Kristina Joyce
April 20, 2011
English 1200-060
Project 3: Research Paper RD
Binge, Purge, Action!
“I lift my arm out of the water. It's a log. Put it back under and it blows up even bigger. People see the log and call it a twig. They yell at me because I can't see what they see. Nobody can explain to me why my eyes work different than theirs. Nobody can make it stop” (Anderson). Body image is the most universal thoughts in the world. How ones clothes, weight, hair, and face look like is what first impressions are made of. Body image is what gets one a job, spouse, and even a friend. However, sometimes the way these employers, spouses, and friends perceive a person is not always how the person perceives themself. This perception is what leads to eating disorders and the effects these disorders have on surrounding acquaintances.
The quote describes the thought process of someone with an eating disorder that causes them to be extremely skinny like Anorexia or Bulimia. Eating disorders are caused by many different factors that come from different aspects of life. These factors can be psychologically, interpersonally, or socially provoked. Low self-esteem is a huge factor in the psychological aspect of a developing eating disorder. This factor also comes along with feelings of inadequacy and loneliness. Victims of eating disorders are socially pressured to meet the cultural norms and comply with the image of a typical person’s body. They are also sometimes faced with sexual or verbal abuse and family troubles such as divorce or death. These factors come from the interpersonal aspect of eating disorders. All of these combined factors are what leads to how someone perceives themselves are the obscured body image they obtain. Not being the epitome of “in-shape” causes the thought of being fat when in actuality the person is ten to fifteen pounds underweight.
Many celebrities go through the trouble of fighting an eating disorder. A lot of times when an eating disorder is thought of, the modeling industry is closely behind in thought. However, eating disorders appear in nearly every popular industry like acting, singing, and even sports. What is scary is that these disorders are being exposed to young children all around the world through songs, television shows, and movies. These celebrities include Disney Channel stars like Demi Lovato from Sunny with a Chance, Mary-Kate Olsen from Mary-Kate and Ashley, and Lindsey Lohan from Freaky Friday. All of these stars are exposed role models to the younger generation.
Demi Lovato’s eating disorder was never publically announced, but it led her to commit herself into rehabilitation. Her publicist claimed she suffered from emotional and physical issues. Demi reported that being bullied as a child is what led to her low self-esteem and being diagnosed with an eating disorder. There have also been photos showing her self-mutilation technique of cutting her wrists in order to release her feelings of inadequacy and her troubled past. It is rumored that Demi’s disorder was classified as Anorexia Nervosa based on her outward appearance and symptoms. But, in fact, it is impossible to tell what specific disorder she, or any other person with a disorder, has because there are many different types that can look the same on the outside but be different internally.
Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia are the two most common and well-known eating disorders. It is fairly easy to classify someone’s outward appearance as one of these disorders without seeing the whole picture. There are over ten different eating disorders that someone could obtain and develop. Anorexia, which is the refusal to maintain a healthy body weight, an obsessive fear of gaining weight, and an unrealistic perception of current body weight, has harmful effects on the body. The body can have symptoms such as the stop of menstruation, bone loss, and loss of skin integrity. Anorexia greatly stresses the heart, increasing the risk of heart attacks and heart problems along with a great risk of death. Bulimia is the recurrent binge eating followed by behaviors such as purging or, self-induced vomiting, excessive use of laxatives/diuretics, or excessive exercise. A lot of Bulimics also fast, or do not eat, for a period of time after a binge. A similar disorder to Bulimia is Binge Eating Disorder which is when the person excessively overeats, or binges, hence the title. Also similar, Purging Eating Disorder is when the person has purging episodes to control weight gain, but does not have binging episodes. This means that are self-inducing vomiting without eating before-hand.
There are also many disorders that are not as common as Anorexia or Bulimia, one being Rumination. Rumination is the repeated painless regurgitation of food following a meal which is then either re-chewed and re-swallowed, or discarded. Another is Diabulimia; this is the manipulation of the insulin level by a diabetic in order to control weight. An interesting disorder that is not an officially recognized is Orthorexia. Orthorexia is a term created by Steven Bratman to describe his own experience with food and eating. Orthorexics obsess about healthy eating but not about being thin or losing weight. There are many other disorders like night eating disorder and Pica that all involve different aspects of eating, not eating, or eating abnormally. Eating disorders come in all shapes and sizes and are hard to avoid when it comes to young children and them being exposed (“Orthorexia- A Different Kind Of Eating Disorder”).
About eight million Americans, seven million women and one million men, presently suffer with an eating disorder. It is more common for women to suffer from these diseases because women are easily depressed and develop low self-esteem faster than men. Sixty-one percent of American adults are either underweight or overweight and one out of every five Americans has been diagnosed obese, or excessively overweight, and obtain a body mass index of over thirty. (Laura)
Eating disorders among fashion models is a currently rising issue. Models seem to be suffering the brunt of the fashion industry's obsession with being a size zero, according to a new study carried out by the Model Health Inquiry. The study indicates that as many as 40% of models may currently be suffering from some kind of eating disorder. The report suggests that there are also a growing number of women with hidden eating disorders. (Laura)
Dr. Adrienne Key, a psychiatrist, said that although anorexia is the most famous eating disorder among fashion models, bulimia is probably the most common. Dr. Key adds that the problem of eating disorders among models is now getting worse. Many models are purging or consuming vast quantities of water to conceal their weight which is a dangerous move because it can seriously deplete potassium levels and lead to many health issues. (Shaikh)
A first-hand experience of the pressure of the modeling industry comes from Isabelle Caro, a formerly well-known model. The pressure for Isabelle to be and stay thin in her prime years caused her death. In the YouTube video “Anorexia’s Living Face” Caro explains her condition and about the pressure she faced. Caro talks about her struggle with the disorder Anorexia and her road to recovery. She also explains many of her low points in her fight with the disorder and states that her lowest weight was around a shocking fifty five pounds.
