Exam (Grad Credit): How Parents, Schools, and the Media Contribute to Adolescent Eating Disorders.
Adolescent girls have always "fallen through the cracks."" As a middle school teacher I see the damage that a look-obsessed, media -saturated, " female poisoning- culture has on my students. They feel valued only for their appearance. Girls place more importance on popularity, sexual experience, and "fitting in " than on academics, sports, or personal health. .
For the exam I choose to successfully complete reading two books. I read the book Wasted: a memoir of anorexia and bulimia by Marya Hornbacher. I also read the book Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls by Mary Pipher.
It seems that everywhere I look, every time I turn on the TV, food is a constant. I have traveled all over the world, and I think that the US is the worst country in terms of diet pills, thinness and liposuction- our wealth makes us eager to pay someone to perform surgery to suck fat away because we ate too much and are too lazy to go to the gym. American's want a quick fix, eternal thinness but only if we can still super size our meals and overindulge 24/7. I was shocked to see the latest statistic reported by People Magazine from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that 30% of American adults are obese- obese not just fat! I was even more ashamed that 15% of children between the ages of 6 and 19 are obese. .
I wanted to look at how my background helped me to overcome biological and emotional factors that trigger eating disorders and food obsessions. What perceptions and views did I have that Marya , my roommate, cousin and many other women I read about not have through childhood, school age, college and adulthood? Why did they have food disorders and I didn't? I feel that my strong self-worth, supportive parental involvement, a healthy view of food, and nutritional knowledge all factors that helped me to survive the personal hell these women went through.