Feminine Beauty
Feminine Beauty
HomePageThis page organizes information on eating disorders presented within this site. The main focus is on anorexia/anorexic behaviors. Binge eating disorder is not a focus of this site. Eating disorders statisticsCausesFactors implicated in the development of anorexia: The influence of thin high-fashion models. Extensively addressed here.
How it all fits together: A common profile of an anorexic patient is a girl or young woman with perfectionist attitudes and miscellaneous problems (say, familial) who has come to believe that if only she could be perfect in some way, her problems would go away, and the standard of perfection she decides to emulate is the thin look of high-fashion models.
This should clarify the role played by the fashion industry. The fashion world cannot be blamed for genetic susceptibility, familial or relationship problems, or perfectionist attitudes, but it is fully responsible for making thinness in women appear highly desirable. The thinness favored by fashion designers is at odds with the preferences of the majority of women and men.
Feminist perspectives on eating disordersFeminist perspectives obviously blame heteropatriarchy. There are two major feminist perspectives. Heterosexual men starving women to keep them in a subordinate position.
The idea is that heterosexual men became vary of the increasing power of women and decided to do something about it by preoccupying women with their self-appearance and starving them by using thin high-fashion models. This notion has been proposed by Susan Bordo and Naomi Wolf, Wolf being the more famous proponent of this notion. This notion is extensively refuted at the page addressing why are fashion models so skinny.
Women deriving a sense of control by controlling what they can.
The idea is that oppression and powerlessness drive some women to derive a sense of control by controlling what they can, namely what they eat.(8) On the other hand, there has been a notable increase in the prevalence of eating disorders with time in Western nations during the twentieth century, reaching a peak during the later decades, but female empowerment has increased over this period. Therefore, this factor is at most accounting for a small minority of anorexia outcomes in Western societies. Additionally, the only women who would knowingly harm themselves via starvation to derive a sense of control over their affairs have to be mentally disturbed and suffer from abnormalities such as masochism, and feminists have to show how these mental disturbances result from heteropatriarchy.
CuresSerious cases of anorexic behaviors require prompt medical attention. Mild cases can be improved/cured via psychological counseling. The most successful eating disorders prevention programs are dissonance-based interventions. These interventions make at-risk individuals (typically girls with body image issues) think about the reasons behind the origin and perpetuation of the thin fashion ideal and who profits from it. Just getting at-risk girls/women to think about the thin fashion ideal casts doubts in their minds that perhaps this is not an ideal, i.e., such thinking induces dissonance with respect to the lofty portrayal of thin fashion models they observe in the media, and to restore cognitive consistency, a number of the intervention participants come to see the thin fashion ideal as less desirable, which translates to a reduction in disordered eating. It should be clear that the single most important thing that one could do to reduce the prevalence of anorexia is to make sure that girls and women understand 1) that the great majority of humans do not find the typical thinness of high-fashion models aesthetically pleasing and 2) why the women occupying the top rung of models are so thin notwithstanding the preferences of most buyers of fashion merchandise. To understand why high-fashion models are typically thin, one should note two additional characteristics of them: above average masculinization and youth (designers prefer teenage girls, even if marketing to women in their 30s and beyond), altogether making high-fashion models approximate the looks of adolescent boys, which is explained by the dominance of the fashion business by homosexual men. Homosexual fashion designers are able to get away with their choice of models because they use them to sell highly desirable items and do not face competition in the form of an alternative fashion industry that uses women with healthy body fat levels. For instance, if one were to encounter an outstanding dress in a bad packaging, it is not like one would avoid buying the dress, especially if nothing comparable is encountered in a good looking package. Ineffective approachesEncouraging body acceptance is of limited help. See comments on the Dove campaign for real beauty. Shock campaigns as in the No-l-ita ad are also not helpful, and one shouldn't use obese models. References
|
