Another feminist myth punctured

"Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history." - George Bernard Shaw

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New TV Show Perpetuates Anorexia Myths

"A new VH1 show called “The Price of Beauty,” hosted by Jessica Simpson, will premiere soon. The theme of the show is the extreme measures that some women will endure to look beautiful. It’s a worthy subject, but unfortunately the series is already spreading misinformation about a serious disease: anorexia...

What Isabelle Caro, Jessica Simpson, and the VH1 show don’t realize is that anorexia has little or nothing to do with fashion modeling. Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia are biological diseases, not voluntary behaviors. The idea that a model, photo of a model, or Web site can "encourage" anorexia is not supported by science or research. Images of thin people cannot "encourage" anorexia, any more than photographs of bipolar patients "encourage" bipolar disorder, or photos of diabetics "encourage" diabetes.

Though many people are convinced that anorexia is a threat to most young women because of the media images they see, that’s not what the scientific evidence says. Anorexia is a very rare and complex psychological disorder with many indications of a strong genetic component; as anorexia expert Cynthia Bulik noted in her 2007 study “The Genetics of Anorexia,” published in the Annual Review of Nutrition, “Family studies have consistently demonstrated that anorexia nervosa runs in families.” Most research studies have failed to find a cause-and-effect link between media images of thin people and eating disorders.

For example, R.A. Botta, writing in his 1999 study, “Television Images and Adolescent Girls’ Body Image Disturbance” in the Journal of Communication, noted that, “Concrete evidence is still necessary…to show that this existence of thin images and ideals has an effect on viewers….At this point, the relationship between television exposure and body image disturbance remains in question.” This view is supported by other researchers...

Nearly every woman in America regularly sees thin women in everyday life and the media, yet according to the National Institute of Mental Health, only about one percent of them develop the disease. If there a strong link existed between media exposure and anorexia, we would expect to see an incidence many orders of magnitude higher than is found...

The first step in solving a problem is correctly understanding it, and TV shows like “The Price of Beauty” may actually end up doing more harm than good"


The same writer elsewhere:

Thinspiration: Do Web Sites Encourage Anorexia?

"A 2006 study, "Surfing for Thinness," published in the journal Pediatrics, examined nearly 700 families of patients diagnosed with eating disorders. Among their conclusions, "Pro-eating disorder site users did not differ from non-users in health outcomes," and those visiting "pro-ana" Web sites were not hospitalized any more often than those visiting Web sites promoting healthy recovery...

Ironically, mainstream anti-eating disorder materials may do more harm than "pro-ana" Web sites. Research shows that depictions of bulimic behavior actually encourages young women in their disordered eating. Experts suggest that televised depictions showing girls bingeing and purging (such as might be seen in after-school specials) serve as a behavior model"


Meanwhile, we already knew that dolls didn't necessarily screw you up, but now Research Debunks 'Barbie Ideal' (I read this paper, but it isn't that convincing, but it does challenge the naive perspective that all girls are helplessly brainwashed by Mattel, and deprived of agency):

"A team of British researchers announced that many young girls mutilate and torture their Barbie dolls. According to University of Bath researcher Agnes Nairn, "the girls we spoke to see Barbie torture as a legitimate play activity....The types of mutilation are varied and creative, and range from removing the hair to decapitation, burning, breaking, and even microwaving." The reason, Nairn said, was that girls saw Barbie as childish, an inanimate object instead of a treasured toy...

While Barbie has long been badgered about her "unhealthy" shape, no one complains that Mr. Potato Head's tubby physique is even less healthy. Girls are far more intelligent than Barbie critics give them credit for; they know their dolls are just that: dolls.

The girls in the British study are not alone. One adult woman in an informal survey reminisced, "Mostly I helped my brother decapitate Barbies and threw limbs in neighbors' yards. No one told me I should look like Barbie and I never felt like I should look like her." Said another, "I never regarded Barbie as a model for a real person. I actually hated her shape because it made it hard to put clothes on her"...

Not a single survey, poll, or study has shown that girls actually want to look like Barbie dolls"