Prevalence of Eating Disorders Considered

Society's increasing demands on women's self-image have contributed to the prevalence of eating disorders, Catherine Steiner-Adair told a crowd of 50 in Boylston Auditorium last night.

Steiner-Adair is director of education, prevention and outreach of the Harvard Eating Disorder Center, as well as an associate with the Harvard Project on the Psychology of Women and Girls' Development.

Her talk is the first event in Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

Steiner-Adair said she began her study of eating disorders in the 1970s, while collecting research for her dissertation among high school girls at The Dana Hall School and Phillips Academy.

"I noticed that when they were stressed, miserable, depressed, they would announce their pain or suffering or need to talk to someone by talking about their bodies," Steiner-Adair said.

When asked to describe society's image of the ideal woman, adolescent girls in the 1970s placed the greatest emphasis on "thinness," Steiner-Adair said. In the 1980s, girls emphasized athleticism.

In the 1990s, the ideal body-type was "at least 5'9", preferably 5'10", with an ideal weight of around 110, she said.

"Ten percent of the population will genetically and safely be tall and skinny, 5'9" and 120 pounds," she warned. "We have an image of beauty that for 90 percent of the population is not achievable. The ideal image of beauty is not a human body."

Steiner-Adair said she considers eating disorders to be as much of a cultural phenomenon as a psychological or genetic one. In the course of her studies, she said she noticed that girls who are among the first to enter traditionally all-male schools or professions, the "front-line soldiers," were at the highest risk of developing an eating disorder.

Steiner-Adair identified "weightism" as a form of prejudice "which gives a girl the message that being thinner is more important than anything else about you."

According to Steiner-Adair, 9 percent of nine-year-olds have tried purging, 31 percent of 10-year-olds fear becoming fat and 15 percent of girls 14 and older feel better about themselves if they are on a diet.

The audience's reaction to Steiner-Adair's talk was positive.

"What I appreciate about her view of anorexia is how she combines individual experience with political issues," said Lois W. Choi '96.

Sheila V. Flynn '98, co-director of Eating Concerns Hotline and Out-reach (ECHO) and a Crimson editor, said that Steiner-Adair highlighted an important issue.

"I think it's a very serious problem on campus," said Flynn. "Harvard is one of the schools where eating disorders are a very integral part of the community."

"It's scary how you can go into the dining hall, and eating disorders are right in your face," Flynn continued. "It's hard to find a normal person at Harvard, as far as eating is concerned."

According to ECHO, 10 percent of women at Harvard have clinical eating disorders.

Eating Disorders Awareness week is sponsored by ECHO, the Committee on Degrees in Women's Studies, the Bureau of Study Counsel and University Health Services.