to think focusing on the media is missing the point?

[crashdoll]

I won't link to it directly but briefly summarise the daily mail story of a 20 year old young lady who has recovered from anorexia. She's campaigning to bain airbrushed photos of women in magazines. This led me to think about an awful lot of articles I've read about eating disorders in the media and there is often a focus on how skinny women in the public eye are poor role models. Now, I'm not for one second disagreeing that women and their portrayal in the media does not lead to young women, in particular, having skewed body image ideas. However, anorexia nervosa is a complicated mental illness and I feel that while the media plays a role in how girls feel about their bodies, it does not have such a big role in the mental illness.

I spent my teenage years suffering with anorexia, in and out of hospital. Unfortunately, my younger sister also developed the same eating disorder and still suffers. While I think attitudes towards eating disorders are improving, there is still a lot of "silly, spoilt girl with a first world problem who just wants attention and to be a supermodel". I feel the way the media blames skinny women on TV in articles about anorexia just perpetuates these ideas.

So, AIBU?

Yanbu Anorexia is a complex mental disorder.

Media representations of women and the ideal can, however be a very strong trigger for many. Its is often not as simply as wanting to look like the ideal. Images can be used as a punishment, to reinforces the individuals belief that they are worthless, or as a tool for further self harm by reinforcing the idea that the individual does not deserve to eat.

It's rarely about wanting to be a model

I agree with you - and you're right in that it just encourages idiots to come out with stuff like 'it's just about silly girls wanting to be like celebrities'. So unhelpful.

You are correct it is a complex mental illness and rarely about wanting to look like skinny women in the media. However anorexia can be triggered from losing weight and become obsessional about body image that way. I feel the pressure from the media doesn't help normal girls and women to feel confident in themselves and their bodies so they do need to be careful what they promote as normal/attractive/acceptable

yabu, it is a part of it.

There was a really important study done when western tv arrived in some remote polynesian islands a few years back. Eating disorders were unheard of, the traditional shape of large bum and big hips was seen as perfect by young women....all of which changed very quickly when suddenly millions of images of thin western women arrived in their homes and their conciousness.

Very unreasonable to read anything written by Liz Jones and expect to find a sensible idea within.

CallmeAl

The study you speak of did not report any instances of anorexia in the islanders but it did coincide with a general awakening of the effects of being too curvy and overweight and the younger woman were positively encouraged by what they saw on TV of confident working woman with healthy body shapes etc. etc.

A follow up study did though, if I recall correctly? "Too curvy and overweight"? Isn't that your western bias rather than fact?
Thats not at all what I got from it. The majority of women on american tv do not have healthy body shapes, they are tiny and underweight.

yabu... sort of.
For me it wouldn't just be about anorexia, but about false images of what a nice body looks like. A woman can be attractive without having an inch perfect body. So airbrushing should be banned, or images should be labeled as illustrations, not photos if they are airbrushed. Photos should show what things genuinely look like.

The airbrushing and photo shopping of clebs etc, does change how people and especially young girls think that women should/can look.

There isn't just anorexia to consider, it destroys self esteem, to be reaching for an ideal that cannot be achieved, or shouldn't be by a girl still developing/laying down good bone health etc.

Anorexia is a MH issue but everyone's journey towards it will be different.

We should be questioning what part the media plays in these issues.

No bias. I've not seen any anorexic woman working on TV except perhaps on the odd documentary about eating disorders, but I also not a great fan of TV anyway. Polynesian woman do tend to be more overweight compared to their European counterparts even if living in the same area due to their resting metabolic rates and total energy efficiency differing.

You don't need to be anorexic to be underweight. The promotion of size zero and so on as an healthy weight is damaging, you yourself are calling it normal and healthy.

Overweight compared to whose standards? The fact remains that the young women of those communities were far happier with themeselves and their body image before being bombarded with the distorted ideals of normalcy and beauty of the american media.

OP you're completely right. It makes my blood boil when people blame the media for a complicated and tragic mental illness.

