Discussion of NY Times article

The NY Times Article Parent & Child by Lawrence Kutner provides an alarming window into the teenage psyche as it relates to body image.  Eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia have been the subject of much media attention and social concern, but Kutner's article highlights the importance of body image issues in adolescents who do not suffer from these disorders as they are defined by the mental health community.  The article references a study conducted by Dr. James C. Rosen, a professor of psychology at the University of Vermont, in which 3,000 adolescents were surveyed about body image.  The study found that the majority of teens trying to loose weight are females, and the majority of these young ladies are currently at a normal weight.  Experts often blame this phenomenon on advertising, movies, and the media that relay images of unrealistically thin women to adolescent girls.  Kutner explains the effect body image issues can have on the self esteem and social habits of teen girls, and also offers advice to parents on how to address this issue.

This issue relates to a number of "common elements of oppression," namely tokenism.  Realistic expectations related to weight and physical appearance have been distorted by advertising and media entities that constantly bombard American youth with a warped definition of what is attractive and desirable.  The standard of beauty has changed throughout history, and often revolves around what is most difficult to achieve.  For example, Renaissance art depicts the female form at its most attractive as curvaceous.  This is likely because carrying extra weight was difficult due to a shortage of food, making a voluptuous body rare and desirable.  In today's fast food culture, obesity levels are on the rise and maintaining a thin frame is a challenge.  What seems like a natural swing of the pendulum, however, has turned into an epidemic as the media presents an exaggerated image of thin as beautiful.

Arguably, tokenism has given rise to the defined norm.  The few celebrities who have achieved this distorted standard of beauty serve as the norm to which many teenage girls compare themselves.  This constant oppression has a negative physical, psychological, emotional, and social effect on their lives during an already difficult stage.

Fat Bias Worse for Women

The article that I found was on The New York Times website, entitled “Fat Bias Worse for Women.” In this article the author, Jodi Hilton, discusses how society is less tolerant of weight gain in women than in men. According to a study at Yale University, “…weight discrimination, particularly against women, is as common as racial discrimination.” The article noted that women begin to experience weight bias after gaining much less weight than men. Not only that, but the study also revealed that women are two times as likely as men to report weight discrimination. Weight discrimination is even more prevalent than discrimination as a result of sexual orientation, nationality or ethnicity, physical disability and religious beliefs. Basically, this article shows one of the many pressures that are put on women when it comes to physical appearance.
The article is a perfect example of a defined norm, one of the Seven Elements of Oppression. A defined norm is “a standard of rightness and often righteousness wherein all others are judged in relation to it.” In this particular case, I would define the norm as being the expected weight of the people in question. This weight would be their “normal” weight or the way others expect them to look. Those that are in line with the defined norm judge those who are not. Once someone has gotten noticeably over that “normal” weight, they then are judged or not accepted. Those who are not of “normal” weight and size according to society are looked at differently and, in some cases, discriminated against. According to the article, “…weight-related work place bias…due to obesity are common.” This is because of this element of oppression, defined norm. Because some may not fit the physical description of what is expected in their line of work, they are then judged by those that do.
Weight discrimination is an issue faced by women on a daily basis. This is only one of the many pressures that women have to battle with. This issue even has an effect on our female adolescents today, not just older women. It affects their confidence and self-esteem in a negative way, and people need to make a conscious effort not to be the cause of this.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/fat-bias-worse-for-women/

This is an article about teenage girls' body image. From The New York Times.

