Cultural Aspects in Developing Eating Disorders - Essay Example

?Critically discuss the extent to which cultural emphasis upon thinness and associated scrutiny on weight, shape and eating behavior can be blamed for the development of eating disorders: Eating disorders in the present contemporary times have become one of the major global challenges. These disorders are not anymore a part of the developed world only. Countries where eating disorders have become a big issue include but are not limited to the US, the UK, Australia and Canada. General consensus is that principal factors which influence the public’s attitudes towards food include cultural, social, individual, genetic, and familial factors. Eating is perceived differently in different cultures. While in some cultures food is fundamentally considered a source of pleasure, in others food is considered a necessity for survival. There are two most widely researched and most popular kinds of eating disorders namely Bulimia Nervosa (BN) and Anorexia Nervosa (AN). BN leads to obesity while AN leads to a famished appearance. Obesity caused by BN poses threat to a person’s health by causing cardiovascular issues, while AN poses threat to human health by taking away all energy which is required to carry out daily activities. Both are extreme consequences of excessive cultural emphasis upon perfect physical appearance. This essay aims at critically discussing the impact produced by cultural emphasis on eating behavior and physical appearance on many levels to augment this argument that cultural forces play a staggering role in the development of eating disorders. The condition of eating disorders in the UK is very bad. It is claimed in a recent study that “more than 1.6 million people in the UK are affected by eating disorders” (Munt, 2013). Bulimia and nervosa were thought to be a component of the Western culture. But as things started to shift with increased acceptance of Western ideas and attitudes by the developing world, eating disorders became prominent too. This is because all eating disorders are essentially connected to cultural factors. A staggering increase in the number of overweight or obese people especially in youth has been noticed with the growth of the popular culture and excessive reliance of the food industry on the processed and packed foods. Eating behavior has shifted from healthy homemade food to fatty junk or processed food. To cap the matters, there are many aspects of fast food culture which make this more relevant for the present modern society. These aspects are related to cost effectiveness and time-friendly nature. These aspects are known by all and they motivate the very busy people to make fast food an essential part of their lives. It is suggested that the relationship between cultural influences and disordered eating needs to be researched more to unravel more facts (Agras, 2010, p. 243). Promotion of fast food by the media has drastically affected the eating behavior and contributed to fast development of eating disorders like bulimia and nervosa. It is due to revolutionized eating behavior that people today are willing to add kilos to their weight if a little time could be saved in the present fiercely competitive times. No one has any time to spare and fast food is a captivating option available to all at easily affordable prices. This sort of cultural attitude has changed the eating behavior of the public at large for the worse (Fairburn & Brownell, 2002, p. 254). The heavy and destructive contribution made by cultural forces in development of eating disorders cannot be denied. This is because the research also suggests that if the present trends in respect to eating “continue by 2015, approximately 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese” (News Medical, 2011). These statistics highlight the fundamental role played by cultural factors which support the overwhelming consumption of fast food in either junk or processed form. Fast food culture has produced a preponderant effect on the entire society and not a single person seems to be from the clutches of this culture. When such a domineering role is played by this culture in shaping the eating behavior of the people, cases of bulimia and obesity are bound to increase by stupendous numbers. In addition to objectionable reliance on readymade commercial food, there are other factors playing an active role on other extreme of the scale. This means that while some people consider food to be an excellent pastime and indulge in it as often as possible, the number of such people especially Americans who are hopelessly weight conscious has also increased (Lewis, 2006, p. 83). Such people consider food their enemy and just take a bite now or then to survive. These are the victims of anorexia and are called anorexics. If advertisements, giant billboards, and other media forces can promote junk food, they can also promote a non-eating behavior in the society. “Sociocultural influences, such as unrealistically thin media images” (Mazzeo & Bulik, 2009, p. 68) have provoked the incidence of both types of eating disorders. Before discussing how media has instigated the probability rate of anorexia, it is important to mention that the modern age is driven by fashion and style. Everyday people all over the world witness myriad slim and smart models through different entertainment media. The more we see them, the more strongly conscious we become of our personal physical appearance. This obsessive consciousness has cultivated a culture of starvation and excessive physical workout with least emphasis upon a balanced diet. This sort of culture has been responsible for promoting the development of anorexia. Research identifies anorexia to be exact opposite of the other eating behavior which compels people to eat regardless of consequences in terms of health or body shape. In anorexia, in contrast, people are totally unconcerned about both “obesity and out-of-control dieting” (MedicineNet, 2011). The ordeal for a person stemming from this eating disorder starts off with dieting, but gradually the loss of weight becomes a symbol of control. The roots of popular culture which encourages people to devote themselves to weird eating patterns are so deeply entrenched in our society that now, totally revolutionizing the society or the public mindset is totally impossible. Both fast food and fashion have central importance in the structure of the modern lifestyle and lend stability to it. Without excessive reliance on fast food and fashion, the survival of Western culture is impossible because both are closely connected. This cultural paradox has created a state of acute dissonance and promoted development of bulimia and nervosa. On one hand, processed food tastes way better, is easily available, and all youth essentially relies on it. On the other hand, people particularly women of all ages have become very conscious about how they physically appear over the last decade. There is dating and there are other sociocultural events too all of which execute huge burdens on women especially because regardless of how men look, women should be perfect physically. The important point to remember is that many pressures created by society for the women inculcates a kind of pathological ambitiousness in them to avoid food (Lain, 2007). Apart from the society, this is also because of the way beauty is portrayed and defined by the media. In an attempt to attain the kind of ideal figure which is promoted by the media, many people fall prey to anorexia. This weird fascination with the ideal figure has made people from all backgrounds go all the way through to reach their unhealthy objectives. In such a culture where huge emphasis is laid on exterior beauty, eating disorders like BN and AN are exposing more and more people various kinds of complications and illnesses. Instead of improving anything, they end up ruining an individual’s looks as well as his/her relationship with the society. The craze to attain the ideal figure knows no boundaries and ultimately drives the people mad. They refuse to eat anything in healthy proportions and end up looking like skeletons thinking they look beautiful. Their psyches get distorted and their sense of perception gets clinically suppressed due to which they are unable to realize the facts. It is quite unfortunate how after months and even years of starvation when the results are not as expected, people resort to depression then. General assumption is that anorexia differs from bulimia in that it is a disease which is largely self-cultivated because of wrong perception of one’s physical image. A person fixated on starving him/herself due to anorexia thinks that he/she is too fat and needs to starve in order to shed off the unnecessary hideous fats. In the process of achieving an ideal figure and getting rid of fats, the weight becomes too less for the age and height of people engaged in this practice. However, the vicious cycle does not end at any point because the patient goes on thinking that he/she should not eat because if he/she does, weight would be gained instantly and looks would be ruined consequentially which are already ruined beyond recognition. Methods commonly employed to lose weight include but are not limited to excessive reliance on exercise, dieting and medication. Anorexia came into existence when owing to cultural changes which have occurred over the last decade, more and more young females began to idealize extremely slim and smart women. Heroin chic movement is a popular fashion movement which promoted famished models who had hollow cheeks and very conspicuous dark circles under their eyes. A gaunt look got promoted as was intended by the ignorant fashion designers as a result (Rizzo, 2001). Slimness became the measure of beauty, and to be called beautiful, a woman had to be necessarily thin. This explains why much of the history of anorexia is constructed by the looks conscious culture. That is also the reason why this particular eating disorder is more common today than it has ever been in the past because interest in fashion has anything but slowed down. Another evidence for the role of culture in the spread of anorexia nervosa is that a vast majority of the victims of this disease are models from the fashion industry. This makes them trendsetters for the rest of the public. These trendsetters have promoted this idea that in the contemporary age, to be thin is to be fashionable. It is because of this ideology that anorexia is widely known to be a socially transmitted disease (Reuters, 2012). Because media advocates slimness so fiercely, myriad slimming techniques are employed by countless people to achieve the desired figure. Media is a critically important part of everyone’s life in the modern era. It has laid much emphasis on exercise and fitness through conducting many fashion shows which has naturally created an urge in the public to become smart. This culture has modified eating habits accordingly increasing a person’s susceptibility to acquire anorexia nervosa (Public Health, 2012). In addition to fashion media which encourages less and less reliance on food, bulimia is encouraged by a tremendous increase in the number of junk food making restaurants. Unfortunately, the modern heating habits that fundamentally employ the use of junk food are quite favorable for the development of obesity particularly in the youth. Actually, media is influenced by the culture of a country and the American or Western culture promotes both overeating and drastically less eating. It promotes extremes of eating behavior refusing to acknowledge the importance of moderation. This on one hand has made many people obese and on other hand has reduced many to mere skeletons. Wanting to look like the attractive people promoted by media even works to enhance the obesity. This is because though people