Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

Eliza Filipowski

 

Mirror, Mirror on the wall, my friends are all beautiful, why don’t they see this for themselves? One friend’s boyfriend constantly reminds her that he likes to see ribs, so she often chooses corn-on-the-cob as her entire dinner meal. My friends all comment on Friend #2’s choice of clothes - they are always tight-fitting; she is what many would call overweight, but I would call beautiful and always admire the confidence with which she appears to wear her clothes. Friend #3 was hospitalized one semester in college for dehydration due to bulimia. Friend #4 was hospitalized one summer for low blood pressure as a result of anorexia. Friend #5 vomits after every dinner claiming she has a weak stomach. After eight weeks at fat camp each summer, Friend #6 struggles to keep off the weight but ends up gaining more than she lost. Friend #7 is addicted to laxatives, plans to get liposuction in two years, and probably won’t be able to join me in Spain this summer because she knows she won’t eat anything there because it all contains fat. Friend #8 has stopped drinking socially because of alcohol’s high carbohydrate contents. And Friend #9 cannot go a day without exercise. Ironically, she wonders how her teenage sister ever got the idea of needing to be thinner and became anorexic. And these are just a FEW of my friends who have disordered habits.

 

Anorexia Nervosa is characterized by a pathological fear of weight gain leading to faulty eating patterns, malnutrition, and usually excessive weight loss. Bulimia Nervosa is characterized by periods of binging (extreme overindulgence in food) followed by purging, which often includes induced vomiting. Compulsive Overeating is characterized as an "addiction" to food, using food and eating as a way to hide, and Binge Eating is characterized by large binges, consuming an unusually large quantity of food in a short period of time (less than 2 hours) uncontrollably, eating until one is uncomfortably full. While I am not a doctor, and while doctors themselves do not always catch all eating disorders, in just my circle of friends, I can say that half of them battle food in their lives. Since many people with eating disorders are never diagnosed by a professional, statistical data can be misinterpreted. However, a few U.S. figures show that 44% of female students (ages 14-20) and 15% of male students are on diets. 21% of female students use diet pills and 14% have tried induced vomiting. Anorexia peaks between ages13-15 and 18-20, while the onset of bulimia peaks at 16-17. Causes of eating disorders can be low self-esteem, emotional difficulties, stress, depression, and the need to take control of one’s life or control things in one’s life. I believe that society’s creation of the ideal body image is partially to blame as an indirect contributor to the various causes of eating disorders. Exposure to the ideal body image and our constant emphasis on our physical appearance begins at an early age for children. Thus, this exposure at an early age contributes to the imbedded visions of this cultural prototype. Between idolizing figurines such as Barbie and Ken, and the media’s obsession and objectification of the body, particularly the female body, children fall into the traps and consequences of believing the myth that the perfect body exists and is obtainable.

 

In the last Westchester NOW meeting I attended, we discussed a letter written by a sixteen year old who was disturbed by a magazine soap ad depicting two young children of about five years in age. The boy and the girl were only wearing shorts. The girl also wore a band of some sort around her chest. This conveys to the viewer that the girl is old enough to have something to hide, aging her by a few years. Yet is the message to make girls want to feel older, mature and sexy, like women? Or is it to make women want to look younger, thinner, and cute like little girls? What are men and boys then left to think?

 

These images and messages are constantly flashed in front of us. Out of 400 to 600 ads in magazines, billboards, TV, and newspapers, 1 in 11 has a direct message about beauty. And that is just DIRECT! Indirect messages are woven intricately through almost every ad.  Furthermore, the average female model weighs 25% less than the typical woman and is 15-20% below a healthy bodyweight. Let’s face it; we know that the messages in mass communication are not going to change overnight.

 

So, what can we do? We need to change the messages we personally give to people, especially children. We can admit that food is an important aspect of our culture and that too will not change. However, we can stop using food as a punishment or reward for children. Children should be rewarded (or punished) with affection and positive attention (or constructive criticism). We need to constantly remind them that Barbie and Ken are not real and that the media distorts and exaggerates images of real life. We need to be more conscious of our comments to others, especially when we first greet them. We need to de-emphasize society’s values on appearance. One way to start is by eliminating greetings to friends or acquaintances such as, “You look like you lost (gained) weight!” Also, think twice about agreeing with someone when they say they need to lose weight. Instead of saying, “Yeah, I need to lose weight too!” think about where that person’s comments are really coming from. How are they feeling about themselves when saying this? Why might they be saying this? Inquire and try to get to the root of the alleged “weight problem.”

 

While there may be rumors that Janet Jackson had a few ribs removed to decrease her waistline and Britney Spears had breast implants, it is not a rumor that we as a society are overly concerned with appearances. Malnutrition, osteoporosis, dental problems, infertility, heart disease, depression, and death are often the awful consequences of eating disorders. Since the overemphasis of society’s idea of beauty can contribute to the causes of these disorders, we need to de-emphasize. Mirror, Mirror on the wall, let us focus on good mental and physical health and broadcast the truth that the perfect body is only a myth.

 

(Statistics quoted from the Center for Disease Control publication, "Nutrition Throughout the Life Cycle," edited by Bonnie Worthington-Roberts and Sue Williams. For more information about the sources used for this article, please contact the author. ) ¨