Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Cultural psychological disorders
In Chapter 13, I found it very interesting to learn that some psychological disorders are only prominent in certain geological areas. One thing that I found shocking is the fact that anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are found usually only in Western cultures, and bulimia nervosa was only first recognized in the 1970s. I think this shows a poor reflection of American society. If this disorder is not found in other cultures, then obviously something is wrong with our culture. I contribute this largely to the high American standards for females. In most advertisements all the models are very skinny. What does this say to younger girls who are easily influenced by the media and pop culture? It's disturbing to think that even though eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any other psychological disorder that there is not more being done. I think that there needs to be a big change in the way that the media works, and that there should be standards for advertisements and modeling. If a model is at an unhealthy weight, she should not be shown in advertisements. There needs to be a focus on the health and well-being of American citizens, specifically teenage girls, instead of on company marketing. Without a change, I can only see this trend getting worse.
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I agree with this statement and feel the same way. The fact that Western cultures ceate their own psychological disorders is scary. An example of this is when today in class Professor Frankel mentioned how there are disorders here that Sweden and other countries do not have.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is a poor reflection of American society because it basically is a result of us looking too much into how we look. We focus on the exterior beauty and superficiality of each other. Not the things we should be focusing on, such as eating healthy, and doing the things we need to be doing to keep our bodies in good shape. I for one, am not surprised at this because it is very well known that our cultures value beauty over brains.
ReplyDeleteThis does not surprise me about the disorders that American's have that are not even known about in other countries. Two summers ago when my 18 year old cousin came over from Italy for a couple weeks, my family was amazed at how she ate. She ate whatever she wanted and simply did not care. In the US however, you don't see that because everyone is worried about how they look all the time and worried about what people think. Now when we all saw our cousin eating as she did, we loved it because we were not used to anything like it. We were used to everyone being picky, counting calories, and not eating certain foods, specifically women. And all of this is because of our society and because of the way everyone thinks and focuses on beauty.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with what you said about how anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are the result of our culture. I did a project a few years ago about the media and its affects on women and I cam across a striking finding that many teenage girls are consistently comparing themselves to models in magazines, many of which don't look as they appear as a result of photographers editing photos and making women look better than they actually do (clearer skin, skinnier, etc.). These high standards are what defines Western society. We always want to improve and be better than we already are and thus every area of our lives become consumed with this need to improve. However, the downside is that it is now beginning to affect the well being of children who feel the need to be perfect. The starve themselves and binge and purge just to resemble the standards of beauty (models, etc.) that are all around them. I was watching an episode of Desperate Housewives the other day, for example, and an 8 year old child said that she was "fat". With this in mind, it is no wonder that the ages of anorexics and bulimics is steadily decreasing. People need to realize that perfection isn't and shouldn't be defined by the media. Instead, self-esteems need to be boosted and children need to realize that beauty is dar deeper than what is on the outside and that they are all perfect in their own, unique way.
ReplyDelete-Desiree' Williford
I also agree that the media needs to try to stay away from portraying beauty as skinny models. It's okay if you aren't a size 0 and stick thin. It influences people of all ages, both men and women. It makes people feel like they are not good enough and they need to loose weight in order to look good and to feel accepted. Lots of people are self conscious because of what the media says.
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