I think however, we can blame the media for (in part) making us all a bit neurotic about our thighs, our bum, faces, breasts etc. We can all be a lot more accepting of ourselves and each other.

Actually they did not say that.

Read all the study, it is by Anne E Becker.

If it is the media what causes the 10-15% of anorexia cases that apply to young men.

I have read the study.
Do you think men don't interact with "the media"? What a silly question, only women watch tv and read magazines and papers, do they?

Nobody says the media alone causes eating disorders, its far more complex than that. But suggesting that an acceptance of a body shape as normal that is far from it, that beauty=thin, unrealistic body images perpetuated and promoted constantly by the worlds media has no impact at all is naive at best.

I think they should go further and look at dolls and cartoons that are part of childhood - seriously barbie, bratz etc all show highly sexualised skinny portrayals of women.

but yes, it is more complex but you have to start somewhere

If you think of dolls as are sexualised that is more an indication of your brain not that of a childs.

Callme you seem to want to be one of the ant-thin types who would use the phrase bobble-head or lollipop to describe woman who are less than a size 10 and promote a size 16 as normal when it is in fact the median of an overweight unhealthy country.

I would just like to say that DP had an eating disorder as a teenager, and it was jackshit to do with media ideals of the perfect body.

Obviously being male, that puts him in a minority group anyway, but there are multiple causes of what is an extremely complex mental illness. It would be negligent at best to blame it all on the media.

Isn't it ok to accept a disorder may be complex and have many different causes - and still want to focus on one possible one if it seems important to you?

From your summary, it sounds as if this is what's going on?

I don't think it does suggest anorexia is about women wanting to be supermodels. I can believe the Mail might put that gloss on it, though. Because they're twits.

Does anyone know if there has been an increase in anorexia and other eating disorders compared with, say, the 1950s (or was it that it simply wasn't talked about then?). I certainly next remember this body-obsession when I was a teenager in the 1950s but I'm willing to concede I may be wrong.

However, if there has been an increase in eating disorders in the last few deades what has triggered them?

don't I meant, not next. Grrr

no novack - I mean that they portray perfect thin adult female bodies - so from the age of 3/4 little girls are shown a perfect, thin female body with possibly unattainable figure in cartoons and toys as per as airbrushed representation. They have even less chance of logically knowing that this is just a representation at that age.

sorry to have confused my post with the word sexualised.

They only have less chance of logically knowing if you let them believe in Disney anthropomorphism. You are the parent and it's your job to ensure they have a rounded view. Or you would ban Jane Austen for giving the view that woman should be kept and are over the hill at 19 without having found anyone in their season.

Having perfect thin (your words) is what people want to see on TV generally and is a commercial reality for any programme or in a periodical. We will sadly see a clearly example of this with the viewing figures of the Olympics to Special Olympics this summer.

The unfortunate reality is that their disorder is complex and difficult to combat but blaming the media is a misdiagnosis.

I think they should also look at the daft school weigh ins and healthy eating nonsense in schools that starts as young as 4. It's not JUST the media influencing the susceptible anymore. The school stuff really undermines parental efforts and sadly anorexia is becoming an issue for younger and younger growing children (so potential for MORE long term damage to health) every year.

As parents it gets harder and harder to fight the negative influences coming from outside the home when even your child's school can provide triggers for this condition. More boys than ever are also falling victim in recent years.

A more robust societal tolerance of what used to be described as puppy fat, and a greater emphasis on an hours strenous activity per day for primary aged children instead of the almost exclusive dietry (it's too ill-informed in many schools to be called nutritional advice!) would be a great start towards fighting obsetity etc without risking triggering a lifelong condition.

Schools need to go back to basics - eat your greens, don't eat too many sweets and pllay outside was the advice my mother's generation got. All those official letters re BMI results that are often a very inaccurate guage for growing kids, constant pack lunch inspections etc DO have a negative effect on some children and this needs to be taken into account.

A bit more common sense form the nanny state when dealing with food and children as young as 4, AND addressing the media influences may help reduce the anorexia and other eating disorder rates a little.