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Outside the SMU Memorial Health Center, Mady Golman, left, and Dr. Cathey Soutter, right, try to hold up the 7’2” Barbie they built out of paper-mache. This “life-sized” Barbie was built to show what a woman would look like with the dimensions of the doll. The project is part of the Earting Disorders Awareness Week at SMU March 2-6.
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Bulimia
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his is a disease characterized by binge eating, or eating massive quantities of food in secret, followed by an attempt to compensate for the binge by vomiting to avoid weight gain. Many bulimics have been through some sort of emotional trauma and use food as comfort. They may hoard food and eat in secret until they are uncomfortably full, followed by an overwhelming feeling of guilt and self-hatred. People with bulimia usually engage in self-induced vomiting and the abuse of laxatives. Some bulimics may fast or over-exercise after a binge instead.
Side effects:
Heart attacks Unbalanced electrolytes Ruptured esophagus Ruptured stomach Organ failure Yellow teeth Bad breath Insomnia Weak muscles Hair loss Digestive problems
What you can do to help:
Offer help in any way you can All you can do is offer to listen until he or she is ready to recover If he or she is experiencing scary side effects, you should alert his or her parents immediately
Binge Eating Disorder This disorder is characterized by eating massive quantities of food at a time in secret without attempts to compensate. It is probably the most common eating disorder but also not very well known. It has only recently been recognized as an official psychological disorder. Binges are often followed by a feeling of guilt and self loathing.
Side Effects:
An enlarged stomach Emotional trauma Obesity Diabeties Heart problems
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What you can do to help:
Talk to him or her about it if he or she is willing and listen. Offer your support, but don’t act disgusted or make a big deal if this person’s eating habits seem abnormal. Understand that he or she is suffering from a real mental disease and offer to help in any way you can.
What About Guys? T
hroughout the years, men have also felt an increasing pressure to change their bodies. This is a problem because: Big, muscular guys appear on television and in the media and teenage males especially are pressured to look like them. Celebrities such as Taylor Lautner, Zac Efron, and Ryan Gosling portray unrealistic bodies and a ridiculous standard of attractiveness. “Getting big” at the gym isn’t as important as being healthy. Being confident and comfortable in your own skin is much more attractive to most women than having body builder sized biceps.
Erich Schlegel/Dallas Morning News
Real Life Barbie Doll Caroline Scales E
Editor
very day, teenage girls see 400 advertisements telling them how they should look: small waists, big hips, and big breasts. Fifeteen new studies have linked the media portrayal of women to negative healths, behaviors, and lifestyles of teens. A 2001 study led by Danice K Eaton. Ph.D. of the Centers for Disease Control, interviewed 13,601 students that were in grades nine through twelve. She found that suicidal thoughts and attempts are significantly higher in teens that believe they are too fat or too thin based on “the perfect woman” in the TV shows they see every day. Also, around nineteen percent of the students have seriously considered suicide, and nine percent have actually attempted suicide, according to Dr. Eaton’s study.
Sixty-five percent of the students, medically, were in the “normal” weight range, while only fifty four percent believed they were “normal”. Dr. Susan Perry, Upper School Guidance Counselor, says that there is “no question” that advertisements have affects on teenagers. Perry believes that ads “could be a part” of eating disorders. “I don’t think it helps. The bigger issue is that it’s a very dehumanizing process for both men an women. It is suggesting that parts of humans are desirable and others are not,” added Perry. From the the age of three, girls are taught how to look through the image of Barbra Millicent Roberts. That’s right: Barbie. Little girls carry around, dress up, and send her on all sorts of wild vacations, with the thought that one day she will look exactly like Barbie. Yet, if Barbie was real, maybe every little girl would think twice about
being like her. She would be 7’2”, at 101 pounds with a BMI of 16.24. With that height and weight ratio, she would be considered anorexic. She would also most likely not menstruate with that ratio. Her measurements would be way out of proportion: 39” bust, 18” waist, 33” hips, with only a size 3 shoe. Due to her proportions, she would be forced to walk on all fours if she was a real woman. In 1964, Mattel released the “Sleepover Party Barbie” complete with a scale permanently set at 110 pounds, and a book entitled “How to Loose Weight”. In opening the book, the only words read, “don’t eat.” An estimated eight million Americans have an eating disorder, around seven million women and one million men. The culture in America is that skinny is beautiful, and while it is not the sole component of an eating disorder, it is a major cause.
Ideal Women in Literature Caroline Scales D
Editor
isney is famous for its lovely princesses falling head over heels in love instantaneously. Prince Charming meets Cinderella at the ball, Prince Eric is dazzled by the poor, voiceless, abandoned Ariel. Every one of these stories has a common denominator: the prince loves the damsel because of her looks. Throughout history, the hero has fallen for a breathtakingly gorgeous girl, leaving the question that maybe there is a standard for women who want to be saved. Steven McGill, Upper School English Instructor, says there is. “Definite character traits,” appear throughout literature in a damsel in distress,” McGill says. “They have uber-loyalty and faithfulness. Physically, they’re uber-pretty and forever young. An example would be Penelope [from Homer’s Odyssey]. Her husband’s gone for twenty years, and he expects her to be faithful when he sleeps around.” Yet, for the “evil” women, McGill says that their standard varies. The “nagging wife image” is present in American literature. “For example, Huck Finn has Miss Watson.” This contrasts to Lady Macbeth, an English character, the “very male-like, gluttony for power” woman. The beauty of the girl causing the hero to fall in love is very common. McGill says it’s “part of the Romantic ideal. For example, Romeo. He falls in love with Rosaline because of her looks and with Juliet because of hers. You don’t see them [the men] say, ‘what a beautiful person’ in literature or in life.” A ray of light shone through, though, when women started publishing their works. The female character became a “more fully developed person,” according to McGill. “The only male author who is an exception is Hawthorne. His female character is heroic. She’s a fully developed person, not just a
Hester Prynne & Pearl before the stocks Photo credit: The Scarlet Letter - edition: James R. Osgood & Co. pretty woman.” “American literature,” McGill says, “is mostly caricatures. American thinking is less complex, more black and white: good and bad.” In French literature, for example, “Victor Hugo creates complex people. But, Daisy in The Great Gatsby, she’s a former pretty girl who becomes a pretty woman who can’t think for herself.”