Caro decided to start a campaign after a 21-year-old Brazilian model died from the eating disorder, Anorexia. This campaign was named “no anorexia” Isabelle Caro’s bold move to model for the campaign is an action she will forever be remembered by. Caro exposed all and modeled nude with the intention to shock the world with her frightening condition. She confesses in the video that the main cause of her disease was from the pressure to stay skinny while she was young in order to get all she could out of her short-lived modeling career. Seeing how brave and willing to help Isabelle was is a sad but hopeful realization. Hopefully her bravery will trigger something in struggling young people today, resulting in a change in eating disorders and the statistics associated with them. Seeing how beautiful and successful Caro was and how her life ended tragically has the potential to be an alarming wake up call to all parents their young children.
Many teens have low self-esteem and are easily influenced by the way celebrities look. Teens can become swayed by celebrities creating the urge to make their own selves look better. Small imperfections cause teens to envy celebrities and want to transform their own bodies to mimic these celebrities. Young people strive to lose that extra four or five pounds, but end up losing more than they expected. Sometimes if the imperfection cannot be fixed, young people result to harming themselves, like cutting their wrists, and sometimes even suicide. According to the National Eating Disorder Association, 42 percent of first through third grade girls say they want to be thinner and 81 percent of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat. Even at very young ages, children can be influenced by celebrities such as Demi Lovato and Lindsey Lohan (“Eating Disorders and Their Precursors”).
A spokesman for The National Eating Disorder Association stated that "The average American woman is 5'4" tall and weighs 140 pounds. The average American model is 5'11" tall and weighs 117 pounds.” He also stated that "Most fashion models are thinner than 98 percent of American women." As a young person, wanting to reach the body image of a model is nearly impossible without developing some sort of eating disorder (“Eating Disorders and their Precursors”).
Dealing with eating disorders can be hard on both the sufferer and also the family and friends of the sufferer. It is hard to find ways to convince someone they are not fat or that they should eat. Going through this situation has been a personal issue for me for the past year since I came to college. My roommate has been suffering from different types of eating disorders all throughout the school year. She went through a phase of not eating, which would be classified as Anorexia. She also went through a phase of obsessing and counting calories. She weighs herself constantly and strives to lose that extra one or two pounds when she could afford to gain that weight.
I have found it very scary to be involved in her situation. She comes back each weekend with a new diet in mind and a new plan to shed pounds. At one time, she would over exercise in order to lose weight. Thankfully, no physical changes ever showed and she never showed major signs of having a disease she could not prevent. Her disorders are a result of her body image. She is only 150 pounds but she constantly looks in the mirror wishing she was 120. She shared with me that she was bullied and made fun of throughout elementary and middle school, just like Lovato. This shows a trend in people with eating disorders that eating disorders result from a history of feeling inadequate.
I have also had to deal with a much more depressing situation with my ten year old cousin. Recently, she has begun gaining a lot of weight and is now much larger than the typical ten year old girl. She refuses to eat healthy foods and only will eat cereal, peanut butter, and chicken. However, every other sentence that comes out of her mouth has to do with being “too fat” or “not skinny enough”. It breaks my heart to watch her trying on my clothes from a year ago and not being able to fit in half of them.
Encouraging someone with an eating disorder is a no win situation. No matter how many times they are told they are not fat, they will not believe you. Their perception, or body image, is completely obscured. It is not their fault because eating disorders cause a chemical imbalance in the brain which prevents logical thinking and allows a person’s body to continue hurting itself.
It is clear that eating disorders in celebrities can overflow into the lives of middle aged as well as young generations. Celebrities and models are greatly looked upon from the perspective of young children and thought of as role models. The lifestyles of these celebrities and models are widely known and are exposed to everyone leading to the trend in the rising statistics of eating disorders in these young generations. Idolizing and the want to mimic the bodies of these celebrities is the number one issue when in fact this accomplishment is not realistic.
There must be a change in the statistics of eating disorders and it must start with the weight and sizes of models and celebrities. If the idolized bodies are changed then the goal to be skinny enough will be changed. The effects of eating disorders on young people will be much less severe and so will the statistics. The industries need to realize that the standards for their employees are the cause of the impact on young people. All that has to happen is a change in the role model that these young people are idolizing and it will lead to a change in the body image and standard of the rest of the world. Eating disorders in celebrities are affecting the lives of the upcoming generation in a big way. With this knowledge, as healthy American citizens, a change can be made.
Works Cited
Anderson, Laurie H.Online posting. Quotes Tagged as Eating Disorders. Good Reads. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2011
Anorexia's Living Face. CBS News, 12 Oct. 2007. www.youtube.com. Web. 26 Feb. 2011
"Eating Disorders and Their Precursors." National Eating Disorders. National Eating Disorders Association, 2011. Web. 17 Apr. 2011. <www.nationaleatingdisorders.org>.
Laura. "Body Image: Model Health Inquiry Says Girls Under 16 ‘Should Not Model’." Fit Woman. Green Mountain at Fox Run, 6 Aug. 2007. Web. 17 Apr. 2011. <http://www.fitwoman.com/blog/body-image-model-health-inquiry-says-girls-under-16-should-not-model>.
"Orthorexia- A Different Kind of Eating Disorder." Eating Disorders Help Guide. Eating Disorders Venture, 2006. Web. 26 Apr. 2011.
Shaikh, Thair. "Fashion for Size Zero Fuels Rise in Eating Disorders Among Models." The Independent. N.p., 6 July 2007. Web. 26 Apr. 2011
