We, in the West live in an image conscious culture, which urges all of us (especially women) to improve our appearance. Although eating disorders are stereotyped as being western cultured mental illnesses this does not necessarily mean that they do not exist on the other side of the world in developing countries. “Eating disorders are characterised by an abnormal attitude towards food that causes someone to change their eating habits and behaviour.” (NHS Homepage) They usually develop in teenagers around the ages of 16 and 17. Teenage girls are particularly affected by eating disorders because of media images describing a size zero model of having the “perfect body” giving a narrow definition …show more content…
of beauty. In my research I have cut down the broad spectrum of eating disorders and concentrated on Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. Anorexia is defined as “when someone tries to keep their weight as low as possible, for example by starving themselves or exercising excessively” (NHS website) whereas Bulimia is “when someone tries to control their weight by binge eating and then deliberately being sick or using laxatives (medication to help empty their bowels)” (NHS website). During my research I have found that bulimia is in fact five times more common that Anorexia and 90% of people with bulimia are women (DMH eating disorder statistics). Throughout this essay I will define culture-bound and universal and compare ideas and opinions of journalists on whether anorexia and bulimia are culture-bound or not.
People with eating disorders use food as an attempt to compensate for their feelings and emotions that they may find over-whelming (National Eating Disorders Association, 20/03/13). For someone with an eating disorder dieting and binging is a common way of coping with their emotions. These disorders are heavily affect people’s everyday lives shown by factors such as low self-esteem, feeling inadequate and having a lack of control of their own lives and often struggle from other problems such as depression, anxiety, anger and loneliness. Anorexia in particular can be recognised by someone refusing to maintain minimum body weight, having a loss of menstrual periods, extreme concern with body weight and shape and will also pick up on symptoms such as headaches, fainting, dry skin and constantly feeling cold. On the other hand bulimia can be recognised by repeated binging and throwing up. My research has found that people with bulimia tend to eat more than their stomach can hold making it easier for them to throw it up afterwards (teens health 24/03/13). It is a lot harder to tell if someone is bulimic than anorexic as they are still eating normally but secretly throwing up food afterwards.
Furthermore, many psychiatrists have been left wondering if eating disorders are universal or culture-bound. Universal is something relating to, extending to, or affecting the entire world or all within the world. (Free dictionary) whereas culture bound is a health condition that is specific to a particular culture, such as a belief in the effects of certain kinds of prayer or the "evil eye” (Free dictionary). Since people are brought up so differently we can assume that lifestyles and resources will affect people in different ways and different mental illnesses will arise because of it. But many mental illnesses, such as eating disorders, are found in every district of the world suggesting that mental illnesses are actually not culture bound at all. (Keel and Klump, 2003) In fact in the article by Haeffel in 2009 he quotes that everyone in the world “share a common genome brain organisation and capacity for cognition, perception and emotion”. This statement suggests that many people are exactly the same. They may think in different ways and act differently towards diverse situations but do not necessarily have to be in the same country or region to have the same or a similar mental illness.
Although eating disorders may be found on a more regular basis in the West it does not mean to ignore the many that have them on the East. American psychology concentrates its research on the basic human processes for example the way people react to different situations which could help to find new mental illnesses in the future. In contrast to this, studies have shown that Chinese psychiatrists argued that anorexia only existed in the United States until 1985 and refused to believe that Chinese people could have the same train of thought and mind process as someone from the United States. After 1985 psychologists saw cases of anorexia, bulimia and binge eating arising in countries such as Japan, South Korea and Russia (Watters E. 2010) because of media becoming more available due to developments in the globalization. Dr Lee suggested that after the death of a young girl in Hong-Kong was publicised he went from having 2-3 patients a year to seeing new cases every week. Each article and journal made about these disorders made people unconsciously aware of the disorder and therefore making it more likely to be able for them to develop it and use as a comfort mechanism to help with their problems. (Watters E. 2010) Many writers suggest that eating disorders are culture-bound of “western-society” (Hopton, 2011). There are a large number of teenage girls in western-society that suffer from eating disorders. Although research focus’ on the western-society it does not mention any reference to the young teenagers in the rest of the world with eating disorders. In western-society it has been recorded at up to 10% of young women between the ages of 10-16 have an eating disorder (Hopton, 2011). Hopton shows statistics of the West but no real research has been put in to look at the number of teenagers with eating disorders on the East it may not be as high as 10% in every country but they still exist and help is needed to recover. Although anorexia is a modern western society problem it is also known as a “historically continuous phenomenon” (Hopton 2011) for the rest of the world. Suggesting that it may be more of a problem in the West but it is still a continuous problem occurring in developing countries regardless of strong religions, beliefs or different backgrounds. Many people think that eating disorders are higher in developed countries because of the craving to look more attractive, the attention to media and size zero models. But another problem is made clearer by the amount of food available; making people feel like the want and need for food is low. Conflicting with this are people living in developing countries where food is scarce so they eat when they can. Although, this can be deceiving for people with the disorders by making their gaunt figure look like a lack of food rather than a mental illness.
