Eating Disorders

In the background of discourse on eating disorders is the discourse of the body, particularly the image of the ideal female body, that dominates the enterprise and perceptual experience of Western popular culture. This ideal is so familiar as to elude explanation, but its relevance consists in the fact that the vast majority of women in the world have simply never been able to attain it. The artificiality of the ideal can be concisely described with reference to the fact that few women engaged or affected by popular culture have a hope of looking like either Audrey Hepburn (who came by her looks and long and elegant neck naturally) or the long-neck women of Thailand (who do not). Yet that ideal, which is artificial inasmuch as it so rarely occurs in nature and which is desirable not least because it is so difficult for most human beings to achieve, is precisely the image of physical female beauty that dominates the mass media in the contemporary period. What makes the ideal desirable--its dif

. . .
he permanent compromise which marks the relation between mass culture and its consumers: the Woman of Fashion is simultaneously what the reader is and what she dreams of being" (Barthes 260-1). Popular culture and industries of physical beauty are testaments to the ego's project of resolving appropriate images of body, self, clothing, etc. The feminist philosopher Susan Bordo deals with the same set of issues as Freud and Barthes. However, Bordo tends to be critical of Freud owing to evidence of his double vision of men's and women's encounter with culture, and more in line with Barthes's critique of the oppressive nature of culture. The shape of that oppression is an ideal of body slenderness, particularly for women. Bardo's discussion of Barthes on this issue sets a context for discourse of eating disorders seen as a response to that oppression, also the cultural ideal: The emaciated body of the anorectic . . . presents itself as a caricature of the contemporary ideal of hyper-slenderness for women, an ideal that . . . has become the norm for women today. But slenderness is only the tip of the iceberg . . . [S]aid Barthes, speaking of clothing styles--it is meaning that makes the sale. So, too, it is meaning that makes the bo
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Audrey Hepburn, Barthes Bordo, Meyer Russell, Stuart Mill's, Princess Diana, Susan Bordo, Roland Barthes's, Drew Carey, College-educated Generation, Culture Body, eating disorders, mass media, popular culture, audrey hepburn, meyer russell 134ff, psychical impressions, bordo cites, culture body, anorexics fear, cultural ideal, discourse eating disorders, external world,
Approximate Word count = 2336
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Eating Disorders