Bulimia Nervosa - Socio abnormal

Media and Beauty Standards

• Standards of beauty have in fact become increasingly difficult to attain, particularly for women.

• The current media ideal of thinness for women is achievable by less than 5 percent of the female population

• Aspects of the woman's personal history may contribute to her dissatisfaction with her own body shape, but the desire to be thin is often powerfully influenced by media images and messages.

• The media both reflects and helps to shape a strong cultural pressure towards thinness.

Culture and eating disorders

• The perfect body figure has changed over the years in the West.

  • In the 1950s, female sex symbols had much larger bodies compared with those of the present day.

  • currently = thinness

• at other times + other cultures =more rounded figure has been considered ideal

Thinness in media

• women are much more likely than men or children to be the target for the media propaganda that promotes thinness.

• also apparent in the media coverage of childrens fashion, and in the design of dolls

  • very young girls are subjected to distorted models of the ideal body shape.

Sanders and Bazalgette (1993)

AMRCE

how realistically accurate are the body proportions of childrens dolls to the average female

Sanders and Bazalgette (1993)

AMRCE

• analysed the body shape of three of the most popular dolls available for young girls (Barbie, Sindy, and Little Mermaid), measuring their height, hips, waist, and bust.

• Then transformed these measurements to apply to a woman of average height

Sanders and Bazalgette (1993)

AMRCE

• relative to real women, the dolls all had tiny hips and waists, and greatly exaggerated inside leg measurements

Sanders and Bazalgette (1993)

AMRCE

• Distorted ideas about what is normal and acceptable mean that many children become dissatisfied with their own shape, even though it is within the healthy range.

Sanders and Bazalgette (1993)

AMRCE

• Reductionist

  • only looking at dolls and their proportions

• Generalizability

body image and evaluation

• by the age of 12, body shape can be a major criterion in self-evaluation and the evaluation of others.

• Numerous sources of social pressure including from parents that push even young children towards being thin.

Men and body image

•  ideal worked-out male figure that appears in many commercials produces a strong demand to mirror the ideal.

•  1993, a MORI survey of adult males in the UK showed that

  • one-third of men had been on a diet

  • nearly two-thirds believed a change in shape would make them more sexually attractive

Jaeger et. al 2002

AMRCE

To investigate body dissatisfaction and its relation to bulimia

• because it had been identified in past research as a risk factor for bulimia and as dependent on cultural factors.

Jaeger et. al 2002

AMRCE

Natural experiments, 1751 participants across 12 nations

IV: culture (Western vs. Non-Western)

DV: level of body dissatisfaction

• Self reported method to collect data on body dissatisfaction, self-esteem, and dieting behaviour

• 10 body silhouettes (culture free design) were shown to participants to assess body dissatisfaction

• BMI was also measured

Jaeger et. al 2002

AMRCE

Significant differences between cultures

• Western: highest body dissatisfaction

• Westernization: intermediate body dissatisfaction

• non-western: lowest levels of body dissatisfaction

body dissatisfaction

• most important influence on dieting behavior

• independent of self-esteem and BMI

Jaeger et. al 2002

AMRCE

Significant inter-cultural differences support the idea that bulimia is due to the “idealized” body image in the media.

• western countries are more exposed to these images thus they show higher dissatisfaction than non-western countries

• Increase in countries going through westernization supports this too since exposure to such images is increasing

Implies that the issue may need to be considered at a macro-level (society) rather than the individual (micro-level)

Jaeger et. al 2002

AMRCE

• reductionist:

  • ignores biological component of bulimia since hereditary plays a part in the development of the disorder

  • not easy to separate nature and nurture

• causation

  • natural experiment thus no manipulation of variables

  • cant establish causation

• Sample generalizability

  • all were medical or nursing students

    • well educated + probably have high privilege

  • not a representative sample