Thinness seems to be a very big obsession in society now a days. Different races all seem to be striving to be thin as their role models, TV and famous people are. In the book I found that the numbers were definitely very large in the different races striving to be thin. I think that the way the book makes it seem is everyone wants to be perfect and have a certain look as the people they recognize do. I believe this is very unhealthy and people should not perceive thinness as a good thing, but rather to be healthy and thin would be much better than being too thin and unhealthy and wanting to be something that you can not become. BY ERIN

Looking at chapter 7, Cultural Obsession with Thinness: African American, Latino, and White Women by Becky W. Thompson, we learn of the three theoretical models used to explain and treat eating disorders. The biomedical model offers great insight medically about binging, purging and starvation. However if fails to actually help the person. It ignores social, historical, and cultural factors that we know play a role in this disease. The psychological model uses a combination of biological, psychological and cultural issues however still ignores, race, lesbian and the working women/poverty.

Thompson claims that through her studies she finds that many of these women if not all of them use their eating disorder as a coping mechanism. Could be to deal with having been sexually abused, being poor and the every day stresses of that life, being gay or suffering from racism and the feeling that they need to fit in with the “skinny white girl”. While I find all of these issues absolutely true to playing a role in why girls suffer from this awful disease, I do feel that Thompson missed a few crucial points! It is also possible that girls and women who believe they need to be thin may not have had a serious trauma in their life. They may suffer from extremely low self esteem. They may not have a horrible home life but it may also not be very supportive either. For me personally, I suffered with body image as a teen. I was athletic, never overweight nor underweight and short. As young girls that’s what we do. We look at other girls and compare ourselves. We look at the awful mass media that we can’t escape and compare ourselves to them. Thankfully I had a supportive mother and father who told me I was beautiful and distracted my mind with much more important aspects of life. As I just mentioned Mass Media, also has an effect on this disease. The media needs to focus, focus, focus on health, health, health, and stop defining people as either being thin, average, or overweight. Those are negative mantras that we focus on and we know that when we focus on negativity we get negativity. If the media and society as a whole were to focus on the words healthy and went from there, I would like to think that would have a more positive effect on our young men and women today who suffer from body image issues.

I included a link that I thought was an interesting read.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-religion-thinness/201001/stop-criticizing-your-body-and-start-critiquing-our-cultures-devot

Seeing Ourselves chapter 7 is titled Cultural Obsessions with Thinness: African American, Latina, and White Women by Becky W. Thompson.  In this article Thompson explores three theoretical models used to explain eating disorders.  The first of these models is the biomedical model, claiming there are scientific ties to physiological reasons for eating disorders.  The second model is psychological model claiming eating disorders are more a matter of the pysche.  The third model is Gender Specific and Cultural stating that eating disorders are primarily found in women and those targeted by cultural ‘bullying’.  I believe that regardless of gender, race, class or experience, anyone with an eating disorder fits into all three of these models.  If a patient suffering from an eating disorder was to be treated with all three models in mind, I believe they would recieve a well rounded and helpful treatment.  As few as one of these three models or as many as all three could contribute to an individuals illness but at some point a patient will probably experience all three.  It is a matter of mind, body or spirit and this is used to break down or explain many dilemmas. 

The article also ties sexual abuse to eating disorders.  This part was extremely new and interesting to me.  In todays media it is most typically the relation of culture and what is described as “beauty” that plagues individuals and most often is what leads one to an eating disorder.  Before this article I had not heard of the research linking sexual abuse to eating disorders.  It absolutely makes sense and I believe deserves much more attention.  Typically, when a victim has experienced abuse he/she tends to feel disembodied or senses loss of control over the body.  This means any weight gain or loss does not affect them in a way it would another individual with a “normal” connection to the body.  Ongoing sexual abuse can also lead to the victim feeling as if their being less sexually attractive may help to stop the abuse.  If a young woman developing hips and breasts could cut down on their size by starving herself, the victim may feel she could lose appeal to the abuser. 

