Young Girls Quest for Physical Perfection

How do media images of physical perfection drive young girls into food and weight obsessions? Writer Courtney E. Martin explores this deadly disease. Series: Womens Health Today [2/2009] [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 15243]

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Body
• image
• obsessive
• dieting
• adolescent
• self
• images

[jak1428]

:*(

[jupotatoes]

They get flabbier and flabbier, and so, even more obsessed.

I live in Brazil, and fortunately anorexia here is way more uncommon (in the backside, sex symbols here are muscular girls with big legs, cabs, breasts... and low-pitch voices and gh bellies).

[jupotatoes]

proudSomalisis, saying white girls could learn from black girls is plain prejudice. It's not a racial issue, it's a cultural issue.

I believe the main cause of eating disorders is lack of education about the way food works on your body. If people knew how to lose fat (anyone ever noticed people in gyms say 'fat' and not 'weight'?), they wouldn't harm yourselves to do so, wich in the end, doesn't even acomplish a better look. As they let their bodies consume muscle, it stores fat.

[proudSomalisis]

And how does that relate to the issue at hand? Your point is out of context.

[ciplexian]

Actually, African women are more likely to end up working outside the home than white women. They are also more likely to be single mothers.

[Nicolegirl79]

One thing we have to realize is that when we take food out of our mouths to please someone else, it opens the door for other people to abuse us in other ways.

[proudSomalisis]

White girls, i believe, could learn much from African girls,they r not as dectructive. That is because we embrace our femininity, girlhood/womanhood and motherhood as opposed to fighting it.

[HiAdrian]

Fair enough. It might get distorted by very vocal/present extremists.

I happen to have some self-proclaimed feminists in my family, and when this topic comes up (by them), it sadly spoils their character.

Similarly to religious fundamentalism, you encounter many unfounded assumptions and an unwillingness to have a real discussion.

Frankly, this makes me skeptical about whether there's actually a wide consensus about the movement's goals, and whether responsible thinkers are at the helm.

[xcusemeprincess]

you seem to misunderstand the current state of the feminist movement, i sincerely recommend you to read "feminism is for everybody" by bell hooks

[HiAdrian]

Good talk, you can see that she's been there and speaks from experience.

I think she's very naive about the feminist movement, which is often pushed precisely by this "achiever" kind of woman, and has done a great deal in building the ideal of a child-less, coke snorting, female workaholic. The perfect consumer.