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Disorders: Anorexia/Bulimia
My taboo post below and lilswimmer's response regarding the media got me thinking. Did anorexia/bulimia exist before skinny became the "desired body type" chosen by the media? I'm really curious so I'm going to do a bit of research on that now. I know a couple woman who struggled with anorexia (one was diagnosed with it, the other never received help so I don't know if she was ever officially diagnosed or not) but both woman's disorders seemed to stem from their mother's judgement regarding their weight. Would their mothers have scrutinized them in that way if the media didn't dictate that as the standard for pretty? I'm genuinely curious.
Perhaps some of you in the therapy/medical field or those who have struggled with an eating disorder may know?
Re: Disorders: Anorexia/Bulimia
I don't know if it was media because pressures existed in the late 1800 and early 1900 with the cinched waist Victorian corsets. That was pre-24 hour news cycle/ media explosion but it was still something that was required.
I think gradually as civilization moved away from survival mechanisms (where a larger more zaftig body weigh symbolized good things like wealth and being able to feed your family) towards aesthetically pleasing (where an unnaturally curvy figure could be created by a corset or an unnaturally thin frame can be used to better display a clothing design) the "ideal" body type changed, and that those changes resulted in the changing pressure to be too thin in more recent years.
Stand up for something you believe in.
Good question. I am not sure about anorexia/bulimia, but for generations women have been made to feel that the smaller they are, the better. Take for instance the 1800's and early 1900's . Women would wear corsets to make them look smaller. I do wonder, when did anorexia/bulimia become known more?
Was it something people just never talked about? I know the singer Karen Carpenter died from it, but I don't know if after her death more people started to talk about it and realize what she had.
I am very curious to see what others think about this too!
yes. I just went to a training kind of related to this, we discussed some study that brought a bunch of media attention (from the US) about anorexia to China, rates of anorexia reports nearly tripled. Was fascinating to discuss.
Very interesting. Good call on the corsets Mary, I'm going to blame me not thinking of them on the fact that I haven't finished my first cup of coffee yet. I just think it's really interesting that our ideal as a society went from this:
To this:
and was brought to the extreme:
That's really interesting as well.
So gross.
updated 10.03.12
When did the skinny body type become popular, with Twiggy or was she more of an oddity than an idol? Was the boyish frame in the 1920s just a 1920s thing that didn't carry over? It seems that beauty was more curvy in the past, but I can't figure out when skinniness became so desired.
I have a family friend who suffered from severe anorexia in the 1970s and 80s (she's in her 60s now) which, as far as I know, began when her husband started abusing her, and lasting until long after their divorce. I don't know anything about her past relationship with her mother or other family members (just as it is now, which is different), but even with no clear idea of what beauty really was during that time, I think it was more due to her husband's abuse than anything else.
My family was different. All the mothers encouraged everyone to eat up and not be skinny (with the assumption that skinny=unhealthy), until I came around and my overweight mother always said, "are you sure you want to eat that?" (which really pissed me off, even as a little kid). We're all varying degrees of fat/chubby/etc in my family, except my aunt who has some sort of eating disorder- we used to think she was anorexic, but now we realize she eats in secret- probably a normal amount of food, but she just can't do it in front of other people. But she's an enabler, she's the one who tells everyone to stay seated, she'll go and get them seconds. Her husband is morbidly obese and it severely limits his lifestyle, so I'm not sure which is worse, the feeding or the secret eating. Honestly I think most of us in my family have some sort of eating disorder, but it's all overeating and binging, obviously not trying to attain skinny "beauty". So what does that mean?
:Blog:
Speaking from experience, I suspect that these disorders have been around for much longer than we realize. For me, and I know for a lot of people with ED's, it's not so much about skinny/fat as it is about control. You control what goes in, you control what comes out, and that helps you cope with the other things in your life that you can't control.
I do blame my mother for the onset of my ED, but that's such a long story that I'm not going to get into it.
This is what I was going to say, too. I was never to the point of anorexia, but I did ballet with a few uber-skinny girls, and I've read enough autobiographies of ballet dancers to recognize that there's a problem in that industry as well if you're pro.
Congrats to both my TTC buddies, Amberley18 and sb2006 on their beautiful babies!
Thanks for weighing in on this ladies. I do feel like I have a bit of a better understanding. It's such an interesting topic. Thanks you Tonia and Ames for stating your personal experience with this as well. It's something I have been trying to wrap my head around so I can understand it better.
ETA: Please forgive the unintentional pun of "weighing in" lol.
:Blog:
I will look for that. Thanks for the suggestion!
Here's a little summary.
Amazon.com Review
Stick Figure is a surprisingly upbeat memoir, mainly due to Gottlieb's descriptions of her upper-crust parents: "Mom and I usually don't like the same movies. For example, she didn't like my favorite movie, Star Wars, probably because no one goes shopping...." But despite the sly humor, Lori comes to a sobering conclusion that is, sadly, still relevant today: "...you can be too thin and not even know it, because you spend so much time listening to everyone talk about how ladies are supposed to diet, and how something's wrong with you if you aren't worried about being thin, too." Culled from Gottlieb's pre-teen diaries, Stick Figure is a wry and engaging observation of an eating disorder and the society that contributed to it.
It pretty much sums up what a lot of people said above. It was about control, the media, and most importantly, her mother...
:Blog: