Eating Disorders and the Perception of Beauty
Different individuals and cultures have different perceptions of eating habits. Some consider fatness as fashionable and attractive throughout their community. Similarly, obesity was considered a sign of wealth since those who obtained adequate food and were well fed were people with money. Recently, most regions across the globe have been characterized by food shortages which have contributed to weight issues. According to Blodgett, Jones, Haugen, and Schaefer (32) for the longest time thinness has always been considered fashionable and this trend has increased since the 20th century as opposed to the previous eras. Eating disorders refer to a range of psychological conditions leading to the development of unhealthy eating habits. Eating disorders are mental health conditions with a marked obsession with food or body shape. The disorders are capable of affecting anyone regardless of gender and age although they are highly prevalent among young women. Often, eating disorders are reported among adolescents, with about 13% of the youths experiencing at least a single eating disorder (Stice, Eric, C. Nathan Marti, and Paul Rohde 445). The disorders might start manifesting with an obsession with food, body weight, or even the shape of the body. In some cases, eating disorders can lead to certain serious health consequences which may, in turn, result in death if not managed. However, the eating disorders can present with several symptoms, mostly inclusive of severe restrictions of food, food binges, or such purging behaviors as vomiting or over-exercising. Besides, shapely backsides are now celebrated with several "likes" on social media. Probably, an eating disorder is a worldwide problem that is terminating our lives at an early age. Throughout history, there has been a featured idea of an “ideal” body image specifically in women, leading to eating disorders as a result of high societal pressure.
In the contemporariness of society today, everything is changing and the concept of beauty is no exception. Beauty has gradually changed especially for women to a desperate point where most are adopting extreme behaviors in search of ideal beauty (Juli 450). Different types of media such as films, music, and social media have widely contributed to these perceptual changes. It is through the media that people get to learn about what is ideally recognized as beauty. Physical appearance has widely been popularized as the ideal beauty while the need for an attractive personality is ignored. Food attachment and their effects on physical beauty is a notion that is well established within society today. Eating is no longer just a source of energy but also contributes highly to weight gain a notion that has contributed to increased weight disorders that involve starving oneself to achieve the ideal body image (Blodgett, Jones, Haugen and Schaefer 32).
The women’s prevalence of the eating disorder defects owes to their body image which has always been under the pressure due to male gaze influence. Following the history of women, fat women were considerably beautiful as well as rich, in comparison to the current time, where skinny women who look like skeletons are considered the most beautiful (Williams 216). The ever-changing beauty standards affect girls and their perception of their body in the present ages. The pressure from the modern beauty standard contests as presented on social media, pose a challenge on young girls of 21st century, developing eating disorders in an attempt to acquire the desired size and body shape as well.
Based on Thompson and Hammond (232) eating disorders are serious psychological and physical health conditions. The conditions develop in different forms such as anorexia, binge and bulimia eating disorders. The disorders have increased to the point of being normalized as the means of attaining an ideal body. The overall concept of weight is generally determined by how a person consumers food (Rodgers 122). Food consumption changes are not surprising since the media provides extensive information on ways through which individuals can enhance their physical attraction. Besides, the use of cosmetics, controlling the amount of food that individuals eat is one of the most glorified means for enhancing beauty.
Eating disorders are prevalent among young individuals since they are the most affected by the perception of body image. People tend to judge others based on their physical appearance. Young people are influenced by the need to fit in within a society that highly accepts thin rather than chubby members (Juli 450). Despite the description of the disorders with the term “eating”, eating disorders mean more than just as it concerns food. The condition presents as a complex mental health condition, requiring the intervention of medical expertise as well as psychological experts in the management of their course.
Eating disorders have various triggers which mainly arise from the assertion of the media for physical attractiveness. The desire for more attention across social media platform has fueled the increase of abnormal eating habits (Thompson and Hammond 233). Anorexia nervosa is common and the most popular eating disorder. The condition generally is likely to develop in adolescence stages or during young adulthood, tending to affect many women compared to men. The anorexia victims generally perceive themselves as overweight, even if their condition manifests dangerous underweight. The victims considerably tend to be attentive in monitoring their weight constantly, avoiding consumption of certain types of foods, as well as severe restriction from their calories. The condition encourages individuals to starve themselves as a means of controlling weight gain (Rodgers 123). The victims have an intense fear of gaining weight, being persistent in behaviors that help to avoid weight gains, although in most cases are underweight. The victims, however, tend to have a relentless pursuit concerning thinness as well as unwillingness in maintaining a healthy weight. In most cases, there is a heavy bodyweight influence or perception of body shape on self-esteem. The victim also presents with a distorted body image, inclusive of denial to be seriously underweight.
As presented in commercials or any other media, women are generally defined as beautiful especially those with the ideal body (Perloff 364). Most women are characterized by low self-esteem based on the pressure subjected to them by society following harsh criticism. In this case, it is not surprising to find women believing that they are fatter than they are and uglier than what is perceived as the ideal beauty. There is a fixation that lies on the physical attractiveness. From a tender age, boys and girls are taught that the value of each female lies in their sexuality and beauty (Tiggemann and Slater 632). The notion is responsible for gender-based stereotypes which are mainly dominant in the business setting.
