image causes body dissatisfaction, lack of self-confidence

In the memoir Elena Vanishing, by Elena and Clare B. Dunkle, she tells of her memories, pain, feelings, and fears regarding her long battle with an eating disorder. Over her experience, she loses many friends along the way, and even angers her family as well. What I found most remarkable about this story was that no matter what happened in her life whether she was avoiding treatment or wanting to give up, her family was behind her one hundred percent and encouraging her along the way, especially her mother. The memoir shows the rollercoaster ride of emotions with her mother. There were times when Elena said “ ‘I’m leaving’, I announce.

Research shows that those who are attractive typically receive preferential treatment across their life span.” (Center for Human Appearance at Penn: The Psychology of Appearance). Being insensitive to the suffering of these individuals is a very important issue since the lack of interpersonal connections cause the victims to then accumulate more stress on their appearance that has led to many physical inducing symptoms. Eating disorders being the most common, its strain effect both physically and

http://brown.uk.com/eatingdisorders/thompson.pdf Why does Thompson use the term “eating problems” instead of “eating disorders”? What kind of social change would be needed to eliminate eating problems? Thompson uses the term "eating problem" because she believes that women are the victims of various traumas like sexual abuse, racism, sexism, and poverty. These women develop an eating disorder because they are trying to shift their pain into something else like change their eating habits.

“In the past, eating disorders were generally considered to be confined to young white females from middle-to-upper class families living in Western societies” (Caradas 112). Both studies exploit the false stereotypes associated with eating disorders and culture. Both parties believe that non Western cultures are being influenced by the “slim is beautiful” idea. Each view points out the false misconception that non Western cultures traditional ideas of being thick is related to health is protecting them from eating disorders. Studies prove all ethnicities have shown concern towards body shape and eating attitudes in recent years around the

Men and women nowadays are starting to lose self-confidence in themselves and their body shape, which is negatively impacting the definition of how beauty and body shape are portrayed. “...97% of all women who had participated in a recent poll by Glamour magazine were self-deprecating about their body image at least once during their lives”(Lin 102). Studies have shown that women who occupy most of their time worrying about body image tend to have an eating disorder and distress which impairs the quality of life. Body image issues have recently started to become a problem in today’s society because of social media, magazines, and television.

"The Impact Of Advertisements Featuring         Ultra-Thin Or Average-Size Models On Women With A History Of Eating Disorders."         Journal Of Community & Applied Social Psychology 15.5 (2005): 406-413. Academic         Search Premier. Web.

In “The Globalization of Eating Disorders”, written by Susan Bordo in 2003, the author declares that eating and body disorders have increased rapidly throughout the entire globe. Susan Bordo, attended Carleton University as well as the State University of New York, is a modern feminist philosopher who is very well known for her contributions to the field of cultural studies, especially in ‘body studies’ which grants her the credibility to discuss this rising global issue (www.wikipedia.org, 2015). She was correspondingly a professor of English and Women Studies at the University of Kentucky which gives her the authority to write this article. “The Globalization of Eating Disorders” is written as a preface to her Pulitzer Price-nominated book “Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body” which was similarly written in 2003. Through the use of many logical arguments and evidence, Bordo successfully manages to convince her audience that the media, body images and culture have severely influenced the ‘so-called’ trending standard of beauty and how it leads to eating disorders across the world.

From an early age, we are exposed to the western culture of the “thin-ideal” and that looks matter (Shapiro 9). Images on modern television spend countless hours telling us to lose weight, be thin and beautiful. Often, television portrays the thin women as successful and powerful whereas the overweight characters are portrayed as “lazy” and the one with no friends (“The Media”). Furthermore, most images we see on the media are heavily edited and airbrushed

Unfortunately, it’s in our human nature to form judgments on people upon gazing at them. Although it’s not something that can be diminished in us, it is something we can rightfully control. A recent incident happened at the bank where a man, who was on the heavier weight side, came into the bank using crutches to help him maneuver. A co-worker saw him and made a comment on his looks which lead me to reply saying it’s unfair to make impertinent comments on random people. It’s imperative to remember that we are unaware of what an individual’s circumstances may be; what if the person has certain health conditions that cause them to be a certain way?

The idolization of slim figures are blinding teenagers to believe it is a necessity to practice these methods. As Blaid describes society’s perspective, “If you develop an eating disorder when you are already thin to begin with, you go to the hospital. If you develop an eating disorder when you are not thin to begin with, you are a success story,”(26-27) this is to point out how society has manipulated the point of view on health conditions to be viewed as a