Axis 1: Dualism  Treats body as something alien  Body becomes a confinement or a limitation  Body and mind have conflicting needs  Body threatens us with a loss of control  Examples: Plato, St. Paul

Axis 2: Control Axis  Follows off of dualist axis  Need to re-establish control through domination of the body and its desires  Examples: Plato, St. Augustine

Axis 3: Gender/Power Axis  Involves our social norms that relate to the meaning of the body  Includes our understanding of gender norms and our beauty norms

Dualist Axis

From Maria Stavrou, ed.; Bulimics on Bulimia  I had done all this [skipping meals and not drinking] before, but this time it hurt. It hurt because my body was so much bigger, so much hungrier than it had ever been and I hated my body for it.  As I sat down [to dinner] she [my mother] admonished me for putting too much on my plate. Even now, 12 years later, I still see carbohydrates as the enemy.

From Hilda Bruch; The Golden Cage  Being hungry has the same effect as a drug, and you feel outside your body.

Control Axis

From Maria Stavrou, ed.; Bulimics on Bulimia  To this day I’m not sure what exactly caused me to even want to go down that road. I think it was more a variety of things. I have always wanted to be the best in every way, to achieve an almost unrealistic level of perfection. … It seemed that weight and food was the one thing I could control.

From Hilda Bruch; The Golden Cage  When you are so unhappy and you don’t know how to accomplish anything, then to have control over your body becomes a supreme accomplishment. You make out of your body your very own kingdom, where you are the tyrant, the absolute dictator.

From Rosemary Shelley, ed.; Anorexics on Anorexia  [My doctor] said that if I didn’t stop I was going to die. I told him that I was not afraid. … It would be a final statement, a testament to my dedication and control, and, at long last, proof that I could really achieve something. By dying, no one would ever be able to take that achievement from me.

Gender/Power Axis

From Maria Stavrou, ed.; Bulimics on Bulimia  I stuff all my insecurities of not being smart, thin, pretty and charismatic into my mouth and down my throat. The like a lifeless zombie, my feet carry me to my toilet. I throw up all the food and the insecurities. It all collects in the toilet and I admire how I devoured and destroyed everything that made me feel horrible. I flush it all away and guess what? It is always the best part of my day. It’s because it’s the only moment of my day when I feel victorious over my life.

 My thoughts were confirmed, when, at the age of 12, at five feet and two inches and 98 lbs, I stopped home from tennis practice to grab an extra practice outfit [for my second tennis practice after swimming]… and my mother, as I’m grabbing an apple, says, “That tennis skirt makes you look pregnant, maybe it’s time we gave it away.” I never swam so hard in my life as I did in the following practice. … After {tennis} practice was over, I ran laps around the courts to punish myself for not being a good athlete, a good person and a good daughter.

From Rosemary Shelley, ed.; Anorexics on Anorexia  My aunt is a very big lady. She always ate a lot when she visited us. My Mum has always been worried about her size too. I think she is worried that she will get as big as Aunt Janet, so she has always been on diets. There is a poster on our fridge that says ‘A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips’. I see that every time I go into the kitchen. It always reminds me not to eat. …  I did not want to eat … because I did not want to get fat. I did not want to look like Aunt Janet.

 I would walk, run, or exercise for hours just to lose those calories and get rid of all the fat, but they never ‘dropped off’ as they had promised in those magazines’ diets. So to get around this problem, I just had to eat less and exercise even more… Magazine