Anorexia is prevalent since women, unfortunately, learn that their value is grounded on their beauty (Tiggemann and Slater 632). Rather than judging women based on their qualities or brains the society is quick to judge them based on their physical attractiveness. For women, the worth increases with beauty. The media has never shied from presenting flawlessness as the idea of beauty (Rodgers 123). To boost their confidence men and women focus on attaining the set standards of beauty in whichever means. The glorification of physical beauty with respect to weight is responsible for growing eating disorder cases.
The lack of self-worth and confidence among young people leads to obsessive-compulsive symptoms, which are significantly most often in patients with eating disorders. Exemplary, most anorexic people are usually preoccupied with constant thoughts concerning food, and some are in danger of obsessively collecting recipes or hoarding food (Perloff 364). However, those individuals have a challenge of eating in public, and exhibit and have an exhibition of strong desires in controlling the environment they are involved in, with a limited ability to be spontaneous.
A perfect body is almost a necessity in society today. The society is totally to blame for the problem as it has taught women and men that physical attractiveness is the actual measure of beauty. Everyone wants to be perfect not just to attract attention but also to feel confident and enhance their worth. The adoption of eating disorder mainly presents itself by individuals focusing on reducing their overall food intake to reduce weight and maintain a slim structure that is desired by society. Bulimic and anorexic people are particularly victims of societal propagation of weight and beauty (Perloff 365). In the search for the ideal body, this has exposed them to deadly disorders. While some people are obsessed with food avoidance others cannot stop eating which is responsible for obesity. Surprisingly plus-size individuals are participating in modeling which to some extent is encouraging weight gain (Mills, Amy and Hogue 145). Bulimia Nervosa is also among the commonly known eating disorders. Similarly to anorexia, bulimia also tends to develop among the adolescents and early stages of adulthood, appearing to be less prevalent in men in comparison to women. The victims of bulimia frequently take unusual large quantities of food in certain periods. In each binge eating episode, the victim is usually stopped from eating by a painfully full stomach. However, during a binge, the individual has too much desire for eating for him to stop eating. The binge happens with different types of food, although most commonly occur with foods that the victim is likely to avoid. Most importantly, the bulimia victims try to purge in an attempt to compensate for the consumed calories, relieving gut discomforts. The purging in this context may mean such behaviors as forced vomiting, fasting, use of laxatives, diuretics, enemas, as well as involvement in excessive exercise.
Social stigma and self-esteem issues are some of the factors that trigger eating disorders. Young people especially women tend to feel as though they are too fat even when they are in perfect body weight and shape (Mills, Amy and Hogue 145). Such perceptions obstruct their perception of their body image leading to abnormal eating behaviors. The symptoms of bulimia are similar to those of the anorexia, specifically those experienced in binge eating or purging subtypes. However, the victims of bulimia have the usual maintenance of relatively normal weight, rather than being underweight. Some of the common symptoms experienced in a condition of bulimia nervosa are:
- Recurring episodes of binge eating without control from the victim.
- The victim recurrently present with inappropriately purging behaviors purpose to control their weight gain.
- There is self-esteem from the influence of body shape as well as weight.
- The victim fears to gain weight, although in most cases he or she has a normal weight
Binge eating disorder is the most common among all the eating disorders, specifically in the US. Like the other eating disorders, the conditions develop during adolescence as well as at early adulthood stages, but it can develop later in life. The symptoms presented in victims of Binge eating disorder are similar to those in victims of bulimia as well as binge eating subtype of anorexia (Tak, Hendrieckx, Nefs, Nyklíček, Speight and Pouwer 289). For instance, the patient typically consumes unusually large quantities of food within a relatively short time, feeling a lack of control during those binges. The binge eating disorder victims have no restriction of calories, neither do they present with purging behaviors like vomiting, excessive exercise, among others to compensate on the binges. The symptoms of binge eating disorder include;
- The patient eats a large amount of food within a shortly and does not stop until he is painfully full.
- The victim feels to lack control during the binge-eating episodes.
- The victim also has such feelings of distress as shame, disgust, and guilt, while they think about their binge-eating behavior
- The victim does not present with purging behaviors, like restriction on calories, vomiting, exercising excessively, and laxative or diuretic use, for the compensation of the binges (Mills, Amy and Hogue 145).
People with binge eating disorder are often overweight and obese, increasing their risk in terms of medical complications in link with excess weight, for example, heart disease, stroke, and type II diabetes. Being overweight attracts criticism and the stigma might trigger suicide cases or worsen the eating disorder. The most significantly, people with binge eating disorder are characterized by consumption of large amounts of food which are uncontrollable over a short time. Funny enough the patients do not purge as opposed to the other mentioned eating disorders.
