Tuesday, March 18, 2008 2:58 PM CDT
Speaker: Eating disorders don't just affect white women
By AMBER WILLIAMS, Staff Writer
awilliams@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — The existing image of a person with an eating disorder is one that has prevailed over time despite its flaws.
The image is of a white, upper-middle class woman who is somewhat of a perfectionist. And she is thin.
The cover of popular magazines like “People” are often guilty of this, dissecting the “is she or isn’t she” question of different white female stars regarding eating disorders, said Susan Bordo, author, professor, lecturer.
However, this image is hardly accurate and ignores the cultural impact that media images have had on people of all races, sexes and ethnicities, Bordo said.
In a presentation titled “Not Just a White Girl’s Thing: The Changing Face of Food and Body Image Problems,” Bordo told a packed crowd in the EIU Martin Luther King Jr. University Union on Monday that the concept of who has eating disorders needs to change.
Bordo, professor of English and gender studies at the University of Kentucky, is author of the books “Unbearable Weight” and “The Male Body.” She was the keynote speaker to kick off Women’s History and Awareness Month.
Women’s Studies Program coordinator Suzanne Enck-Wanzer said she has long been a fan of Bordo’s for her commanding and provocative observations into American culture.
Bordo’s book “Unbearable Weight” has been a resource for English, women’s studies and communications programs across the country, Enck-Wanzer said.
“We are honored to have in our midst Dr. Susan Bordo,” she said.
Bordo explained that the vision people have of a person with an eating disorder is almost never of someone who is African-American, Asian, Jewish or male.
She is even hesitant to use the word eating “disorder,” as it implies a disease that is limited to a small group of people. Instead, Bordo uses the phrase “eating problem” to show how common issues such as anorexia, bulimia and binge eating have become.
For some time, there has been a perception that African-American women are more comfortable with their bodies than white women and thus are less susceptible to eating problems, Bordo said.
However, eating problems are touching people in all parts of American culture because of the cultural images the public sees every day.
Images that the American people, and people around the world, are inundated with daily such as diet cures, sexualized athletes, digitalized ads and the marginalization of the overweight are bound to skew their mindset on what is “healthy” or “beautiful,” Bordo said.
“Our culture is a breeder of disorder,” she said.
It is a culture that celebrates overnight weight loss at any cost and shames people like Tyra Banks for adding on a healthy amount of weight, Bordo said.
To change this steady increase of people of all walks of life with body dissatisfaction and eating problems, Bordo said there is no easy answer.
It will take a revolution in cultural images to add diversity and acceptance of all people, she said.
Contact Amber Williams at awilliams@eiu.edu or 238-6858.
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