It’s amazing to learn how many people actually have eating disorders. According to the America anorexia/ bulimia association, 7 million woman and 1 million men starting at the age of ten to early twenties suffer from eating disorders, and 1000 woman die from them every year. Starting at an early age kids receive the message that being fat is not cool or attractive and to be attractive you have to be skinny. I chose this topic because I have family members who had eating disorders and wanted to learn what causes them. A person might wonder why anyone would starve themselves. Do people starve themselves because their simply not happy with their weight? Eating disorders are caused by many things starting from poverty, sexual abuse, racism, heterosexism, social class inequality, and acculturation.
There are three theoretical models used to treat eating disorders. The first is the biomedical model, the second is the psychological model, and the third is offered by feminist. The biomedical model displays important information about the physiological causes of eating problems and how it leads to anorexia and bulimia. There are medical treatments to help but side effects could result in dramatization to women.
The second model is the psychological model. This model is influenced by biological, psychological, and cultural factors. This and the biomedical model, neglect women of color, lesbians and working class women.
The third model is offered by feminists. This model asserts that eating problems are gendered. This may explain why most of the people who get this are woman and not men. This method also shows how gender socialization and sexism relate to eating problems. This model is culturally, socially, and economically enforced for female beauty to be “skinny”. This leads to anorexia and bulimia.
Most women who suffer from eating disorders start out being sexually abused. According to a study 61 percent of woman connected that the start of their eating problems started when they were being sexually abused. Usually women cope with this problem by binging, which is eating for comfort. This helped woman “numb out”. Instead of food being something to eat, food is something that woman could trust and was easy to get a hold of when ever needed. Food becomes an “addiction”.
Another important aspect of eating disorders is the sensitive subject of racism and class standing. Joselyn an African American girl remembered how her white grandmother would often tell her she would never be pretty because she was not light like her other cousins who were white and slim. She was humiliated and called fat. This caused her to have an eating disorder. Although Joselyn could not change her skin color and be white like the rest of her family she could change her weight. As her father’s business picked up he was encouraging his wife and his daughter to be slim like everyone else. As the family’s class and culture started to change In Joselyn’s eyes being skinny was the only way she could fit in. Joselyn’s eating problems were handled completely wrong and could have lead to death because of culture change class standing and racism.
After researching eating disorders it seems as though there is not enough methods to help people suffering from them. Change in culture causes a huge impact on eating disorders because now a days to be “beautiful” or “attractive” it is encouraged to be skinny.

By:Carlye