Should Skinny Model Stereotypes be Banned to Prevent Bulimia and Anorexia in Adolescents (Essay Sample)

Should skinny model stereotypes be banned to prevent bulimia and anorexia in adolescents?
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Should skinny model stereotypes be banned to prevent bulimia and anorexia in adolescents?
Abstract
Bulimia and Anorexia nervosa are the two most recognized eating disorders. Patients with these disorders often go to extreme measures to control their weight, including taking abnormally little food, vomiting after meals and using misusing laxatives in order to avoid gaining weight. Both these disorders are psychiatric conditions that take a heavy toll on the body by occasioning biochemical derangements, upsetting the hormonal balance and reducing the body’s immunity. They both have a connection with societal perceptions of beauty. This could be occasioned by the glorification of slim models by society. This paper debates whether or not banning skinny model stereotypes is able to prevent bulimia and anorexia. First an objective view of the risk factors for anorexia and bulimia are presented with the aim of getting a better understanding of what causes the risk. The treatment options are then explored in brief because they may also engender an understanding of how these disorders develop. Finally, the practicality, advantages and disadvantages of banning skinny model stereotypes are discussed at length, and a conclusion given in the end.
Key words: Eating disorders, Anorexia, bulimia, stereotypes
Introduction
Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia are characterized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders – 5 (DSM-5) as feeding and Eating disorders. They are part of a spectrum of mental disorders which are characterized by a persistent disturbance of normal eating and related behavior. The result is that the physical health and the psychosocial functioning of the affected individual are significantly impaired because of the altered consumption and absorption of food. Eating disorders are ranked among the top 10 causes of disability in young women (Striegel-Moore & Bulik, 2007). Therefore, any intervention aimed at reducing their prevalence is expected to have a great positive impact on both the productivity and quality of life of women.
Both anorexia and bulimia are disorders that are affected, to a large extent, by an individual’s perception of societal norms and personal beauty. According to DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), one of the diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa is a disturbance in the way in which one’s body weight or shape is experienced. Furthermore, the individual persistently fails to recognize how seriously low their body weight is. Bulimia nervosa is a largely similar disorder with patients exhibiting an extreme apprehension towards gaining weight or becoming fat. These patients engage in binge eating. When the fear of gaining weight sets in, they purge by vomiting forcefully or misusing laxatives, all in a frantic effort to ‘check their weight’. The major difference is that bulimia patients are not beset by the amount of extreme weight loss that anorexic patients experience. However, the similarity is that both the anorexic and bulimic patients suffer from an extreme anxiety for weight gain. No matter how slim they become, it is never enough. Any slight weight gain causes much trepidation among these patients.
In order to make a case of whether or not skinny model stereotypes should be banned, it is first important to understand what the risk factors are for developing these disorders. Next, it is important to understand the treatment of these disorders, because it can be used to reflect back and find out the causes of the disorders. It is also important to evaluate the potential impact of such a move on the modeling industry.
Risk factors: Are skinny model stereotypes to blame?
The single most important predictor of risk for developing eating disorders is being female. According to Striegel-Moore and Bulik (2007), this is an important factor, but it cannot be examined in isolation. A further question must be asked: which types of women are most affected by eating disorders? According to Striegel-Moore and Bulik (2007), white women are the predominantly affected population. This fact points to some cultural skewness in the distribution of the disorders. This is in line with the affirmation of a study by Alegria et al. (2007) that acquisition of cultures of a dominant society appears to play a significant role in the development of eating disorders.
Another risk factor is adolescence. This is generally viewed as the period of most vulnerability. It is especially prominent in anorexia nervosa than Bulimia nervosa. Adolescents are very impressionable, and it is possible that they look up to and emulate people whom the society glorifies. It is possible, therefore, that skinny model stereotypes play a role in the high prevalence of eating disorders among adolescents.
Eating disorders have also been found to be closely correlated with socioeconomic status. It has long been established that the affluent are more affected by eating disorders than people of lower socioeconomic status. The modeling industry is also associated with affluence. It is no wonder, then, that eating disorders are associated to a large extent with the modeling.
Studies in the 20th century examined the relationship between the ideal body size and the incidence of anorexia. The results were resoundingly pointing to the fact that the shift in the ideal body size mirrored the increase in anorexia nervosa. It is undoubted that societal ideals contribute in a big way to the development of anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders.
Lessons to Learn From Treatment for Anorexia
Treatment for anorexia nervosa is diverse and systematic. It is more than just a mental disorder because it takes a toll on the body. However, treatments must always focus on behavior because this is a behavioral disorder.
Two of the most commonly used behavioral strategies are cognitive behavioral therapy and cognitive analytic theory. They both involve analyzing the individual’s initial perceptions of beauty and tying to remodel them so that the affected individual recovers and also prevents them from relapsing. Often the individuals are impressed upon to recognize themselves as beautiful and made to realize that people who are skinny are not necessarily beautiful.
The treatment for anorexia focuses on the individual, but prevention of anorexia should focus on the entire population. Indeed, one of the proposed solutions is to ban skinny model stereotypes. Now that it is known indeed that skinny model stereotypes do contribute to the condition, the next question is, is the proposal practical? Equally important is, what would be the negative and positive impacts of banning such stereotypes?
To do or not to do: should skinny model stereotypes be banned?
How practical is it to ban a stereotype? Stereotypes are societal norms formed by precedence, discussion and preference. Stereotypes are ideas. Introducing them into society is a long and gradual process. Banishing them from a society is also gradual. Stereotypes are introduced by people who choose an unexplored method of doing things and succeed, thereby convincing other people to embrace their views. Through time, with debate and expression of unwavering belief, these people get to convince the masses that their way of doing or viewing things is the best way. People therefore adopt their views, not as law, but as values. Stereotypes are thus born.
With time, stereotypes get so deeply engraved in a culture that it becomes hard to separate the culture from the stereotype. People hold stereotyped beliefs at heart and changing such beliefs is not easy. In order for a stereotype to be removed from a culture, it has to be replaced by a competing belief. Over time, ambitious individuals have to convince people that there is an alternative way of looking at things.
Practically, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to ‘ban’ skinny model stereotypes. Instead, a new view should be introduced, say, "fat is beautiful”. It takes an entire generation to make this kind of new idea to take root. People generally accept it when they see other people accepting it.
This brings us to the pertinent question of...