BODY AND IMAGE; How to Talk to Teenage Girls About Weight? Very Carefully

By ERICA GOODE
Published: June 22, 2003

''I'M too fat.''
If there were a Hall of Adolescence, where the struggles of teenage girls were commemorated, those words might be inscribed over the door.
Nearly every human female between the ages of 11 and 18 has uttered them, as hormones transform lines into curves and flat surfaces into soft hills.
But when children grow up in a society where thinness is prized, eating disorders are common and obesity is epidemic, the self-consciousness of adolescence can also pose a challenge for parents, many of whom are already having trouble figuring out what, in the turbulent world of teenage behavior, is normal and what is a cause for worry. Is refusing dessert a sign of anorexia? Does a steady diet of pizza and Coca-Cola dictate a future of diabetes and heart disease? Should increasing chubbiness be ignored or gently commented on?
The questions, as any parent will attest, come easily. Getting answers is more difficult.
Raising the subject of weight or body image with a teenager is a delicate business, ''like backing into a difficult parallel parking space,'' as Elizabeth Hess, a writer in upstate New York and the mother of an 18-year-old girl, puts it.
Withering looks, baleful silences and slammed doors are not uncommon responses to any inquiry or suggestion, no matter how carefully phrased. And even when the conversational door opens, it is difficult to know how to take advantage of it.
''It's a real dilemma for a parent to know how much to say, what exactly to say, how concerned they should be and what to do about it,'' said Dr. Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, an associate professor in the division of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health in Minneapolis. ''It's a very touchy subject.''
Experts say that some concern on the part of parents is not out of place. Only 1.5 to 3.5 percent of teenagers meet the clinical criteria for anorexia and bulimia, surveys suggest. But a much larger number show some sort of disordered eating or practice unhealthy dieting.
In a study published last year, for example, Dr. Neumark-Sztainer and her colleagues found that, among 4,746 junior high and high school students, 57 percent of the girls had fasted, gone on diets, used food substitutes like Slim-Fast or smoked more cigarettes to lose weight; and 12 percent had resorted to extreme measures like diet pills, vomiting or using laxatives or diuretics. (Boys were also not immune from the influence of a weight-conscious society: 33 percent had engaged in milder weight-loss tactics; 5 percent in severe tactics.)
Meanwhile, mothers watch their teenage daughters flip through fashion magazines and pronounce judgment on the ''fat butts'' and ''thunder thighs'' of reed-thin models. They overhear their daughters' conversations about classmates who run to the bathroom after lunch or exercise three hours a day. Or, having struggled themselves for years to meet society's perfectionist standards, they wonder if their daughters, too, will become locked in a torturous cycle of self-loathing, guilt and failed dieting.
''This is an issue in our family because it is an issue in society and in American culture,'' said Kelly Eskin, 42, a public relations consultant in Washington and the mother of a 14-year-old girl. ''I think that my generation of mothers is much more cognizant of weight gain and we're also more aware of eating disorders.''
For their part, teenage girls are quick to point out that their world encourages conformity -- and conformity too often means looking and dressing in a certain way.
''The pressure is that to get the cutest boy in school, you need to be beautiful and shop at American Eagle and have the perfect body,'' said Toni Albertorio, 16, a high school sophomore in Albuquerque. The girls at her school, she said, ''definitely want to fit in.''
Some experts think that girls are becoming obsessed with thinness at an earlier age than in the past.
''My impression is that they start worrying about their body before there is even any body to be worried about,'' said Kim Chernin, the author of ''The Obsession: Reflections on the Tyranny of Slenderness'' and a consultant in Berkeley, Calif., who works with parents and adolescents.

But it is not only peers who exert the pressure. Ms. Karasov, for example, said that some parents talk about their daughter's need to lose weight, even when the girl is present in the room.
In fact, a recent study in the journal Pediatrics found that mothers were three times as likely to identify weight as a problem in girls than in boys.
Pediatricians and experts on eating disorders say that while there is no single strategy to ensure that teenagers will feel good about themselves and maintain a normal weight, there are some overarching principles.
Dr. Neumark-Sztainer, for example, said that how parents handled their own weight issues was as important as what they say to their children. A father who constantly diets is providing a model that his daughter may emulate, she said. In the same way, a mother who makes negative comments about her own body is setting an example.
''It's so common to say, 'Oh, I look so fat in this outfit,' but if you say that, then your kids are going to say it also,'' Dr. Neumark-Sztainer said.
Dr. Richard Kreipe, a professor of pediatrics and chief of the division of adolescent medicine at the University of Rochester, said that parents could help their children by building a regular exercise routine into family life and educating them at an early age about healthy eating.
''They should realize that we do have two extremes that people need to try to avoid,'' Dr. Kreipe said, ''that overweight is definitely a health problem, and that underweight is definitely a health problem.''
He cautioned, however, against jumping in with radical solutions like putting children on diets or intervening in other major ways.
''There doesn't need to be a dramatic response,'' Dr. Kreipe said. Instead, he recommended that teenagers make small changes that can result in benefits that last longer and are far less painful to achieve.
For example, if a child is significantly overweight, a parent might suggest having a glass of low-fat milk or bottled water with dinner rather than a soda, or substituting fruit and a cookie for rich desserts, Dr. Kreipe said.
On the other hand, if a teenage athlete is preoccupied with losing weight, a parent might mention the crucial role of protein and fat in providing energy for sports activities.
Dr. B. Timothy Walsh, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and the director of the Eating Disorders Research Unit at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in Manhattan, said that in talking to teenagers, it could help to treat weight issues like any other medical problem, making it clear that no personal judgment is being made. He recommended picking a calm time to talk and addressing the issue unemotionally.
''The best approach is to distinguish the person from her weight,'' Dr. Walsh said. ''You might say, 'Look, we love you, but let us help you deal with your low weight or your high weight.' ''
What is completely unacceptable, he and other experts agreed, is teasing teenagers about their appearance, bribing them to eat more or to lose weight, or heckling them about extra poundage that they feel entirely comfortable with.
''There's a lot about your body that you can't change, and parents ought to help their kids accept that,'' Dr. Walsh said.
Ms. Chernin put it slightly differently. ''The principle I follow,'' she said, ''is that a body belongs to the person who inhabits it.''

