highly publicized, it is more likely to be identified (Brumberg, 1988, p. 13). A generation ago, even physicians might not have thought of it unless a patient's condition was so extreme as to cause the physician to do special research. But the suspicion is strong that the growing prevalence of anexoria and bulimia, and their emergence as cultural phenomena, are linked to a social trend, namely the growing obsession with thinness and weight loss on the part of women and (increasingly) very young girls.
One cannot watch television or peruse magazines without encountering a plethora of weight-loss products or regimens, overwhelmingly aimed at women. In a 1984 Glamour magazine poll, fully 75 percent of women regarded themselves as "too fat," although accord
...