derive their motivation to starve from the models in an attempt to become more attractive, they unfortunately end up eating more out of hunger and frustration. A modern woman’s biggest concern is being able to maintain a smart physique. However, many women fall short of realizing this dream which leads them either in direction of bulimia or anorexia. It is a harsh reality that the society expects women to be smart and beautiful. But when they fail to meet the standards laid out for them by the society, they get wrapped up in a state of depression and anxiety. It is for this reason that research suggests that when women experience excessive cultural pressure to stay thin and attractive, they report a higher than usual rate of body dissatisfaction throughout their lives (Tiggemann, cited in Segar et al., 2006, p. 181). It is a sad reality that most Americans today have become a part of the culture where huge emphasis is laid by media on junk food and a solid fashion sense. “Not only do the media glorify a slender ideal, they also emphasize its importance” (Spettigue & Henderson, 2004, p. 17). There is such cultural mentality that fast food is considered as something that should be welcomed to comply with the standards of the modernistic life style. Both BN and AN are very common in the US due to a very fast daily routine. This is because the Americans generally remain too busy to find time to make food in home for themselves. Also life has become more and more mechanical and in order to manage the expenses, people have to work as much and as often as they can. This leads to excessive dependence on easy ways of eating food regardless of their grave repercussions. These are the kinds of traits of the American culture which make Americans fatter than non-American people. It is this cultural ideology which has spread from the US to the rest of the world and created turbulence everywhere in reference to eating behavior and health attitudes. There is an abnormal urge to adopt modernity noticed in the developing countries too which has convinced the people there to increase their reliance on the junk food. This sort of eating behavior, regardless of it leading to bulimia, also suits business men and women because it saves all their time which they would otherwise be spending in preparing meals. Thus, the unhealthy eating habits have become so fundamental to the modern way of life that it seems almost impossible to set them right now. Concluding, both bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa are serious health problems. On both sides of the extreme, a person’s life is at stake. A growing population around the world is becoming the sorry victim of bulimia and nervosa due to huge cultural emphasis laid on eating behaviors and physical appearance. There are many effects produced by the wide-spread beauty obsession on the youth of America as discussed above and the nature of those effects proves the reality of the claim that cultural factors significantly contribute to the development of different eating disorders. With fashion contests being conducted so often and advertisements so heavily focusing on promoting junk food, the youth and women in particular, who are a part of Western culture, are fast becoming victims of bulimia and anorexia. Together the youth and women make the two biggest social groups which play an active role in making these contests and advertisement agencies successful. This mush remains true that the physical appearance is heavily influenced by the cultural trends prevalent in the country. References: Agras, W.S. (2010). The Oxford Handbook of Eating Disorders. Oxford University Press. Fairburn, C.G., & Brownell, K.D. (2002). Eating Disorders and Obesity: A Comprehensive Handbook. Guilford Press. Lain. (2007, Dec 14). Societal Pressures Drive Young Women to Eating Disorders. YAHOO! Voices. Retrieved from http://voices.yahoo.com/societal-pressures-drive-young-women-eating-disorders-697219.html?cat=5 Lewis, R.D. (2006). When Cultures Collide: Leading Across Cultures : a Major New Edition of the Global Guide. Nicholas Brealey Publishing. Mazzeo, S.E., & Bulik, C.M. (2009). Environmental and genetic risk factors for eating disorders: What the clinician needs to know. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 18(1), 67–82. MedicineNet. (2011). Anorexia Nervosa. Retrieved from http://www.medicinenet.com/anorexia_nervosa/article.htm Munt, T. (2013, Nov 07). Eating disorders kill more people than any other mental illness - and it's time we took them more seriously. MIRROR NEWS. Retrieved from http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/eating-disorders-kill-more-people-2686740 News Medical. (2011). What is Obesity? Retrieved from http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Obesity.aspx Public Health. (2012, May 21). EATING DISORDERS: WOMEN’S INCREASED VULNERABILITY AS A BYPRODUCT OF BIOLOGY AND SOCIETY. Yale Journal of Medicine and Law. Retrieved from http://www.yalemedlaw.com/2012/05/eating-disorders-women%E2%80%99s-increased-vulnerability-as-a-byproduct-of-biology-and-society/ Reuters. (2012, Mar 02). ‘Socially transmitted’ anorexia: Peer pressure drives eating disorders, study finds. FOX NEWS. Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/03/02/socially-transmitted-anorexia-peer-pressure-drives-eating-disorders-study-finds/ Rizzo, M. (2001). Embodying Withdrawal: Abjection and the Popularity of Heroin Chic. Retrieved from http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?cc=mfsfront;c=mfs;c=mfsfront;idno=ark5583.0015.004;rgn=main;view=text;xc=1;g=mfsg Segar, M., Spruijt-Metz, D., & Nolen-Hoeksema, (2006). Go Figure? Body-Shape Motives are Associated with Decreased Physical Activity Participation Among Midlife Women. Sex Roles, 54(3), 175-187. Spettigue, W., & Henderson, K.A. (2004). Eating Disorders and the Role of the Media. Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 13(1), 16–19. Read More