Eating Disorders 249In summary, from a sociocultural perspective eating disorders are seen
as an expression of a series of conflicts concerning gender, identity, and
social space. The consequence of these conflicts is a sense of loss of control
which expresses itself in thinness and the rejection of food. This process
of expression is through the socially sanctioned pathway offered by the mean-
ings of size and food.
The socially sanctioned pathway
Conflicts over gender, identity, and space result in a sense of loss of con-
trol, and could be expressed in a variety of ways. They could make an
individual depressed, withdrawn, and isolated, or anxious and having panic
attacks, or angry and frustrated. So why would they stop eating and want
to become thin? From a sociocultural perspective these conflicts express
themselves in ways which are meaningful and can be understood within a
given culture. Using the analysis of an ethnic disorder, Devereux stated that
patterns of psychopathology within a culture are “patterns of misconduct”
which are socially understood. He argued that a culture says, “Don’t go
crazy, but if you do, you must behave as follows” (1980a, p. 42). Likewise,
Gordon (2000) argued that “the deviant behaviour patterns that become
prevalent in a society tend to follow particular models or templates that
are immediately and widely recognized by members of the culture” (p. 166).
In line with this analysis, conflicts of gender, identity, and social space
are expressed through disordered eating because of the social meanings
associated with thinness and food. The media representations of women,
with their emphasis on thinness as attractiveness and the associated mean-
ings of control, freedom, and success, provide a forum for expression of
these conflicts (see chapter 5). As Dana argued (1987), “being a certain body
size means something very important in a woman’s inner world. It expresses
for her messages she is unable to express in words” (p. 46). Acquiring a
thin body allows the conflicts to be expressed. Furthermore, the central part
that food plays in women’s lives, with its associated meanings of conflict,
power, love, pleasure, and caring, provides the vehicle through which the
conflicts can be managed and thinness can be attained (see chapters 4 and
5). In refusing food, Dana (1987) argued, “the anorexic woman has totally
abolished the needy part of her. She pretends it does not exist: she does
not need people, she does not need relationships...She does not even need
food” (p. 58); the “refusal of food symbolises a much larger statement she
is making which is the only way she [has] found to say ‘no’ ” (p. 57). Food
refusal and becoming thin express the conflicts in a way that has been socially