The narrow definition of the “perfect body” in the West suggests that only women with size zero bodies and men with muscly, toned bodies are seen as attractive and desirable and that appearance over-rules inner beauty. This stereotyped body is advertised in magazines such as Vogue and Elle as well as seeing the desirable bodies from celebrities such as Kate Moss and David Beckham. This makes young teenagers aspire to be these celebrities and models they see every day in magazines without knowing that many of these celebrities have also struggled with eating disorders themselves. Some examples of these celebrities are Princess Diana, Audrey Hepburn and Elton John who struggled with either anorexia or bulimia for a number of years during their career because of cultural pressures from the media.
On the other hand, research suggests that universal aspects can start or affect eating disorders. Many teenagers go through either problems at school or at home, for example troubled family and personal relationships can leave young teenagers feeling like they have no one to talk which could lead onto difficulty expressing emotions and feelings which is a common problem within many teenagers. By keeping emotions inside it leads to over thinking situations and imagining a situation at its worst rather than talking about positive outcomes. Another example of a universal cause is a history of being teased based of size or weight. This is a common occurrence at schools and at work places where people are judged on appearance instead of inner qualities. A constant feeling of self-consciousness can affect relationships and talking to anyone. These are cases of universal problems because these can happen to all teenagers or young adults. It is not just in the West that stories are found about bullying and people suffering from depression and anxiety.
As media has developed and travelled to the East it has shown an increase in eating disorders and a higher obsession with having a skinnier body. In the modern day, Hong-Kong’s subway is covered in advertisements for cellulite-removing cream and appetite repressed supplements (Watters E. 2010) promoting the image of women with nothing other than skin and bones. These advertisements often show before and after pictures to persuade people to fall into the trap of thinking that they want the size zero figure and only valuing people by appearance. As China becomes a more developed country the culture changes with it, it is becoming more and more like a western society. Since eating disorders are increasing because of media and country developments this is suggesting that eating disorders are more culture-bound. Not because anorexia and bulimia do not exist in developing countries just because they are more common in developed countries where access to media and celebrity news is everyday life. The culture of media and celebrity news is an important part of everyday society so in that respect increased eating disorders are also part of that increasing culture on the East. In isolated areas of the developing world where there is no electricity or transport, families tend to be bigger and living in a smaller community. Family members can help the person with an eating disorder by spending all of their time ensuring they have what they need to get better whereas, in developed countries families are smaller and can live in different cities, even countries leaving young people with less support and would be less noticeable is someone did develop an eating disorder. In my research I have found that one in two hundred women in America suffer from anorexia but even more shockingly bulimia is five times more common than anorexia and 90% of people with bulimia are women. As it turns out only one in ten people with eating disorders receive treatment (DMH eating disorder statistics, 22/03/13). This shows that people are in fact hiding their eating disorders from other people. It is not something they want everyone to know as it can be embarrassing for them and they believe no one will understand. They also see themselves as overweight whereas in reality they are just skin and bones and do not meet their minimum weight requirements for their age, height and sex.
Around 1 in 250 women and 1 in 2000 men experience anorexia or bulimia which usually develops around the age of 16 or 17 when people start puberty.
Their bodies start to change and they become more self-aware of themselves and their appearance. This is also the age that people start to break away from relying on their parents and start to become their own person who may start bullying or picking on others because of their appearance. Although, in my research I found that eating disorder cases would be more unlikely in countries such as China because of their beliefs, for example “being able to eat is to have good luck”, “gaining weight means good fortune” and “fat people have more luck” (Watters E. 2010) Suggesting that eating disorders are more culture-bound because Chinese culture is against skinny model girls and encourages people to eat more than less. Research has shown that although eating disorders are increasing rapidly in China now, before media and globalization occurred people found themselves wanting to put on weight rather than lose it. Since globalization, research suggest that between 3 and 10% of young people have an eating disorder and children as young as 10 have been starving themselves since media has been writing articles on the disorder. (Watters E.
2010)
After all of my research I cannot suggest that eating disorders are culture-bound or not. It seems likely that there are many different answers to the subject and until further research is carried out there is no correct answer. It is unfortunate to see that anorexia and bulimia are on the rise and will not stop rising for a long time due to globalisation and need and want for the “perfect body”. It is also horrible to see that “50% of girls between the ages of 11 and 13 see themselves as overweight” (DMH, eating disorder statistics) suggesting early signs of self-conscious girls who may develop an eating disorder in the future. After researching both universal and culture-bound there is no clear answer to whether or not eating disorders will ever be one or the other due to the many reasons conflicting views. This topic has helped me to understand the different problems and solutions to different cultures eating disorders and the damages eating disorders can have to the individual as well as to the family.
References
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