Body image and eating disorders: adolescence and gender. (The Mortification of the Flesh).

This work forms part of a research project entitled "Gender, Development and Image Disorders: Psychosocial Bases for Social and Educational Action" National Research Plan, Sector Program, CICYT-Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, Women and Gender Studies, 1997-1999, to be published by Spain's Instituto de la Mujer (Women's Institute). The authors are professors of psychology at the Instituto Universitario de Estudios de la Mujer (University Institute of Women's Studies) at the Universidad de Valencia.

1. Introduction

Body image and aesthetic norms affect the psychological development of both men and women, but preadolescent and adolescent girls are those most likely to suffer from eating problems and conflicts in the construction of their body image. Ninety-five percent of those who suffer from eating disorders are women. Although image conflicts are not exclusive to women, standards of beauty and thinness are especially rigid for females (Dolan and Gitzinger, 1995; Thompson et al., 1999) and condition them to strive for an exacting model of socially-accepted femininity.

Faced with inflexible indicators of femininity defining the "essence" of "a real woman," adolescent girls question the transformations of their bodies that distance them from the sexual ideal. Their concern is concentrated in the conflictive anatomical zones which embody sexual attractiveness according to the gender stereotype, which prevents them from constructing a comprehensive personal image.

Today, eating disorders have reached serious social and psychological dimensions. The number of people suffering eating disorders has increased and is reaching ever wider sectors of the population. Worrisome signs are found even in behaviors long-considered habitual and even desirable, such as dieting and excessive exercise. Although anorexia and bulimia are not new, the level of morbidity and mortality associated with these disorders is increasing. Epidemiological studies indicate that eating disorders affect roughly 1% of the population, with risk peaks at ages 13-14 and 17-18. According to Toro (1996), between 1% and 2% of adolescent girls suffer from anorexia nervosa, with a male-female ratio of 1:10. This author also estimates the prevalence of bulimia to be between 2% and 3% of the adolescent population, with a similar male-female ratio.