eating disorders & body image

The Lasallian Women and Gender Resource Center hopes to create an inclusive, comprehensive and educating platform to discuss issues like body dysmorphia, eating disorders, and nutrition. To do so, it is essential that we use an intersectional approach and welcome all identities to engage in this space.

This is a space to learn and to question how you may engage with the preexisting forms of beauty, beauty standards and body positivity. We draw on intersectional feminism and the body positivity and fat activism movements to disrupt the idea that real, unbrave beauty is that of the petite white woman. We challenge ourselves and our community to expel that belief--as deep rooted as it is--and choose instead to redefine our values as separate from those of the white supremecist patriarchy from which our society was built.

By radically accepting the beauty and dignity of all bodies, of all sizes and all races, be they cis, trans, or nonbinary, our community redefines beauty standards to celebrate our worth, our passion and our potential.

*Trigger Warning*

This section will discuss eating disorders, disordered eating and topics of body image. If you are struggling with any of these issues, or if someone close to you is, please feel free to contact any of the below personnel. If this content will be in any way triggering for you, we highly recommend seeking outside support, or reading through with a trusted friend or family member.

our intersectional approach

It is essential to use an intersectional lens when discussing eating disorders. And to do that, it is important to understand just what intersectionality means. The LWGRC emphasizes using intersectionality in all aspects of your life, because it is a pathway to properly understanding and engaging with all different kinds of identities.

Intersectionality, defined by Black feminists like Kimberly Crenshaw, Patricia Hill Collins, and the Combahee River Collective, understands our identities and our locations in patterns of oppression as shaped by our gender, race, class, sexuality, and nation. Our beauty standards, and the ideal body image they perpetuate, are not neutral: they are gendered, raced, classed and sexed, and perpetuated by a $100 million industry.

Emily and Amelia Nagoski call this the The Bikini Industrial Complex: a colossal industry that reinforces a culture of the ideal, thin woman. The Nagoskis argue that this industry is what aligns “fat” with “laziness”, and that there is a function to your body beyond creating a toned, trimmed physique.

And so the impacts of body dysmorphia and eating disorders, likewise, are shaped by our gendered, raced, classed, and sexed identities. You and I are not a singular identity, we are a collection of many intertwining identities that make our experiences much more unique and complex than we are taught to believe. And that is why a more comprehensive and inclusive space is needed to discuss eating disorders.

The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders(ANAD) has found that BIPOC, LGBTQ, and people with larger bodies or disabilities have been disproportionately affected by eating disorders and/or not received proper diagnosis/treatment. It is incredibly important for eating disorders awareness and for our center to be accepting and informative for all women and women identifying individuals.

body image

As a society structured upon white supremacy and heteronormativity,

there are clear ideals for what a man

and a woman should look like. These ideals are deeply internalized and perpetuated

by the billion dollar industry that is described

by the Nagoski sisters. And while this ideal body

is quite simply BS, it is incredibly valid to be

struggling with your body image. What is

important to recognize about body image is

that it is just that, an image. Despite the very

real emotions that body image may provoke,

the image itself is not rooted in reality.

Instead, it is encouraged and perpetuated

by our society which values the thin,

white woman who remains youthful despite

the passing of time that should yield natural aging.

Emily Nagoski says that the first step to combat this is to differentiate

“beauty” from “culturally constructed aspirational aesthetic ideal[s].” She

explains that beauty is an inherent thing that is present in all nature, including

us. Beauty is present in the very fact that we are living, breathing creatures and

we can--and should--recognize beauty in all of the different parts of each other,

whether that be through a forehead wrinkle or the curl of someone’s hair.

These culturally perpetuated ideals, on the other hand, are supported

by the billion dollar industry that feeds off of our insecurities and the

flaws that these ideals have told us we must have.

Because of this industry, we have become convinced that beauty

only exists when we conform to that ideal body image. Emily

Nagoski instead makes a critical point: we don’t HAVE to be

beautiful, because we already are. There is nothing that you

MUST DO to BECOME beautiful. Instead, the issue lives in our

need to address our own prejudices and the impact that our society

has made on our body image. We need to look inside and acknowle-

-dge the ways in which we feel we are not adequate.

stats for BIPOC

-BIPOC are significantly less likely than white people to have been asked by a doctor about eating disorder symptoms.

