Female Body Image & Eating Disorders

[Morpheus]

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/psycholog ... minist.htm

[Killer]

Fat women were once generally considered to be beautiful because that was seen as a sign of wealth.

[Post_industrial]

[jacobhaller]

We need to keep some perspective.

(1) America's most common physical disease is obesity, among both women and men. (2) America's most common psychological disease is overeating, among both women and men. (3) More than half of American women are overweight. More than two thirds of American men are overweight.

(4) American food industries have a vested interest in encouraging people to eat more; therefore they have a vested interest in convincing people who are overweight that they are underweight. and they have the political muscle too; they obtained subsidies and exemptions from taxes, labor laws, environmental laws, etc., they imposed food defamation laws, and long forced the NIH to use their industry-friendly weight guidelines.

I raised these issues before.

... yes, some people eat too little, but more people eat too much.

[Post_industrial]

[jacobhaller]

I was rather too strindent in my first post. I do find the 'healthy body image movement' bends over backwards to praise people who are overweight for having a healthy weight, and to condemn people who have a healthy weight for being underweight. I do take it personally. I am myself large-boned & stocky but not overweight, or underweight.

[Insecuritykiller]

Now girls are going to be all depressed about not being "healthy."

[Post_industrial]

Ive traveled around the world, central/south America, Europe mostly, and I noticed there were almost no obese people at all.

Americans realy are way way too fat in general. We eat shit food, and dont work the feilds or even do our own chores by hand (Mostly).

On the other hand, we also have women with obessive tendencies, starving themselves of vital nutrients becuase they have a warped view of their bodies.

Health is an important issue. We should take it seriously. Especialy as Americans who have more health problems then any other race of people on the planet, and the most expensive health care.

Im actualy studying medicine so that I can be a doctor for my fellow anarchists.

[Passing_through]

Ive traveled around the world, central/south America, Europe mostly, and I noticed there were almost no obese people at all.

I don't know, in Europe it is becoming an increasing problem as well. My generation as children (I am now in my twenties) were raised as seeing American society as the way to be.

Another thing is that, sadly, the fatty fried foods are on the up because people are getting poorer (because of a reasonably sized economy crash and a lack of money moving around) and the prices of greens are higher than the prices for pre-cooked dishes that usually contain a lot of fat, sugar and preservatives to make them appealing.

Because people have to work hard, they can't be arsed to cook for themselves and either have no time or no finances to cook a full healthy meal for their family. This means that especially in the poorer neighbourhoods obesity levels are rising.
Poor people also have no access to sports facilities or recreation. Therefore any weight they gain will stand little chance of ever being lost.
The problem is not so much with adults, or adolescents of my generation, the problem is mainly being seen in child obesity.

The uk and the netherlands have both started nationwide programs to inform people of the health risks of eating this type of food. the problem is that this will never do any good if you don't create a situation in which people have the time or the finances to eat healthily.

Basically if you want to put it cynically, you could say that when being bigger was fashionable was fashionable the poor were skinny and now being skinny is fashionable, the poor are fat.

On the feminist perspective on weight, I don't really know what to say.
I think that historically because of biology and attraction and all that, fashion has always been an issue, from the dawn of time some things have been found pretty and others weren't. If you read 1984 you find a society in which all sexuality and all "fashion" (read as things that are found pretty not things of commercial interest) have been ripped out of society. I don't like that type of society, I don't think it is a bad thing for a woman or a man to dress up or make up to make themselves look prettier once in a while. However when it takes on unhealthy extremes I do start to worry.

I kind of see obesity and anorexia as products of modern society, like the chicken, who, when amongst too many of their peers, start tearing each other apart, because we are unhappy about so many things subconsciously that we cant control, we start trying to control the things we can with as a side effect that these things get completely out of hand.

[K=x'uksami]

It's interesting how capitalism impacts mental health. I happen to suffer from low-level lipophilia (fat admiration) and have tried to figure out how to cure myself, which is hard because I don't know how I got it. It gives me a lot of shame, though.

[Insecuritykiller]

I'm sure we will make the dicision ourselves.

Being "healthy" is the most desirable choice.

We don't have to create standards.

[Passing_Through]

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?st ... mment98665

Interesting article on this subject

[Passing_Through]

apologies, you need to scroll up for the article :/

[Passing_Through]

and more:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/befit/story/0 ... .html?=rss

[Donald]

Now girls are going to be all depressed about not being "healthy."

I really have no patience for such people.