The Social Motivation for Eating Disorders among Women
Can social motivation theories be applied to disordered eating, defined by behaviors, which a person’s engagement in generally occurs in isolation? I argue yes, that eating disorders occur in the context of interpersonal relationships as much as intrapersonal factors and their development is in part motivated by the same conditions as other behaviors considered the traditional realm of social psychology.
Normative Social Influence
It is often said that Calvin Klein and Hollywood are the culprits and the emaciated waif look propagated by the media has caused many women to tale-spin into the world of an eating disorder. While the images of child-like women have obviously contributed to an increased obsession to be thin, it is not quite so simple.
Historically and across all cultures men are judged more for what they do and women for how they look. Women have always been taught that their value is associated with their appearance and their bodies. Yet it is in progressive Western societies like the United States, supposedly the most progressive and egalitarian in regards to gender roles, that the ideal female body type is most limiting. It seems that the more active and independent women are allowed to be in a given culture, the less space they are supposed to take up.
Successful as the women’s movement in the United States has been in giving women greater opportunity and rights in the larger society, it has done very little in alleviating the pressure on women to be the beautiful guardians of the realm of home and relationships. Rather a new ideal has emerged, that of the “superwoman,” who is warm, nurturing, and attractive as well as competitive, accomplished, and successful eating disorder resources.
Prejudice
Concurrent with the emergence of the new model of the perfect women has been an increase in the national obsession with weight and food. A high percentage of American culture falls into one of two categories: the couch potato who super-sizes their daily meal from McDonald’s or the exercise fanatic with a kitchen full of fat-free (and taste-free) foods. Neither extreme is healthy yet the associations we make with each of these stereotypes make the latter clearly preferable. Weight is perhaps the last acceptable means of discrimination, both global and interpersonal, in the age of political correctness. On the rare occasion an overweight character appears in the movies or on television, they are typically portrayed as lazy, without friends, or criminal, while the thin women and muscle-defined men are successful, popular, sexy, and powerful. An on-air personality who makes a racist, sexist, or otherwise bigoted comment will likely lose their job, yet everyone laughs at Letterman and Leno’s fat jokes, with the exception of course of their intended targets.
Perceived Control
The pressure on adolescents is tremendous. The problems of drugs, sexual activity, and violence are epidemic and do not discriminate on any socioeconomic lines. A supportive family can help a young person deal with these issues and other stresses of hectic modern life, but broken and otherwise dysfunctional family environments seem to be the norm rather than the exception. Yet despite living in a world over which they may feel they have little control, young women are expected not only to excel socially, academically, athletically, etc. but also to do so with feminine grace and selflessness. And they are bombarded with the cultural message that only thin people are truly successful.
Women do not develop eating disorders because of a superficial desire to look like Kate Moss. Both of these phenomena are actually symptoms of the same problem, a culture, embodied by fathers, lovers, and other male family members, friends and acquaintances, that tells a woman that she can “have it all,” with the inherent threat that failing to conform to expectations of perfection will result in her having nothing. A young female without sufficient social support will likely not feel empowered to fight this double standard in a constructive manner. Consequently, she will all too often turn to the one thing she feels that she can control-food.
Conform and Resist
Eating disorders are unique in that they are an expression of both conformity to and rejection of social norms. Dieting is culturally acceptable, often expected. Yet when taken to the extreme, people are appalled. Eating disorders are not commonly found in poverty, where everyone is hungry, because they don’t say anything. Whereas in American culture, a woman starving herself or binging and purging is sending out a clear, if complicated, message of passive defiance both to the society at large and the individuals in her life: You want me to be perfect/the best/thin? Fine. But be careful what you wish for…
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