Panel Discusses Eating Disorders

Scientists and members of the media gathered at the Kennedy School of Government yesterday to discuss "Culture, the Media and Eating Disorders."

The panel discussion, attended by more than 150 people, was held in recognition of National Eating Disorders Week, which started Sunday.

The panel was moderated by Matina S. Horner, who served as president of Radcliffe College from 1972 to 1989.

Among the participants were Elizabeth Crow, editor-in-chief of Made-moiselle, Peggy Northrop, a senior editor of Glamour, Timothy Johnson, medical editor for ABC News and several officials of the Harvard Eating Disorders Center.

Opening the discussion was Anne E. Becker, director of research and training for the center and assistant professor of medical anthropology at Harvard Medical School.

Becker described "widespread cultural forces to be thin" in the U.S. and said that because Americans are becoming increasingly overweight, the ideal of thinness "is increasingly unattainable."

Becker implicated the media in prizing thinness and creating what she termed the "normalization of an extreme." This has distorted "what is normal and what is attainable," she said.

Proposing a program of "media literacy," Catherine Steiner-Adair, director of education, prevention and outreach for the Eating Disorders Center, argued for greater acceptance of different body shapes.

Adair said that individuals, particularly women, have come to be judged more on their appearances than on their personalities. She said that this can contribute to abnormal eating behaviors in women.

Describing the issue as one of "body-size prejudice," Adair also said that eating disorders should be treated as an issue of social justice.

But some panelists were ambivalent about linking media images of women to the prevalence of eating disorders.

"I still find it hard to work out...how much [of a role] images play in disease," Northrop said in an interview.

Northrop said that she did see positive trends in fashion magazines and that women's magazines are working more than other forms of media to correct the problems of eating disorders. ,

Audience reaction to the panel was mixed.

"The focus was narrow in that it only dealt with the media," said Aditi M. Shrikhande '97. "It was good for general information in knowing how to read magazines and knowing the attitudes of magazines."

Shrikhande also said that she was disappointed that the event was not well attended by young women, attributing their absence to poor publicity.

Deanna M. Staskel, a dietetic intern at Massachusetts General Hospital, said that the media representative did not take enough responsibility for their power to monitor images portrayed in advertising.

Serena K. Mayeri '97 attended the forum out of general interest. She said she has had personal contact with individuals suffering from eating disorders.

"[The panelists] brought out the fact that eating disorders are a frustrating problem, in part because they have a multiplicity of causes," said Mayeri. "The forum [showed] that media images are one troubling manifestation of larger social problems."

Some students felt that the panel did not focus enough on the physiological causes of eating disorders.

"[The panel] didn't deal more immediately with the diseases them-selves," said Sarah M. Baskin '99, a psychology concentrator.

Baskin attended the panel as part of her research for a paper on body weight regulation for her sophomore psychology tutorial. The Eating Disorders Center is a national non-profit organization dedicated to research and education

Audience reaction to the panel was mixed.

"The focus was narrow in that it only dealt with the media," said Aditi M. Shrikhande '97. "It was good for general information in knowing how to read magazines and knowing the attitudes of magazines."

Shrikhande also said that she was disappointed that the event was not well attended by young women, attributing their absence to poor publicity.

Deanna M. Staskel, a dietetic intern at Massachusetts General Hospital, said that the media representative did not take enough responsibility for their power to monitor images portrayed in advertising.

Serena K. Mayeri '97 attended the forum out of general interest. She said she has had personal contact with individuals suffering from eating disorders.

"[The panelists] brought out the fact that eating disorders are a frustrating problem, in part because they have a multiplicity of causes," said Mayeri. "The forum [showed] that media images are one troubling manifestation of larger social problems."

Some students felt that the panel did not focus enough on the physiological causes of eating disorders.

"[The panel] didn't deal more immediately with the diseases them-selves," said Sarah M. Baskin '99, a psychology concentrator.

Baskin attended the panel as part of her research for a paper on body weight regulation for her sophomore psychology tutorial. The Eating Disorders Center is a national non-profit organization dedicated to research and education