In today’s society everyone wants to be beautiful! Do your hair, wear make-up, dress up to par and most importantly be thin and in shape. Society’s definition of beauty is anything but yourself, they want you to get plastic surgery, go on a diet, and become the perfect woman. An ugly, heavy set woman who doesn’t know how to dress or who does not fit society’s definition of beauty is not considered beautiful. Why is that? Why can’t every woman be considered beautiful in her own way? Why must every woman’s beauty be compared to the next? So where does that leave the everyday woman? Well, she could be the one waking up an hour in advance just to apply make-up, or she could be the one working hard so she can save up to get plastic surgery, maybe she is the woman sweating in the gym to look good, or there is a possibility that she is the woman who tries unhealthy ways to lose weight and become as thin as the girl everyone thinks is beautiful. A woman’s body is something that you see advertised daily and most of the time the woman being advertised is not your average girl who you would see walking down the street. That girl on the magazine cover, television show, commercial, billboard and etc. is super thin and not to mention everything about her is just flawless. That girl gets all of the guys’ attention and you think to yourself “hey I want to look just like her”, so here you are binge eating only to purge a few hours later so you can be skinny, lose weight and become what you believe to be the “perfect size”.
I chose to do my assignment on Bulimia Nervosa because I know someone dear to me who has suffered from this illness. She was very young in high school and she wanted to look thin and “beautiful”. She wanted to look fit like the rest of the girls but at the same time accomplish that goal the easy way. That girl was my best friend and it took her a while to tell me that she was engaging in such activity. She wanted to be thin like the women everybody idolizes, just to look good and be able to wear that perfect bikini, fit in a smaller size jeans and mainly just to feel beautiful. I have always heard of Bulimia Nervosa but I never knew anyone who personally suffered from this illness until she confronted me about her situation. I learned about a lot of different eating disorders, but going back about seven years ago when I found out that my best friend was affected by such and fast forwarding to today, I choose to look further into this illness.
According to the National Eating Disorders website they define Bulimia Nervosa as “a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by a cycle of bingeing and compensatory behaviors such as self-induced vomiting designed to undo or compensate for the effects of binge eating”. On the other hand according to the Women’s Health website Bulimia Nervosa “often called bulimia, is a type of eating disorder. A person with bulimia eats a lot of food in a short amount of time (binging) and then tries to prevent weight gain by getting rid of the food (purging). Purging might be done by making yourself throw up or taking laxatives (pills or liquids that speed up the movement of food through your body and lead to a bowel movement). I found both definitions to be interesting because when I first learned about bulimia I only knew about making yourself throw up, I am just learning about taking laxatives and I find that quite interesting.
From an anthropologist perspective I would have to promote the second definition because it list all of the possible ways a person affected by bulimia can purge to try and control their weight. An anthropologist looks at the situation from all angles and would want to find multiple solutions to the problem. A medical doctor and dentist in this situation would mainly focus on curing the patient of one of the possible negative effects that bulimia can cause. Bulimia Nervosa can be very harmful to your body; it can damage your digestive system, your blood, heart, body fluids, kidneys, intestines, hormones, your brain, cheeks, your mouth, throat and esophagus, muscles, stomach and skin. There is nothing positive about Bulimia Nervosa because it is very damaging. An anthropologist would acknowledge those problems as well but they would want to get a little more personal. Finding out why a person has chosen to engage in such activities or why they considered it and helping them to move on from this illness is how an anthropologist can study this illness. Bulimia can not only harm you physically, but mentally as well. An anthropologist can look into ones culture, family, sex, personality, stress or even biological factors to find out why a person has decided to become bulimic and how they can fix the problem.
"Bulimia Nervosa | National Eating Disorders Association." Bulimia Nervosa | National Eating Disorders Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 July 2014. https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/bulimia-nervosa
"Publications." Bulimia Nervosa Fact Sheet. Office on Women's Health, n.d. Web. 8 July 2014.
http://www.womenshealth.gov/publications/our-publications/fact-sheet/bulimia-nervosa.html
I chose to do my assignment on Bulimia Nervosa because I know someone dear to me who has suffered from this illness. She was very young in high school and she wanted to look thin and “beautiful”. She wanted to look fit like the rest of the girls but at the same time accomplish that goal the easy way. That girl was my best friend and it took her a while to tell me that she was engaging in such activity. She wanted to be thin like the women everybody idolizes, just to look good and be able to wear that perfect bikini, fit in a smaller size jeans and mainly just to feel beautiful. I have always heard of Bulimia Nervosa but I never knew anyone who personally suffered from this illness until she confronted me about her situation. I learned about a lot of different eating disorders, but going back about seven years ago when I found out that my best friend was affected by such and fast forwarding to today, I choose to look further into this illness.
According to the National Eating Disorders website they define Bulimia Nervosa as “a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by a cycle of bingeing and compensatory behaviors such as self-induced vomiting designed to undo or compensate for the effects of binge eating”. On the other hand according to the Women’s Health website Bulimia Nervosa “often called bulimia, is a type of eating disorder. A person with bulimia eats a lot of food in a short amount of time (binging) and then tries to prevent weight gain by getting rid of the food (purging). Purging might be done by making yourself throw up or taking laxatives (pills or liquids that speed up the movement of food through your body and lead to a bowel movement). I found both definitions to be interesting because when I first learned about bulimia I only knew about making yourself throw up, I am just learning about taking laxatives and I find that quite interesting.
From an anthropologist perspective I would have to promote the second definition because it list all of the possible ways a person affected by bulimia can purge to try and control their weight. An anthropologist looks at the situation from all angles and would want to find multiple solutions to the problem. A medical doctor and dentist in this situation would mainly focus on curing the patient of one of the possible negative effects that bulimia can cause. Bulimia Nervosa can be very harmful to your body; it can damage your digestive system, your blood, heart, body fluids, kidneys, intestines, hormones, your brain, cheeks, your mouth, throat and esophagus, muscles, stomach and skin. There is nothing positive about Bulimia Nervosa because it is very damaging. An anthropologist would acknowledge those problems as well but they would want to get a little more personal. Finding out why a person has chosen to engage in such activities or why they considered it and helping them to move on from this illness is how an anthropologist can study this illness. Bulimia can not only harm you physically, but mentally as well. An anthropologist can look into ones culture, family, sex, personality, stress or even biological factors to find out why a person has decided to become bulimic and how they can fix the problem.
"Bulimia Nervosa | National Eating Disorders Association." Bulimia Nervosa | National Eating Disorders Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 July 2014. https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/bulimia-nervosa
"Publications." Bulimia Nervosa Fact Sheet. Office on Women's Health, n.d. Web. 8 July 2014.
http://www.womenshealth.gov/publications/our-publications/fact-sheet/bulimia-nervosa.html