“Fat is a Feminist Issue” has a consist idea that women become obese not because of the food they eat, but instead compulsive eating caused by the sexist social system in which they live in. Orbach believes those eating behaviors first become evident in relationships between mother and daughter, or as stated in the reading, feeder and fed: “I suggest that one of the reasons we find so many women suffering from eating disorders is because the social relationship between feeder and fed, between mother and daughter, fraught as it is with ambivalence and hostility, becomes a sustainable mechanism for distortion or rebellion.” (Orbach, 34) The examination of the root of compulsive eating is documented by Orbach from her group work with compulsive
