physical responses to a changed environment. The hungry can no
longer consume their own food because of the transformation of sub-
sistence agriculture and overfarming of arid land; the obese are also
responding to a new dietary environment of supersized fast foods, the
use of cheaper saturated fats in fast foods, and the partnering of fast
food companies with school lunch programs.Feeding and Starving the Female Body.Current standards of beauty
for women combine two images—dramatically thin and also
muscular and buxom—that are virtually impossible to accomplish.
Research on adolescents suggests that a large majority consciously
trade off health concerns in their efforts to lose weight. As a result,
increasing numbers of young women are diagnosed with either
anorexia nervosa or bulimia every year. Anorexia nervosainvolves
chronic and dangerous starvation dieting and obsessive exercise;
bulimia typically involves “binging and purging” (eating large
quantities and then either vomiting or taking enemas to excrete
them). These are serious problems, often requiring hospitalization,
which can, if untreated, threaten a girl’s life. To a sociologist they
represent only the farthest reaches of a continuum of preoccupation
with the body that begins with such “normal” behaviors as compul-
sive exercise or dieting.
It is important to remember that rates of anorexia and bulimia
are higher in the United States than in any other country—by far. Esti-
mates in the United States calculate that 3.7 percent of American
women suffer from anorexia at some point in their lifetime; up to 4.2
percent struggle with bulimia at some point in life (U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services, 2006). In Europe, about 0.3 percent of women suf-
fer from anorexia and around 1 percent from bulimia—more than ten times less than
the United States (Hoek and van Hoeken, 2003). By contrast, many non-Western soci-
eties value plumpness, and throughout Europe and the United States, non-White girls
are far less likely to exhibit eating disorders than are White and middle-class girls.
Recent increases have been observed among young middle- and upper- class Japan-
ese women (Efron, 2005).
While some stereotypic understandings would have it that such a dramatic empha-
sis on thinness afflicts only middle- and upper-class White girls and women, the evi-
dence suggests that these standards also define working-class and Black ideals of the
feminine body. Largeness “was one accepted—even revered—among Black folks,”
lamented an article in Essencemagazine in 1994, but it “now carries the same unmis-
takable stigma as it does among Whites” (Gregory, 1994). And a study the follow-
ing year found that Black adolescent girls demonstrated significantly higher drive for
thinness than did White adolescent girls. The media coverage of Oprah’s dramatic
weight loss and the depiction of ultra-thin African American models and actresses
may have increased Black women’s anxieties about their weight; indeed, it may be a
perverse signal of assimilation and acceptance by the dominant culture that “their”
ideal body type is now embraced by the formerly marginalized (Fitzgibbon and
Stolley, 2000; Schreiber et al., 1995).Pumping up the Male Body.Men have become increasingly concerned with their
bodies, especially fitness and weight. While men have long been concerned about
appearing strong, the emphasis on big muscles seems to increase as an obsession
during periods when men are least likely to actually have to use their muscles in their526 CHAPTER 16THE BODY AND SOCIETY: HEALTH AND ILLNESSJMost girls are preoccupied
with body image and their
weight—at least most middle-
class White girls are (body
image varies by class and
race). At one end of the con-
tinuum are fad diets and
efforts to stay fit and in
shape. At the other end lie
dangerous, and potentially
lethal, eating disorders, such
as anorexia.