Here is another New York Times article about a book series aimed at helping young girls develop self-esteem and coping skills.

By Tara Parker

Books for Girls With a Health Message
When Addie Swartz was shopping with her 9-year-old daughter and friends, one of the girls noticed a scantily clad model at an Abercrombie & Fitch store. “Why do they have to do that?” one of the girls asked.
Lake Rescue offers inspiration to overweight girls.
Ms. Swartz describes it as an “aha” moment when the idea for a new book series came to her.
“It made me feel like the world is making them grow up so, so fast,” says Ms. Swartz. “It felt like there were so many messages out there that were bombarding her and her friends and girls her age.”
As a result, Ms. Swartz created the Beacon Street Girls book series. The stories, which revolve around five middle-school girls in Brookline, Mass., are shaped by leading experts in adolescent development, with the goal of helping girls build self-esteem and coping skills. Topics include the problems of an overweight girl and cyber bullying. This month the series will launch its latest book, “Green Algae and Bubblegum Wars,” a novel aimed at encouraging girls in science. The book is the result of a collaboration with Sally Ride, an astronaut who was the first American woman to orbit Earth.
But can expert health advice wrapped up as fiction really make a difference for the books’ young readers? A surprising new study suggests that for some girls, it can. To learn more, read my full Well column here.
And if you don’t know what your daughters are reading, check out this story from Naomi Wolf about the current crop of teen fiction.
What do you think of the current crop of teen literature? Has your child read a book from the Beacon Street Girls series? Please join the discussion and post your comments below.

This article is from the New York Times. It describes dysmorphic disorder, which is something people need to know about.

