Eating Disorders: Bulimia and Anorexia
Introduction
Eating disorders are common amongst young girls. These girls are exposed to unrealistic body images and are expected to meet the qualifications of having the perfect body. In all parts of the world, especially the United States and Japan, preadolescent and adolescent girls are victims of this social pressure concerning the body. In order to meet the ideal of beauty and perfection, girls and many young women have turned to harsh diet programs, appetite suppressants, along with starvation and purging (or Anorexia and Bulimia). The ideal of beauty is tied to the issue of self-esteem, but the larger cause is the standard of the culture and the norms of the social group. At first, it is shocking …show more content…
Woman is judged by her attractiveness, and the concept of beauty which is special to each culture. It doesn’t matter what body type that has been inherited. The ideal of beauty is external, and a woman is controlled by that ideal. Bordo reports that a woman who succeeds at reducing her eating disordered behavior to a level that is not physically harmful is still likely to maintain some degree of this eating-restricted behavior because the female role demands it. As a result, the choices of anorexics and bulimics are controlled by factors outside of themselves. Fredrickson and Roberts states that women are expected to control their appetites, and maintain a figure that is often at odds with their genetic body predispositions. Women struggle to meet the standard of beauty even when it is impossible to meet. Young people can have high and unrealistic expectations of themselves when they compare themselves to what they have seen in magazines and on television. When young girls internalize these images, they become depressed, have personality issues and grow disappointed with their own appearance. Therefore, food becomes an enemy. They feel unattractive and develop bad eating habits to cope with the stress and pressure that they have …show more content…
These cultural values have deep roots in the roles of women as wives and mothers. As a matter of the survival, women have measured their appearances according to the standards of the group. They had to attract mates and bear children, but that is no longer the case. The need to be attractive or beautiful is tied to self-image. It is as powerful as the need to survive. This pressure to conform to a standard does not take into consideration of body type or genetics. “Thin is beautiful” is the motto of women, and the enemy is food even though eating disorders can be fatal to lives of young women and warped by their distorted images of their bodies. Among Japanese adolescent girls there is a tendency to overestimate weight. The pressure of inaccurate perception leads to a distortion of self-image, and the attempts to control eating and weight gain lead to actual physical disorders. According to studies in Japan, the concepts of thinness and obesity in adolescents have several adverse effects on health to the extent that the behavior has created a serious public health problem (Shirasawa 2015). In Japan, the perceptions of body image fell into the following three groups: underestimating one’s own weight status group; a correct perception of one’s own weight status group; an overestimation of one’s own weight group (Shirasawa
Introduction
Eating disorders are common amongst young girls. These girls are exposed to unrealistic body images and are expected to meet the qualifications of having the perfect body. In all parts of the world, especially the United States and Japan, preadolescent and adolescent girls are victims of this social pressure concerning the body. In order to meet the ideal of beauty and perfection, girls and many young women have turned to harsh diet programs, appetite suppressants, along with starvation and purging (or Anorexia and Bulimia). The ideal of beauty is tied to the issue of self-esteem, but the larger cause is the standard of the culture and the norms of the social group. At first, it is shocking …show more content…
Woman is judged by her attractiveness, and the concept of beauty which is special to each culture. It doesn’t matter what body type that has been inherited. The ideal of beauty is external, and a woman is controlled by that ideal. Bordo reports that a woman who succeeds at reducing her eating disordered behavior to a level that is not physically harmful is still likely to maintain some degree of this eating-restricted behavior because the female role demands it. As a result, the choices of anorexics and bulimics are controlled by factors outside of themselves. Fredrickson and Roberts states that women are expected to control their appetites, and maintain a figure that is often at odds with their genetic body predispositions. Women struggle to meet the standard of beauty even when it is impossible to meet. Young people can have high and unrealistic expectations of themselves when they compare themselves to what they have seen in magazines and on television. When young girls internalize these images, they become depressed, have personality issues and grow disappointed with their own appearance. Therefore, food becomes an enemy. They feel unattractive and develop bad eating habits to cope with the stress and pressure that they have …show more content…
These cultural values have deep roots in the roles of women as wives and mothers. As a matter of the survival, women have measured their appearances according to the standards of the group. They had to attract mates and bear children, but that is no longer the case. The need to be attractive or beautiful is tied to self-image. It is as powerful as the need to survive. This pressure to conform to a standard does not take into consideration of body type or genetics. “Thin is beautiful” is the motto of women, and the enemy is food even though eating disorders can be fatal to lives of young women and warped by their distorted images of their bodies. Among Japanese adolescent girls there is a tendency to overestimate weight. The pressure of inaccurate perception leads to a distortion of self-image, and the attempts to control eating and weight gain lead to actual physical disorders. According to studies in Japan, the concepts of thinness and obesity in adolescents have several adverse effects on health to the extent that the behavior has created a serious public health problem (Shirasawa 2015). In Japan, the perceptions of body image fell into the following three groups: underestimating one’s own weight status group; a correct perception of one’s own weight status group; an overestimation of one’s own weight group (Shirasawa