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The Globalization of Eating Disorders Eating disorders are a huge problem across the nation. Some of these disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia-nervosa, binge eating, and body dysmorphic disorder. Anorexia is a disorder in which subject obsesses about food and how much they eat, while a Bulimic person eats an excessive amount of food, then purges. People affected by these disorders are obsessed with food however; they do not want the calories, so they eat as much as they can, then throw it up.
Binge eating is a disorder in which a person will eat excessive amounts of food because they cannot control themselves. This previous example is not seen as an eating disorder by itself, but it can be associated with one. When a person has body dysmorphic disorder, they are never happy with the way their body looks and are constantly trying to change it. Numerous people affected by this disease believe they are fat, and they try to get skinnier; even when they are already skinny, they will continue to try and lose weight.
Eating disorders are a problem for people of all different ages, but they greatly impact teenagers and young adults. Many people in the United States know eating disorders are a very serious problem. Some of these people do not know eating disorders are also a major problem around the world. This problem needs to be acknowledged and changed. In the article “The Globalization of Eating Disorders” written by Susan Bordo, it explains how easily it is to get caught up and be obsessed with one’s weight when one is a teenager.
Eating disorders have changed multiple times throughout the decades. They were a very small problem only a decade or two ago, and even other countries had no known statistics of eating disorders. Now in today’s age they have spread throughout the world and are now a major worldwide problem. “I remember 10 years ago, when people first began hearing the term ‘eating disorder,’ they thought it was very strange,” said Gregorius Pandu Setiawan, chairman of Indonesian Mental Health Network. In another article, the author Devon Haynie talks about the problem with eating habits in Asia.
There is a girl that is a size four to six in America but when she goes back home there aren’t any clothes that will fit her. Asian women have a standard of being very petite and slender women, this is one of the reasons why Asia has eating disorders. When you think of eating disorders, the first thing that comes to mind is a white suburban teenager; this is one of the problems. People of all different races and backgrounds are being diagnosed with eating disorders and one cannot stereotype these disorders anymore because they are everywhere.
With the wide spread of teenagers, from the west coast to the east coast, and to overseas such as Fiji and Africa, teenagers are wanting to look like super models; tall and skinny with a strikingly beautiful face. Bordo wants the reader to realize that it does not matter what race you may be; anyone can become obsessed with his or her weight and begin to worry about what others think about their appearance. Bordo also referenced the media and how it plays a huge part on influencing teenage girls.
These days, teenage girls are targets of various magazines such as “People,” and when they read these magazines, they see celebrities’ “perfect” bodies (Susan Bordo). Consequently, they want their bodies to look similar and slender. Television plays a huge role as well. Before Fiji was introduced to U. S. television programs, absolutely no cases of any types of eating disorders were reported; however, three years after they began broadcasting these types of programs, eleven percent admitted to vomiting, and sixty-two percent admitted to taking some type of supplement to help control their weight (Susan Bordo).
Bordo goes on to mention a young African-American girl, Tenisha, in the article who is simply just tired of looking like other African-Americans who embrace their big voluptuous bodies(Susan Bordo). Tenisha even states that she feels like a traitor to her race and that she would “rather die of starvation that gain another pound” (Susan Bordo). The mass media coming from the US is playing a huge role in eating disorders in other countries by only showing actresses and actors who are in top shape and are sometimes surgically made to look like that.
We can fight against the rapidly growing globalization of these problematic eating disorders. The first point brought up in many different articles is the present guidelines for fashion. By having guidelines you are making sure models are a certain body weight and are healthy looking. By putting six foot, one hundred pound girls on the runway or television, you are giving teenagers and children a body image to idolize. In general, the fashion industry needs to be changed. They need to get models with healthy body images so it can be alright to try and resemble them.
Another problem consists of television shows such as “America’s Next Top Model”. In this show only extremely slender girls try out to be models. If America is going to have this show, we need to keep diversity and different body types in the show. Not every model needs to be sickly skinny. Magazines like “Allure”, “Cosmopolitan”, and “People” also make this mistake. These three magazines are a bad influence on teenagers and children. When they see the people in this, they become obsessed with that person’s body image and try to incorporate it into their own.
In addition to displaying Barbie-like women, magazines also incorporate beauty tips into their pages. In other words, companies are spoon-feeding an ideal image of what a person should look like to the young, developing minds of our communities. During the article written by Susan Bordo, she focuses on how bad the problem is and what it is becoming. She states all of the facts and information for the audiences to not only become aware, but to inform them to look for people they may know who have problems with an eating disorder.
She is trying to reach out to all teenage girls around the world so they are aware of the different situations and what mass media is doing to some of them. Bordo is simply trying to teach the audience about eating disorders and explain that are dangerous, unhealthy, and unattractive. She is not directly blaming mass media such as television, magazines, and internet for the huge increase in eating disorders, but she definitely makes good points that this mass media has a huge impact on children and teenagers.
She demands the media to stop all of their nonsense in broadcasting shows such as Americas Next Top Model and posting pictures of unhealthy skinny models in different magazines. The other authors also plead their case with different countries and places like Indonesia and Asia and show that these places are definitely in the same boat as the U. S. This issue is very serious and Susan Bordo along with the other writers do a great job showing the negative effects. Eating disorders are a serious problem that are happening all over the world and spreading quickly.
Through mass media and changing cultures, more of these disorders are showing up. People need to realize that this is a global problem and not just a national issue in the United States, and we must try to help others struggling with this problem. Works Cited: Bordo, Susan. “The Globalization of Eating Disorders ?? Graham Menzies Foundation Weblog. ” Graham Menzies Foundation Weblog. Web. 14 Oct. 2010. <http://grahammenziesfoundation. wordpress. com/2008/02/24/the-globalization-of-eating-disorders/>. Haynie, Devon. “Feeding on Stereotypes – NAM. New America Media. Audrey Magazine, 9 June 2007. Web. 19 Oct. 2010. ;http://news. newamericamedia. org/news/view_article. html? article_id=d30c5f65043d8cba45c9fb98e3c8310f;. Sagita, Dessy. “More Women Become ‘Fashion Victims’ As Eating Disorders Spread in Indonesia. ” Jakarta Globe. Globe Media Group, 18 Aug. 2009. Web. 14 Oct. 2010. ;http://thejakartaglobe. com;. “Eating_disorders. ” Globalization 101: a Student’s Guide to Globalization. 9 Oct. 2009. Web. 14 Oct. 2010. <http://www. globalization101. org/news1/eating_disorders>.