October 2, 1991

When Ugliness Is Only in Patient's Eye, Body Image Can Reflect Mental Disorder

By DANIEL GOLEMAN

A WOMAN in her 30's, convinced she had excessive facial hair, was so intent on not being seen in public that she sped from place to place on a motorcycle. She would even run red lights, for fear someone would see her as she waited for the light to change.
A man in his 20's felt people stared at what he imagined were his "pointed ears" and "large nostrils." He eventually quit his job and stayed home rather than face the humiliation he was sure awaited him outside.
And a 28-year-old man who was preoccupied with his thinning hair was unconsoled by reassurances from four dermatologists that his hair loss was normal and barely noticeable. He became deeply depressed. Diagnosis Is Rare
Each of these people was suffering from what psychiatrists call body dysmorphic disorder, or imagined ugliness, a relatively new formal diagnosis. Such cases are being reported with greater and greater frequency.
Though the diagnosis is made comparatively rarely, psychologists studying body image estimate that 2 percent to 10 percent of people are so self-conscious about some aspect of their looks that it constricts their life in some way: keeping them from making love or dating and even rendering them homebound or suicidal. Many make a fruitless round of cosmetic surgeons, never satisfied.
To be sure, the large majority of people have some dissatisfaction with their bodies: 85 percent of women and 72 percent of men are unhappy with at least one aspect of their appearance, according to research by Dr. Thomas Cash, a psychologist at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. But for most people such dissatisfaction does not become a consuming preoccupation calling for therapy.
Such obsessed people see Gargantua's belly or Cyrano's nose in features that go unremarked by others.
Most keep secret their firm belief that they are deformed. They may spend hours staring in mirrors at the imagined deformities and may go to great lengths to disguise them with clothing or cosmetics. But typically, "they don't tell a soul," said Dr. Katherine Phillips, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School. Her article on imagined ugliness was in the September issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Frequently such people go into therapy for other problems, particularly depression, but often are so ashamed of their imagined disfigurements that they do not confide their preoccupations even to the therapists, said Dr. Phillips. And because they are more likely to consult cosmetic surgeons or dermatologists than psychotherapists, they typically get no psychological treatment. 'Change Their Attitudes'
"Virtually all patients who come for elective cosmetic surgery see some body part as ugly," some for good reason, but many for features that other people would not be dissatisfied with, said Dr. Thomas Pruzinsky, a psychologist in Hamden, Conn., who screens patients seeking cosmetic surgery. He added, "People who are dissatisfied with some feature that most others don't notice would do better to change their attitudes than their body."
Cosmetic surgeons have learned to be wary of people who imagine themselves far more ugly than they seem to others. "These are the patients who are never satisfied with how their cosmetic surgery turned out," said Dr. Cash, who is co-editor with Dr. Pruzinsky of "Body Images," published last year by Guilford Press.
The number of people who say they are unhappy with their physical features, though not necessarily to the extent that therapy is needed, has risen markedly over the last two decades. For example, a 1972 survey by Dr. Cash said that 35 percent of men and 48 percent of women were dissatisfied with their weight; by 1985 the figures had risen to 41 percent for men and 55 percent for women.
The same surveys indicated that in 1972, 8 percent of men and 11 percent of women were dissatisfied with a facial feature; by 1985 dissatisfaction was at 20 percent for men and women. How Children See Themselves
Body image reseachers are troubled by findings like a 1987 survey of 500 children in elementary school that found more than half the girls thought they were overweight and 31 percent of 10-year-olds said they "felt fat," though only 15 percent were actually heavier than the norm. Researchers say that such distorted thinking plays a large role in the development of eating disorders.
Distorted views of the body are due in part to "an insidious contrast effect," in which people compare themselves with the models in advertisements, said Dr. Rita Freedman, a psychologist in Scarsdale, N.Y. "Carefully contrived advertisements compress standards of attractiveness into a young, idealized extreme that is virtually unattainable," said Dr. Freedman, who has developed treatments for the problem.
Because the psychological pressures of these standards fall more heavily on women than men, women are, on average, more negative about their bodies than are men. For example, in a 1989 study of 80 men and women, volunteers carried a beeper that randomly signaled them to record their circumstances and thoughts about their body. Men reported many more positive thoughts than did women. Women more frequently reported judging some part of their body harshly.
"Ears and lips are the only part of their body that women are more positive about than are men," said Dr. Stephen Franzoi, a psychologist at Marquette University, who did the study. "Ears and lips, of course, are easily changed or adorned in women."
In a study of the feelings of 108 men and 122 women about specific body parts, Dr. Franzoi found that men and women are most dissatisfied with parts like the stomach, thighs and hips, which reflect overweight. He reported his findings at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in August.
It was only in 1987 that imagined ugliness was recognized as a disorder in the official psychiatric diagnostic manual. Surveying literature on the topic, Dr. Phillips found hundreds of European articles, but just a handful by American researchers.
Still, records of cases of imagined ugliness are as old as psychotherapy itself. Freud wrote that one of his patients, known as the Wolf Man, "neglected his daily life and work because he was engrossed, to the exclusion of all else, in the state of his nose," making painstaking observations in a pocket mirror, around which "his life was centered."
Because plastic surgeons are the first professionals to see so many of these patients, some treatment approaches are designed for people who seek cosmetic surgery. Dr. Pruzinsky, for instance, has worked with Dr. Milton Edgerton, a plastic surgeon at the University of Virginia, who has had a psychologist or psychiatrist on his staff for 30 years. In the October issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery they will report on 100 patients who were identified as disturbed.
"Most plastic surgeons turn such patients away," said Dr. Pruzinsky. "We designed a treatment that combines psychotherapy and surgery."
The treatment focused on helping the patients gain a more realistic sense of what they could and could not expect from cosmetic surgery.
"I find that you're not going to cure them of their dissatisfaction with their body through psychotherapy," said Dr. Pruzinsky. "The main problem is that they are not motivated to change their view." Is Surgery Oversold?
Other psychotherapists disagree. Dr. Freedman said: "There is such a thing as real ugliness, but it's not necessarily a psychological problem. There is a place for cosmetic surgery, but it's oversold. The internal feelings are more important than the features themselves."
Dr. Ann Kearney-Cooke, a psychologist in Cinncinnati, said: "Whenever you talk about your body, you're talking about the way you see yourself. If you feel bad about yourself, you project it onto your body."
Dr. Kearney-Cooke's approach is to help people see the connection between emotional states and feelings about their bodies. "One woman told me she was in a board meeting when she suddenly got self-conscious that she had acne scars and her nose was too big," said Dr. Kearney-Cooke. "I asked her to recall exactly what was happening at that moment. She had just been challenged to defend her position, which, deep inside, made her feel inadequate and insecure."
In therapy with the woman, Dr. Kearney-Cooke had her relax, then call to mind occasions in her early life when she had felt similar feelings.
"It's often a moment like when parents ignore a child who has come home from school," said Dr. Kearney-Cooke. "The child turns that feeling of being rejected onto something about her own body. But once they see that it's the feeling that's the problem, they can begin to realize that their feelings about their body are a distortion."