-BIPOC with eating disorders are half as likely to be diagnosed or to receive treatment.

-Black people are less likely to be diagnosed with anorexia than white people but may experience the

condition for a longer period of time.

-Black teenagers are 50% more likely than white teenagers to exhibit bulimic behavior, such as binge-

eating and purging.

-Hispanic people are significantly more likely to suffer from bulimia nervosa

than their non-Hispanic peers.

-Asian American college students report higher rates of restriction compared with

their white peers and higher rates of purging, muscle building, and cognitive

restraint than their white or non- Asian, BIPOC peers.

-Asian American college students report higher levels of body dissatisfaction and

negative attitudes toward obesity than their non-Asian, BIPOC peers.

stats for LGBTQ+

-Gay men are seven times more likely to report binge-eating and twelve times more likely to report purging than heterosexual men

-Gay and bisexual boys are significantly more likely to fast, vomit, or take laxatives or diet pills to control their weight

-Transgender college students report experiencing disordered eating at approximately four times the rate of their cisgender classmates.

-32% of transgender people report using their eating disorder to modify their body without hormones

-56% of transgender people with eating disorders believe their disorder is not related to their physical body

-Gender dysphoria and body dissatisfaction in transgender people is often cited as a key link to eating disorders

-Non-binary people may restrict their eating to appear thin, consistent with the common stereotype of androgynous people in popular culture

stats for people with disabilities

-20-30% of adults with eating disorders also have autism.

-3-10% of children and young people with eating disorders also have autism.

-Women with physical disabilities are more likely to develop eating disorders.

-ADHD is the most commonly missed diagnosis in relation to disordered eating.

-20% of women with anorexia have high levels of autistic traits. There is some evidence that these women benefit the least from current eating disorder treatment models.

stats for people in larger bodies

-Less than 6% of people with eating disorders are medically diagnosed as “underweight.”

-Larger body size is both a risk factor for developing an eating disorder and a common outcome for people who struggle with bulimia and binge eating disorder

-People in larger bodies are half as likely as those at a “normal weight” or “underweight” to be diagnosed with an eating disorder.

stats for athletes

-Athletes report higher rates of excessive exercise than non‐athletes.

-Athletes may be less likely to seek treatment for an eating disorder due to stigma, accessibility, and sport‐specific barriers

-Athletes are more likely to screen positive for an eating disorder than non‐athletes, but percentages across all probable eating disorder diagnoses are similar.

resources

As always, the staff at the LWGRC are available for any guidance or support and can be reached at lasallianwomenandgender@gmail.com, via instagram or twitter at @mc_lwgrc, or in our office in room 3C in the Student Commons.

CAMPUS RESOURCES:

MC Counseling Center: Counseling Center | Inside Manhattan College

Phone Number: (718)862-7394; Email: Julie Egan at jegan01@manhattan.edu; Visit: Miguel Hall room 501 (For emergencies please call 911 or Public Safety at 718-862-7333)

MC Health Services: Health Services | Inside Manhattan College

Phone Number: (718)862-7217; Email: healthservices@manhattan.edu; Visit: Horan Hall 218

MC Dietician: Kayla Kirschner, Phone Number: (906)926-4706; Email: diningservices@manhattan.edu

EATING DISORDER HOTLINES:

Eating Disorders Helpline | Chat, Call, or Text | NEDA

Online Chat available: Monday—Thursday 9am—9pm ET; Friday 9am—5pm ET

Call available at (800) 931-2237: Monday—Thursday 11am—9pm ET; Friday 11am—5pm ET

Text available at (800) 931-2237: Monday—Thursday 3pm—6pm ET; Friday 1pm—5pm ET

Crisis Text Line: If you are in a crisis and need help immediately, text “NEDA” to 741741 to be connected with a trained volunteer at Crisis Text Line. Crisis Text Line provides free, 24/7 support via text message to individuals who are struggling with mental health, including eating disorders, and are experiencing crisis situations.

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