Racism and classism contributes to eating disorders in an interesting and newly researched way as well.  Certain races are expected to be thin and some are expected to be “plump”.  Many ethnicities have strong cultural ties to food.  How can women feel included without consequently gaining weight?  When it comes to class order, families climbing the social ladder usually attend many social functions laden with very delicious foods.  Who could resist?  However, as the class order of the family rises, they are seen more in the social structures of their community so the push to be good looking, thin and well dressed increases.       BY ELIZABETH

The three theoretical models: biomedical model, psychological model and gendered are used to explain and treat eating disorders. The biomedical model is somewhat harmful and doesn’t really explain exactly why people have eating disorders. Like the book said it doesn’t explain social, historical and cultural factors which are important to look out when researching eating disorders. The psychological model does look at and examine the biological, psychological and cultural factors, but doesn’t look at why maybe women of color; lesbians or working class women have eating disorders. And the third model used to explain eating disorders is gender which has to do with explaining why mostly women or someone with social problems that maybe have sexually based issues may have eating disorders. I do believe that this model is one that maybe most effective in explaining eating disorders. I think that mostly Caucasian and African American’s is the most common race to have issues with eating disorders. T.V and the news have a lot to do with eating disorder issues also. The thought that thinness is the in and having a little meat on your bones is out, puts more women at risk to make themselves starve or throw up. Seeing models on T.V look so thin and pretty a lot of young girls want to look just like them, and some girls think in order to do that they have to stop eating completely.

Like explained in the book 61% of sexual abused women also have eating disorders. They are closely related because people that have been sexually abused use binging as a coping mechanism. Instead of thinking about the pain of being sexually abused the block it out by not eating. I also think it can go both ways. People that have been sexually abused end up becoming obese because they use eating too much as their coping mechanism.

Racism and class is also a factor in eating disorders. Families that may have children close of age, and maybe one is skinner than the other, may put them at risk of having an eating disorder. Expecially if family members have comments like “Wow she’s prettier because she’s skinner” can have a big impact on the way people feel. BY Caroline

Caroline

What I found very interesting was the extent that sexual abuse and eating disorders can be linked together. The book says that 61% of the women that Becky W. Thompson interviewed had survived sexual abuse. From surviving this trauma many women like Antonia turns to food as a way to “cope.” It is a way for them to focus on something else besides the horror of what has happened to them. In other women’s cases such as Ruthie, they turn to bulimia so that then can change their body because they blame their bodies for what has happened. The idea of “maybe if I’m skinny then I’ll be good enough and not be hurt any more” really comes into play here.
To me, because for so many women the abuse and eating disorder start so young, the only way they know how to deal with it is by altering their bodies or by using something to “numb” the pain. If you look at it this way then it seems very simple, something bad is happening so I have change to protect myself. Because things are happening younger and younger, I think we need to start teaching children at younger ages what to do and ensure that they have someone safe to talk to. We also must make sure that other ethnic groups (not white women) are looked at equally because the fact that many are overlooked until the problem is very bad is simply not acceptable. BY OLGA

The three theoretical models used to explain and treat eating disorders are the biomedical model, the psychological model, and the third model which says eating disorders are “gendered.” The biomedical model is tends to be very one-sided offering only physiological causes and potentially harmful treatments. It disregards societal and cultural factors that also may cause eating disorders. The psychological model is more multi-faceted asserting that eating disorders are “multidimensional disorders.” Although treatment has been found to be useful, it also ignores certain societal and cultural causes of eating disorders like the biomedical model. The third model which is feminist-based focuses on how the societal issue of sexism could relate to eating disorders. This model asserts that “thinness is a culturally, socially, and economically enforced requirement for female beauty.”

Class standing is also a factor in eating disorders. Some are intertwined with race as well. As different races began to become “mobile,” it became important to be like the white women and be thin. Even though, in many cultures like the Puerto Rican culture being thin is a sign of malnutrition or illness, in America it is the image of the rich white women. Since people who come to America seek the American dream, part of achieving it now is to not only play the part but to look the part as well. By Nicole