Why is it that "modernization" and eating disorders go hand in hand?
Like many South African women, Bongi Tsuene is worried about her weight. The difference is that Tsuene, featured in a television advertisement promoting a dieting formula, is black.Experts say more black women like Tsuene are shunning the traditional African reverence for the fuller figure as they adapt to the pressures of post-apartheid South Africa, raising fears they could become vulnerable to eating disorders.
Isn't that great!? Why?
Many non-Western societies have traditionally been immune to the diet-obsession of the rich world, viewing bigger bodies as a sign of prosperity.But, as more of these women become exposed to Western culture in an ever-globalizing world, researchers have seen a shift in attitudes.
"Worldwide media exposure, which focuses on mainstream cultural values, has been implicated as a powerful force in shaping public perceptions regarding the value of thinness and hence contributory to the rise in eating disorders in non-Westernized populations,"
I think that women all over the world receive some degree of societal pressures to look a certain way based on their cultural surroundings. But something about this obsession with all things thin is so Western. I will now lovingly rub my belly in resistance to this bullshit.
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There is actually a great novel that addresses this topic, relating eating disorders to colonialism, called "Nervous Conditions" (Tsitsi Dangarembga). The book is set in Rhodesia in the 1960s-- I highly recommend it.
Cheers to Samhita for posting this.
I don't think that men in our society or anywhere are attracted to emaciated women. I bet men actually care less about our weight than we do, as long as we aren't obese. And that's really the thing. Nobody is saying women have to be emaciated to be attractive...well, maybe the magazine ads are. When you're healthy, it's attractive. Obesity and starvation aren't healthy and are therefore unattractive.
I was just about to post that I was feeling crappy about my weight, and I was happy that I found something to read that didn't mess with the fat folks, but then I read the above post.
Maybe I just need to ignore the world altogether?
Why does weight have anything to do with men? I've been both emaciated and obese and neither time did it have anything to do with a man. It had a shitload to do with control, selfhatred, fear of rejection by society - but not with men. I got laid when I was anorexic and I get laid now that I'm obese. I know that must be shocking to some people - my big fat self has sex with my non fat hot husband.
"Nobody is saying women have to be emaciated to be attractive"? Try the media, Hollywood, the diet industry, the medical establishment and about everyone else.
Arrrrrg. I'm so sick of the weight issue. Hasn't anyone read the scientific data that eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia which mess up your metabolism can cause obesity?
Maybe the next thing western society can export is our hatred of fat people. We'll send it over with Teen Vogue.
Body image isn't the only thing that contributes to having an eating disorder. I have a very positive body image, but at the same time I know I'm too skinny, and I know I should eat more, but I don't.
I have lost 50 pounds since June, and I must admit that though I am nearing my target weight of 120, I feel myself wanting to see if I can get down to 110 or even 100. I do think that my self image does play into this (I have always considered myself "fat"), but I also think that my self image is somewhat shaped by the media.
Just because the media makes something appear to be the views of "society" does not mean that it is. I was shocked by the number of women who, as I lost the last 10 pounds, told me I needed to eat and that I was getting too thin. I also was shocked by the number of men who have expressed their disgust with "the perfect woman," as portrayed by the media.
I would assume that people wouldn't want to be over or underweight for the same reasons (unless there is a disease involved) they wouldn't show up to a job interview in their pajamas and for the same reasons they wouldn't shoot themselves full of heroin. But maybe I'm being too logical about the whole thing....live long and prosper.
the crisis is one of obesity not exessive thinness. most western women are FAT. Lets be real people.
Most people in the west are FAT period. In the last century we have become the most overweight, wasteful, and drugged out people on teh planet ever.
nymph,
been thinking about your comment and, well, i gotta thoroughly disagree.
people definitely lose or gain weight in order to look good, for sure, but i think that framing one's body-weight in terms of external valuation is pathological - sick.
it's also very different than choosing not to 'shoot heroin' (unless your referring to sniffing instead of shooting to avoid track marks)... the choice not to use highly addictive drugs has to do with self-respect and being generally healthy.
the choice to gain or lose weight in order to feel great and achieve a healthy balance within your body makes a lot of sense and can't, reasonably, be taken to an unhealthy extreme.
the choice to gain or lose weight in order to fit with certan external standards of beauty can be fairly easily distorted to being a "disease." of course, the will to be fit can get pathological, too, and a lot of eating/body disorders are definitely more about control than attractiveness... but, more often than not, it's about self-image.
so, yeah, that's my two cents...
You don't have to have an eating disorder to have body image issues, but the body image issues still suck even if you're not anorexic. I'm not happy with just keeping people from being anorexic. I'm not anorexic but I've done my share of agonizing over my body and there's no good reason for that. The point is that you're more than your looks, that there is more than one way to be attractive, and that there's a lot of misery that comes from people not believing these things. We need to change for the sake of our happiness as well as our health.
true that, yellow...