Eating disorders and body image

Eating disorders and body image - Anorexia nervosa, body Image, Bulimia

• Developing a therapeutic alliance in an Eating Disorders Unit, by Ruth Surtees, Kai Tiaki Nursing, November 2007, vol 13, no 10

• The end of the skinny runway model- WHW Dec 2006
• Tangled web: skinny sisters in cyberspace - WHW Dec 2002
• Promoting pale- WHU Jan 1999
• Breast related body image - Young New Zealand women talk about their breasts - WHW Sept 1997
• Eating Disorders- 1998 From Women's Health Action Event "Young Women, are They in Trouble?"

See also Diet and Weight

The end of the skinny runway model?

December 2006 Women's Health Watch

Tangled web: skinny sisters in cyberspace

December 2002 Women's Health Watch

While feminist groups have been campaigning for years to encourage young women to accept their body shape and reject media pressures to be thin, a disturbing new trend in eating disorders has emerged. Cordelia Lockett looks at this on-line phenomenon.

A number of pro-anorexia and bulimia websites have sprung up as platforms of 'support' for young women with eating difficulties. The sites contain chat rooms and message-boards, advice and diet tips - including lists of 'safe foods' and how to conceal an eating disorder from family and friends. Like the old Elle McPherson picture stuck to the fridge, images of thin models and actors serve to discourage the site-users from eating by reminding them exactly how far from 'perfection' they are. They also have links to 'calorie counter' sites where visitors can type in their food intake in neat tables and charts....Read More

Promoting pale

January 1999 Women's Health Watch

New Zealand women are heading message about the dangers of the sun, but only slowly, says Belinda McLean of the Cancer Society.

'Hey, I'm going to die some day, so what?', 'My daughter sees the beach and thinks "cover up" ; I think "slip off"', 'Nothing you say will make me stop tanning'; these were some of the comments showing a deep dedication to tanning by women taking part in recent Cancer Society research.

Women say they believe that a tan makes them look slimmer, sexier, healthier and enables them to wear revealing clothes. A tan makes the body look more 'toned' and is 'camouflage' for perceived defects like varicose veins....Read More

Breast related body image - Young New Zealand women talk about their breasts

September 1997 Women's Health Watch

University Otago Medical student Susan Macleod and lecturer Connie Logan talk about the findings of their study, 'Adolescent Women's Body Image: Factors Affecting How Young Women View Their Breasts.'

Considerable research over the past decades has focused on how women feel about their shape, particularly in regard to issues of weight. Yet little has been written about the effect breast size and shape have on young women's self esteem. Breasts, like bodies, come in a wide range of different sizes and shapes - the most desirable of which is dictated by fashion...

Although most of the participants tended to feel positive about themselves in general (over 50% were moderately or very positive about themselves, their physical ability, and their breasts), self--consciousness was a problem for these young women. Three-quarters of the women interviewed indicated that they had been embarrassed because of their breasts. They tended to limit what clothing they would wear and which activities they would pursue to avoid being noticed....Read More

Eating Disorders facilitated by Robyn Moore

1998

From Women's Health Action Mini Conference "Young Women, are They in Trouble?"

Notes to the facilitated Discussion

Most of the facilitated discussion uncovered issues and themes that are commonly known. The workshop provided the forum to re-visit the issue of Eating disorders and young women's health. What was acknowledged in the group is that young women are still being victimised and pressured to conform to societal ideals' about beauty and ideal body image.

The accumulated effect is that young women compromise their physical, mental and spiritual well being through regulatory dieting regimes and smoking. The pressures for young women to conform to societal ideals' are perpetuated by the media and enforced through peer and family control. What the group feels is needed is to place more resources into the promotion of health messages and information which assist young women to make healthy and positive decisions and increase their ability to construct positive images about themselves and each other...Read More