Anorexia, Body Image and Conformity in American Society
According to April Fallon (1990), culturally bound and consensual definitions of attractiveness play an important role in the individuals' development of his or her body image. That body image reflects the way people view themselves and is generally not only a judgment on body, but a judgment on the self itself. In the following pages, the intention is to look at the interrelationship of anorexia, body image, and conformity to American culture, including definitions of attractiveness.
Anorexia has been defined as an eating disorder, although it has also been located on a continuum that includes women's normal concerns about weight. Anorexia is generally associated with bulimia, and in some instances, defined as one part of an anorexia/bulimia cycle (Boskind White and White, 1983).
Anorexia is essentially self starvation. The individual most frequently a teen age girl or young woman takes increasingly less food in order to sustain life, while at the same time contending that she (or he) is too fat. It is a disorder of both perception and action. Some of the symptoms of anorexia include the following:
1.Intense fear of becoming obese, which does not disappear with increased weight loss;
3.Weight loss of at least 15% of expected body weight;
4.Refusal to maintain normal weight;
6.Appearance of depression (Kinoy et al, 1992, p. 3).
There are a number of different explanations of anorexia and its causes. Some have associated anorexia with early abuse, others with the need for control, and still others with the desire not to grow up into adult sexuality. Others have indicated that ordinary dieting may be part of the etiology of eating disorders, with that dieting becoming chronic and severe (Wilson, 1993).
As Fallon (1990) noted, the Western standard of beauty has not been static through time. Instead, the ideal body type has changed several tim...