Society's Influence on Women's Eating Problems

Women’s Eating Problems Growing up I don’t recall playing with fat Barbie’s nor do I recall any of my favorite artists being overweight. It’s not hard to see that our society has implemented the fact that in order to be beautiful of successful you must be thin. Being thin doesn’t come easy to everyone; some people, particularly women, suffer from eating disorders such as: compulsive eating, bulimia and anorexia. I plan on using the social-conflict and gender-conflict (feminist) approach to analyze my view on women’s eating problems. Using the social-conflict and gender-conflict approach we can agree both theories offer a sense in of inequality in regards to women’s eating disorders. Through the gender-conflict theory we can conclude that eating problems are most common in women because of society’s influence that in order to be beautiful being thin is a must. Through the social-conflict theory we can see how society’s arena of inequality affects women’s eating problems. In the article about Cultural Obsessions with Thinness the author argues “eating problems may also be a response to poverty, sexual abuse, racism, heterosexism, social class inequality and acculturation” (Macionis and Benokraitis, 2007). Although women’s eating problems share a sense of inequality using the social-conflict and gender-conflict theories they also differ. In the article we learn that women turn to food when coping with a traumatic experience such as sexual abuse. Using the gender-conflict theory we can see that women are likely to be a victim of sexual abuse because they are more vulnerable and probably defenseless. When a woman is sexually abuse the perpetrator takes something from her and a woman is left damaged forever. In the article we also learn that women turn to food as a way to cope with poverty, racism, class injuries and heterosexism. The author states “many well-trained professional have either misdiagnosed or delayed their diagnoses of eating problems among