Eating Disorder Awareness Week

An email from Jennifer Siebel Newsom and the Representation Project team (formerly Miss Representation) informed me that this is National Eating Disorder Awareness week. Eating disorders are officially recognized as a national health issue and it's estimated that 24 million Americans currently struggle with some form of the illness (Do Something - 11 facts about eating disorders). Newsom and her group work on the media's damaging contribution to people's concern about their bodies. They state that "3 out of 4 teenage girls feel worse about themselves after looking at a fashion magazine for as little as 3 minutes."  Well, no kidding! How about 9 out of 10 grown women? (my own estimate).

Last week when Aden and I got our toenails done; we each grabbed a magazine and then I spent the entire time worrying about what she was reading and how it was affecting her. We don't get any fashion magazines at home (any more) but the images of idealized men and women are everywhere: in magazines, TV shows, TV commercials, billboards, websites, computer games, doctors' offices libraries, and schools. How do we combat the pernicious message that we all need to be identically coat-hanger thin (or streamlined and buff) in order to have value?

I have struggled with disordered eating; the problem was rampant at Harvard and is still an issue on college campuses around the country (see (Do Something - 11 facts about eating disorders). The problem afflicts strong, intelligent women and men across the country, from Michelle Duggar, the conservative Christian mom of 19 who struggled with bulimia as a teen (USA Today - Michelle Duggar) to singer Ke$ha (ABC News on Ke$ha), to boys in wrestling and other sports trying to make weight. It seems to me the only way to stop the cultural / media pressure on us all to have the perfect body is to call it what it is: insanity. We are all supposed to be different - like snowflakes, remember? No two alike, no one standard of perfection. Disordered eating can lead to serious health problems, even death, and we need to tell our sons and daughters that the pressure is crazy, that the people who orchestrate fashion standards are just selling something, and that our kids' health is infinitely more precious than a photo-shopped and airbrushed picture.  If you want to contact the Representation Project and get more information, go here: http://therepresentationproject.org/ and if you want resources to help someone who is struggling, go here Proud2beMe. Let's stand up for ourselves and our kids.