What Does It Mean To Be Fat, Thin & Female? A Review Essay

Introduction Review of 5 books focusing on women's obsession with food. Main focus is on eating disorders and obesity and how they relate to society Forces the authors propose include: Contradictory expectations of families for girls The objectification of women and the degradation of their sexuality The institutionalized cultural, political and economic powerlessness of women The cultural slighting of female experiences and female values

The 5 Books & Authors Bulimarexia: The Binge/Purge Cycle By: Marie Boskind-White and William C. White The Golden Cage: The Enigma of Anorexia Nervosa By: Hilda Bruch The Obsession: Reflections on the Tyranny of Slenderness By: Kim Chernin Such A Pretty Face: Being Fat in America By: Marcia Millman Fat is a Feminist Issue: The Non-Diet Guide to Permanent Weight Loss By: Susie Orbach

The Books All 5 books provide social-psychological analyses of women’s obsession with fat and body image. They are not diet books, but do focus on helping women accept their bodies which could lead to long-term fat loss. They all identify that most eating disorders have an underlying issue of identity confusion. The books focus on the seriousness of bulimarexia but not of obesity. That is covered enough in media.

The Disorders: Broken Down Obesity is defined as a body weight statistically determined to to 10 – 25% over “normal” body weight. Anorexics tend to be white adolescent girls from economically privileged families. The same is true for bulimarexics but they can be more varied in age and background. All of these women, however, suffer from an extreme obsession with food. These characteristics strike a chord with all women

Characteristics of the Obsession Four principle themes that emerge as explanations for eating disorders: Confusion over sexual identity and sexuality Struggle with issues of power, contol and release Solitude and deceit Family Strife

Sexuality and Sexual Identity Many women with eating eating disorders have a history of sexual abuse. Some women want to eliminate their sexual appearance and appear asexual. Women in fashion magazines, etc. appear to be thin and frail while women in pornography, etc. are more curvy. Therefore women with more curvy figures tend to be whistled at and cat-called to. Some women try to appear less desirable so the do not have to face objectification by men.

Power, Control, and Release Women with eating disorders tend to thrive on compliance and typically have always done what they were supposed to do. Anorexics, bulimarexics and obese women all have trouble asserting themselves. The only way they can seem to gain control is by controlling what they eat. Many compare the starvation or binging as a high of sorts, or compare it to being drunk. Women are trained to be passive and self-sacrificing. So if they feel angry on the unfairness of the world around them, they can take it out on their bodies by controlling what they eat or regurgitating what they have eaten.

Solitude, Withdrawal, Deceit, Competition Women almost always purge, gorge or starve alone. Individualism is a recurring theme in all 5 books. The hatred of their bodies leads them into an even further withdrawal from others. This solitude is often characterized by competition with and mistrust of others by comparing their bodies to other women. Competitiveness in women is usually frowned on while competitiveness in men is encouraged. Our society tends to believe that all problems can be solved by the individual. This just exacerbates the individualism the causes women to hide behind themselves and food to fix all of their problems with society.

Family Strife Family problems play a big role in many disorders faced by women. Anorexics tended to be the “perfect daughters” and now rebel against that by starving themselves. Some women rebel against mothers who took out their own personal failures on their daughters or fathers who were too cold or unaffectionate towards the daughters. “As long as patriarchal culture demands that women bring up their daughters to accept and inferior social position, the mother’s job with be fraught with tension and confusion which are often made manifest in the way mothers and daughters interact over the subject of food.”

Why Now? Numbers of those who suffer from food obsession or eating disorders has skyrocketed in the past 30 years. North America supports Capitalism and we live in a world of plenty. This encourages the citizens to eat and enjoy the excess. The ability to vomit a week’s worth of groceries is symbolic that food is not as rare and precious to us. But at the same time as we are encouraged to partake in the feast, we are told that we have to be as thin as the fashion models and must drop the weight. Feminism has also raised women’s expectations about their potential lives. It also encourages women to abandon all sexual standards in order to be taken more seriously

Alternatives to the Obsession All 5 books suggest alternatives to eating or starving. They suggest developing a strong self-image and accepting your body. African American women tend to have a stronger self-image than those of white females. They tend to focus more on inner beauty and style rather than body shape.

Then & Now These books were all written in the late 1970’s or early 1980’s. Have our views on eating disorders changed? Have our views on body image changed? Can a woman be fat and happy in America?