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Defying the Feminized Scale: Women Weighing in on Eating Problems from Cyberspace

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Date Issued:
2014
Summary:
Eating problems – compulsive eating, bulimia, and anorexia – have acquired a complicated symbolic significance that threatens the efficiency of prevention and treatments for such ailments. General and professional conceptualizations of “eating disorders” presume a very narrow and homogenous group of women i.e. young, white, middle-class, and heterosexual victims of a “culture of thinness” and other psychological and psychiatric pathologies Gremillion, 2003; Magnusson & Marecek, 2012; Menassa, 2004. Consequently, professional discourse, research, and treatment of “eating disorders” neglect and often dismiss the realities of Other women; i.e., minority women, women in other countries, working-class and poor women, older women, and queer women Nasser, Katzman, & Gordon, 2001; Orbach, 1998; Thompson, 1994. Using a critical feminist psychological approach, together with the stories of women “beyond the margins” of “eating disorders,” this study seeks to 1 dispel the damaging myths and stereotypes about eating problems, 2 uncover their embedded connections to systems of racist, sexist, imperialist, patriarchal, and class oppression, and 3 argue that by including all women’s experiences and their contextual interrelations through different systems of oppressions, we can accomplish a better, more complete and unbiased understanding of these ubiquitous and complex methods of coping that could guide the development of more efficient preventative and recovery treatments.
Title: Defying the Feminized Scale: Women Weighing in on Eating Problems from Cyberspace.
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Name(s): Baugh, Arely B., author
Graduate College
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Poster
Date Created: 2014
Date Issued: 2014
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Florida
Physical Form: pdf
Extent: 1 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Eating problems – compulsive eating, bulimia, and anorexia – have acquired a complicated symbolic significance that threatens the efficiency of prevention and treatments for such ailments. General and professional conceptualizations of “eating disorders” presume a very narrow and homogenous group of women i.e. young, white, middle-class, and heterosexual victims of a “culture of thinness” and other psychological and psychiatric pathologies Gremillion, 2003; Magnusson & Marecek, 2012; Menassa, 2004. Consequently, professional discourse, research, and treatment of “eating disorders” neglect and often dismiss the realities of Other women; i.e., minority women, women in other countries, working-class and poor women, older women, and queer women Nasser, Katzman, & Gordon, 2001; Orbach, 1998; Thompson, 1994. Using a critical feminist psychological approach, together with the stories of women “beyond the margins” of “eating disorders,” this study seeks to 1 dispel the damaging myths and stereotypes about eating problems, 2 uncover their embedded connections to systems of racist, sexist, imperialist, patriarchal, and class oppression, and 3 argue that by including all women’s experiences and their contextual interrelations through different systems of oppressions, we can accomplish a better, more complete and unbiased understanding of these ubiquitous and complex methods of coping that could guide the development of more efficient preventative and recovery treatments.
Identifier: FA00005136 (IID)
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Sublocation: FAU Digital Library
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00005136
Restrictions on Access: Author retains copyright.
Host Institution: FAU