What does it mean to be fat thin and female? Carol M. Couhnihan

…what does it mean? By linking women’s obsession with food, in the forms of eating disorders, to certain factors, we can understand what it means. - Contradictory expectations of families for girls - The objectification of women & their sexuality - Cultural slighting of female experience and female values

Characteristics of the Obsession Confusion over sexual identity and sexuality Solitude and deceit Struggle with issues of power, control and release Family strife

Sexuality and Sexual Identity Mind/body split - Body’s passions are set apart from the mind. Excessive thinness or fatness means escape from sexual objectification. Female sexuality is not regarded with respect, but is degraded and objectified

Power, Control, and Release Food consumption becomes a means of control. Binging/starving likened to the chronic effects of a drug. Eating problems are survival strategies - acts of self preservation in a society where women are conditioned to be pacifying and non- aggressive.

Solitude, Withdrawal, Deceit, and Competition Individualism. Their attitudes toward their obsession serve to isolate them further by lying to others in order to hide their strange behavior and lying to themselves to justify it. This particular solitude is characterized by competition and mistrust for others, particularly other women. Competition in women is seen as unfeminine. Yet, society institutionalizes competition in every aspect of life. Women internalize the competitive values or limit them to the domain of body weight.

Family Strife Eating food as an escape from family problems Self-starvation is an act of defiance. May serve as an outlet of achievement in a society where she feels inconsequential. Also a means for demanding attention. Girls who come from privileged backgrounds may encounter the ‘real world’ with difficulty. Mothers may push daughters to achieve more than they did, or limit their potential to validate their own failures. Fathers may be seen as cold, emotional distant, and dominating or sexually threatening.

Why now? Rates of anorexia and bulimarexia have sharply increased over the past years. In this capitalist economy, food is plentiful and consumption is pushed. However, if you do overeat, there are always diet foods and products you can consume to level yourself off. Current beauty standards project a particularly thin ideal, a generally unhealthy ideal. Feminism has raised women’s expectation in their potential lives, but reality has not met them. Greater sexual freedom has likely worsened the adolescent’s anxiety about her transition to becoming a mature woman.

Cultural Differences African American: a woman’s body represents power and victory over racism and poverty. In inner-cities, a fat body represents self-respect and freedom from drugs. Black girls are more flexible and less absolute in their definitions of beauty, and reported receiving more compliments on their looks from their girlfriends and mothers. Two factors: the support black women receive from other women and the value their culture places on contribution of women to family and society. Fat women are associated with fertility and nurturance. (Italy and Samoa)

Further Questions Why do men also suffer from eating disorders? If food obsession is a response to the transition to womanhood, how come pre- adolescents have these problems as well? What about biological factors, huh? You never mentioned those.