[Meta]

The first time I read somewhere that eating disorders are a form of protest, I though "huh?"

Didn't I just overeat because I had no self control, and was lazy, and just couldn't say "enough!" when I was full.

It's been awhile since I read these books that talked about the deeper meaning of eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, compulsive overeating.

What I remember though is some of the information that said things like anorexics want to be perfect, our world equates thiness with perfection. So anorexics starve. Bulimics also want to comply with our society rule that we be thin, so they overdiet and then binge because they are malnourished, and then throw up so they can have the perfect body our society expects. Compulsive overeaters are also aware of what our society expects, they eat for many reasons, as do bulimics and anorexics, but certainly one reason is to say "F**k society and what it says I should be. Then they go on another diet that inevitably fails-maybe when the "F**k Society" impulse becomes stronger as the individual starts feeling deprived on diets.

I don't know. Just a thought.

Meta

[domino]

Well said Meta. I can totally understand how you feel. It's really hard to get out of the image that the media throw in our face either through TV or magazines. No wonder our self esteem is going further and further down the drain.

[zombiette]

that's an interesting theory meta, and i once read a quote which said "the most political act i never committed was gaining weight and pulling my head out of the toilet"...i personally tho don't really think eating disorders have much to do with body image or "social obsession" with weight, i think it goes deeper than that...tho i do there's a degree of rebellion in it , it's more against urself and what u feel u should be...it's a way of blocking out and refusing to deal with the problems in life, the pressures one is facing and how one feels about oneself...it's a way of saying ***** what everyone else wants of me, even what i want of myself, i cannot bear to deal with this any longer so i'm just going to withdraw into my own painful little world (which is somehow less painful than dealing with that outside by head). i think the difference between anorexia and bulimia is anorexia (and i have been anorexic) is more like i wanna disappear from this world, just fade away from it, and take as little from it as possible, whereas as bulimia and binge eating are more like ***** it all, it's so bad i quite as well just binge and/or purge...well that's my thoughts on it anyway...

[Meta]

I think that's an interesting quote, zombiette.
Still, I think there is an element of protest- albeit ineffective- in eating disorders. I guess I would need to see cross cultural studies that showed anorexia, bulimia and compulsive overeating were common in non-western societies, to not believe it wasn't at least partially a form of protest in our society and it's narrow definitions of acceptable body types.