Eating Disorders: A Feminist Issue Essay -- Health Bulimia Anorexia Fe

Eating Disorders A womens rightist Issue What is a libber approach to pull ining eating disorders? not all feminists have the same understanding of eating disorders. There are many different theories that are prevalent in feminist literary works today. This web page will explore some of the different feminist perspectives about the cause of eating disorders in our culture. Power Control and obedience In her book Unbearable Weight, Susan Bordo (1993) makes the argument that the fear of womens fat is actually a fear of womens power. Thus, as women gain power in society, their bodies dwindle down and suffer. She states that effeminate hunger--for public power, for independence, for sexual gratification-- must be contained, and the public space that women be allowed to take up be circumscribed, limited... On the body of the anorexic cleaning lady such rules are grimly and deeply etched (Bordo, 171). Naomi Wolf (1991) has a similar explanation of the origin of eating disorders i n her bestseller The Beauty Myth. She states a cultural fixation on female thinness is not an irresistible impulse about female beauty but an obsession about female obedience (Wolf, 187). Women who remain thin are being obedient it is some other way for patriarchy to control women. If women cannot eat the same food as men, we cannot experience equal status in the community (Wolf, 189). sexual activity Sexuality is another roll in the hay that feminist Naomi Wolf explores in an effort to understand the prevalence of eating disorders among women. full-bodied is sexual in women. . . to ask women to scram unnaturally thin is to ask them to relinquish their sexuality (Wolf, 193). Women who develop eating disorders, especially anorexia, are denying their sexuality and natural female b... ... disordered attitudes and behaviors. Psvchology of Women Quarteriv. 2-0, 2. Goodman, Ellen. (1996). The anatomy look is in fashion. The Tennessean. June 1 1. Mahowald., Mary Betody. (1995). To b e or not to be a woman anorexia nervosa, normative gender personas, and feminism. Nagging Questions. Ed. Dana E. Bushnell. capital of Massachusetts Rowman Er Littlefield. Martz, D. M., Handley, K. B. Er Eisler, R. M. (1995). The Relationship between feminine gender role stress, body image, and eating disorders. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 19, 4. Morris, B. J. (1985). The phenomena of anorexia nervosa a feminist perspective. Feminist Issues, 5, 2. Orbach, Susie. (1978) Fat Is A Feminist Issue. New York Berkeley Press. Swartz, L. (1985). Is thin a feminist issue? Womens Studies International Forum, 8. 5. Wolf, Naomi. (1991). The Beauty Myth. NewYork Doubleday.