Eating disorders are influenced by a facet of factors although the exact cause of the disorders is unknown. However, the cause may be biological, psychological as well as environmental factors. For instance, the biological factors endure irregular functioning of hormones, genetic disorders, and nutritional deficiencies. Psychologically, the factors may denote the negative body image of a person and poor self-esteem. Besides, aesthetically oriented sports such as diving, rowing, and ballet among others may encourage eating disorders for one to maintain a lean body for better performance (Culbert, Racine and Klump 1150). However, childhood and family trauma, as well as cultural influence, contribute to eating disorders.
Different eras have had different ideas concerning body size and shape, with different perceptions of eating habits and eating disorders (Culbert, Racine and Klump Culbert et al 1150). However, the etiological models of the image of the body and the eating concerns highlight the role of focus socially on slenderness as well as muscularity of the body concerning the eating concerns. Considerably, interpersonal interactions have played a vital role in promoting the development of certain body image and eating concerns, for instance, youths are involved in online interaction although the body image in such a forum is not clear. Social media and the internet present with characteristic theoretical leads which are believed to have an association with the body image as well as eating concerns.
Following the 19th century, the body image disturbance still has something to do with the development as well as the maintenance of clinical eating disorders. For instance, in Greek architecture, the statues they made were commonly curvy, pale with slightly flushed cheeks and soft faces that were round. The statues simply indicated what an imaginably beautiful woman was. The women were considered the objects of fertility, lust, and beauty (Benton, Catherine & Bryan 25). However, to acquire the shapes termed as beautiful, the eating habits played a key role in shaping them. This means that fatness was considered ugly and therefore the eating disorders could result from striving to gain a beautiful body image.
The current employs the modeling industry as a fixer of their body shape and image to improve on their beauty. Following Victoria’s Secret Model, the modeling industry is costly ion terms of healthy to make one thin enough to secure the big jobs in the beauty industry (Holland, Grace & and Marika, 115). Ideally, it is hard to work on the lean bodies with the model, with losses of clients following each gain in about a half-inch in body size (Holland, Grace and Marika 115). However, remaining thin was considered a recovery from an eating disorder according to the model. The idea implies that the manageable body size is the best description of beauty in this era. It is not anymore described as an eating disorder hence most individuals have gained influence from social media and the internet to acquire the most preferred images.
Today’s mothers must be worried about the eating disorders associated with their daughters and might have never imagined of similar situations among the mothers in the Victorian era. Ideally, food consumption is necessary for survival, going hand in hand with health and nutrition as the buzz words since one's birth. But most of the times eating disorder remains a concern of human beings. The poor Victorians lived a treacherous life. The earlier manifestations of certain eating disorders experienced today were also evident in the Victorian era. The era is a narration of a story about disordered eating as well as the diseases resulting from the eating disorders (Hughes 210). For instance, fasting was common among individuals in the Victorian era. The young pre-adolescent girls in this era were considering their survival ability without nourishment a symbol of sanctity. Some could last for a quite long period without consuming any food (Holland, Grace & and Marika, 115). Such girls were termed as the Fasting girls in the Victorian era, refusing to consume food and fasting for long periods. The character of the girls was perceived as a miracle in the Victorian era. The kids developed eating disorders to acquire recognition in the society.
The eating disorder in the Victorian era was an alarming issue since it resulted in several deaths. However, the girls were accused of hysteria, superstition as well as deceit, and controversies since it is seemingly impossible to completely abstain from food without dying. The eating disorders led to the division of the society into those believing in the duality of mind and body, and those relying on science, including material facts. The critics in the Victorian era argued that eating disorders resulted from depression, anxiety, and hysteria recognizing a disease for nervously absent appetite (Holland, Grace & and Marika, 115).
Similarly, the women in the Tang Dynasty were characterized by austere as well as prolonged fasting among Shangqing Daoist priestesses. It was a part of a lifestyle practiced in an attempt to achieve a mystical state of after existence of life, the immortality of the body and residence in the Shangqing heavenly kingdom. The fasting practice was considered religious and could not be conceptualized as a form of an eating disorder (Ferguson, 13).
Social media has effectively discovered a way into entire classrooms, dinner tables, and workplaces. Children, teenagers, or even adults, everyone exclusively seems to have a recommendable presence in the world of social media (Tiggemann and Amy 632). The wide ranges of social media platforms are used by all age groups inclusive of Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter, which are increasingly difficult to cease their pressures as well as social media influences. Social media, however, influences one’s relationship with food and to fear of gaining weight (Ferguson13). Most importantly, several individuals in the social media world chronicle their body fitness, choosing foods, and involving themselves in exercise regimes. Those struggling with an eating disorder, the constant streaming of body and food-conscious posts heighten the stress and anxiety levels in the context of ‘perfect body image’.
In conclusion, eating disorders is a worldwide problem that is severely destroying the lives of young men and women. Throughout history, there has been a featured idea of an “ideal” body image specifically in women, leading to eating disorders as a result of high societal pressure. The eating disorders are seemingly unable to be controlled due to different perceptions of the body size and shape, with the majority regarding thinness as beautiful, while others regard fatness as wealthy. The society is to blame for promoting the idea that beauty is measured by physical appearances. People are beauty irrespective of their different sizes and it is the contemporary society’s perception of beauty as lean structures that have contributed to the growing eating disorders in general.
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