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

Eating Disorders A Feminist Issue What is a feminist draw close to intellectual flow disorders? Not all feminists have the same understanding of eating disorders. There ar many different theories that are normal in feminist literature today. This web page will search 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 assertion that the fear of womens fat is actually a fear of womens power. Thus, as women put one over power in society, their bodies dwindle and suffer. She states that effeminate hunger--for public power, for independence, for intimate gratification-- must be contained, and the public space that women be allowed to take up be circumscribed, limited... On the body of the anorexic woman such rules are grimly and deep etched (Bordo, 171). Naomi brute (1991) has a similar explanation of the origin of eating disorders in her bestsel ler The Beauty Myth. She states a cultural fixation on female subtileness is not an obsession about female beauty exactly an obsession about female obedience (Wolf, 187). Women who remain thin are being obedient it is another 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). Sexuality Sexuality is another issue that feminist Naomi Wolf explores in an effort to understand the prevalence of eating disorders among women. Fat is sexual in women. . . to ask women to become un inherently thin is to ask them to throw overboard 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 skeleton look is in fashion. The Tennessean. June 1 1. Mahowald., bloody shame Betody. (1995). To be or not to be a woman anorexi a nervosa, prescriptive gender roles, and feminism. Nagging Questions. Ed. Dana E. Bushnell. Boston Rowman Er Littlefield. Martz, D. M., Handley, K. B. Er Eisler, R. M. (1995). The Relationship surrounded by 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.