Response to "The Globalization of Eating Disorders"

Outline of article

. I. Introduction
. A. Fictional story about a self conscience girl
. B. Reanalysis of story with girl as an African American
. 1. Media dominated by Anglo-Saxon cultural values
. 2. African women have a different body types than seen in media
. 3. Inference that the popularity of eating disorders stems from media pressures
. II. Evidence
. A.Nigerian facts
. 1. Nigerian women were not accepted by general media at first
. 2. A Nigerian with "ideal" features won Miss World
. 3. After Miss World victory, Nigerian idea of physical beauty changed
. B. Fiji facts
. 1. few eating disorders before 1995/TV
. 2. increase in eating disorders after 1995/TV
. C. Asian facts
. 1. Asian readers claim no eating disorder their culture
. 2. recent statistics show Asian is affected by the pop culture eating disorder epidemic
. D. Male facts
. 1. Men are affected by pop-culture pressures
. 2. Eating disorders and steroid use have seen an increase
. III. Conclusion
. A. Acknowledgment of this problem is needed
. B. Media weighs in to much during a young person's education


Response

Short summary. This essay starts out with an introduction that tries to but you in the shoes of this young girl. She is self conscience about her image based on the media pressures she feels. Then the author takes a step back and reanalyzes the girl, first acknowledging the stereotype that this girl is a white middle class girl with money to spare; then it is changed to the perspective indicative of struggling minority. The point being that more than one demographic and more than one culture is affected by eating disorders. In Nigeria it was not a truly popular to be thin until a Nigerian contestant featuring "ideal" qualities won the Miss World pageant. While Fiji did not have easy access to the world culture web until the arrival of the TV station in 1995. Immediately after the introduction of pop-culture to the island eating disorders saw a sharp increase among the female population. The effect of mass media on Asian culture was not realized until very recently where new statistics finding an increased occurrence of eating disorders among young Asian women. Even men feel the media pressure to reach an idealized physical standard, these men have seen an increased use of steroids and unhealthy eating habits over the past years. The author closes explaining that for a solution to be identified for this global eating disorder epidemic that we must first acknowledge that there is a cross culturally problem sweeping our youth and that the media is a clear propellant of its effect and spread.

This article states some very interesting points about the cultural boundaries crossed by the current eating disorder epidemic. The transition during the introduction from what an average reader might expect to imagine to a wider perspective image showed a lack of balance in how this eating disorder problem is perceived. The author is right to make the point that not all people afflicted by eating disorders are white upper class girls, indeed this problem affects all races and genders. The author draws the conclusion that the unrealistic physical pressure that the media places on young people is directly linked to the increase in eating disorders seen around the world. But why do certain people succumb to this outside pressures while others retain a calm composure when met with it? The only hypothesis I could put forward is that we all cling to different value systems, acceptance and adoration are not a lesser sources of personal happiness, but nothing is free and some people beat themselves up too much and put too much of themselves on the line in order to meet these criteria. Keeping in mind that value systems are learned and we are not born with them, the limitless standards set forth by the current media setup is teaching individuals at a younger and younger age that happiness stems from these values. The author address this point in the conclusion but offers no clear solution to the current problem but rather just amends that getting the word out is the first thing that needs to be done. Now while I agree that knowledge is power in a situation, simply knowing that they have a problem will not fix the problem of these young people because it does not address the original problem they themselves feel when they try fitting in to their culture.