A personal view on the differences between anorexia and bulimia based on a hesse-biber article

After reading the article “ Am I Thin Enough Yet?” by Sharlene Hesse-Biber, I thought about the origins of anorexia and bulimia. I didn’t really know anyone with anorexia in high school, although we suspected this one girl may have had it, because she was bone thin. I think that a few things could come into play here, and I can understand why girls would get that mind set. As a young girl I could never understand why anyone would want to do that, but I was thin and didn’t have to worry about it. I think that if I was overweight I would probably have worried about my weight more. In high school I knew of some girls who were on diets and I found out that there is definitely a difference between healthy and not healthy dieting. Not healthy dieting can lead to anorexia because you are eating hardly anything or eating only certain types of food. I think that girls should diet only if they are at an unhealthy weight that could cause health problems. If they are overweight and are worried about what they look like, I think they should go to the doctor and ask them what to eat instead of relying on magazines or products at Wal-Mart. Like they said in the article, the media has a huge impact on how girls think of themselves. The fact that magazines do so much digital photo manipulation is ridiculous because they are creating someone who isn’t real and then expecting girls to want to be like that. Not everyone is born with that body type and girls want to be that because they are beautiful. Therefore, they have to reach this impossible standard that will only bring them down in the end. Also as a kid I found that especially in elementary and middle schools there were too many people making fun of overweight people. This one girl in my grade was constantly ridiculed behind her back about being overweight and I’m sure that it took a huge toll on her emotionally. As a girl in elementary school I was told that I was a “ skinny twig” by some boy and that comment has stayed with me for all of these years. It just shows how much something like that can affect you.

When it comes to anorexia and bulimia, often the victim is blamed or the blame is cast on it being a disease and not linked to any other societal problems. I think that both have an input in it equally, although it differs from person to person. One of my best friends actually suffered from anorexia in high school for a while. She didn’t really give me all the details but apparently she was a little pudgy in her younger years. I would assume that she wasn’t the most popular girl in school and probably wanted people to like her. Also, her mom is very weight conscious, because she works at weight watchers and is always very slim. I’m sure that this had a huge impact on her. Like the girl in the story, her mom was the one who sort of encouraged the weight loss. With my friend I think that she was affected by several things, not just her own self esteem or the media. Anorexia doesn’t just stem from fashion magazines, but it has roots in other things as well. My friend is doing fine now, although she is still skinny. The good thing is that she isn’t afraid of eating food anymore.

I think that in order to solve the problem of anorexia and bulimia we need to do several things. First of all, if you are a parent you shouldn’t be telling your child that they need to be thinner. You should love them for who they are, even if they are overweight. Of course you can be concerned for their health but I think this can be done tactfully to not harm them. Also, I think that magazines should show real people on their pages, and not fake airbrushed people. Magazines and TV need to stop focusing on these impossible ideals and instead focus on stuff that really matters.