Does our culture support eating disorders? How do they?
It absolutely and unequivocally supports eating disorders. The ideal for female beauty has lost a substantial percentage of normal, healthy body weight every decade since the 1970s or so, until the women currently considered beautiful are actually rather severely underweight. There was a time when a woman–not a girl–of 5’6″ was considered a healthy weight if she was 130 pounds or so. Now many people consider that fat. You check the stats of centerfolds, and they’re like 5’9″ and 115 pounds, which is seriously underweight for most women of that height. On some women, of course, that level of slimness is natural and is healthy for them. But women and girls who don’t happen to have that body type are made to feel inadequate and unattractive. They starve themselves–or hate themselves. It’s also interesting to note that the basic slim body type, with long legs, narrow hips, and a poorly defined waist also tends to come with small breasts, so implants are incredibly popular as well.
