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News Features
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By CANDICE REED Thursday, 24 August 2006
IMAGES of waif thin celebrities saturate the media, but do not cause eating disorders according to service manager for Auckland Regional Eating Disorders Services, Adele Wakeham. “It’s a long way from wanting to look like a Pussycat Doll to developing an eating disorder to actually be like that,” Ms Wakeham says. According to Ms Wakeham the incidence of eating disorders has not risen in Auckland, but there has been a predominant increase in females as young as eight referred to the district health board service. “We’re not quite sure why,” she says. “We can be treating up to eight girls in this eight to nine year age bracket at one time and it is very worrying. “We can speculate the reasons why, but it is quite a complex issue. Eating disorders are not due to one thing or factor in a persons life.” It has long been public debate that images of thin girls in the media contribute to teenage eating disorders and negative body image, and while Ms Wakeham admits video clips and scantily clad teen idols do influence teenage body perceptions it alone will not cause someone to develop anorexia or bulimia. “The trends are stable with population growth and cultural make up of city this size, we are consistent with what we expect and know of eating disorder rates,” Ms Wakeham says. “Of course these images are going to influence how young people act and dress and measure themselves, but this is not what causes the development of an eating disorder.” However high street retailers aimed at teenage consumers now stock sizes triple extra small. British chain stores Top Shop and Miss Selfridges stock size 4 (the US equivalent 0) and fashion magazines have labelled many celebrities members of Hollywood’s ‘size 0’ club. These include Nicole Richie, Keira Knightley and Victoria Beckham. Fashion retailers Glassons were contacted regarding the issue, but declined to comment while Portmans and Jay Jays did not reply at the time of press. Botany Downs Secondary College guidance counsellor Barbara Divehall says the retail influence plays a major role in defining teenage body image. “For a lot of girls their top priority is to be thin,” Mrs Divehall says. “The issue to look good and be able to wear clothes that look good on thin bodies is a big issue among teenage girls, body image is a big thing.” But eating disorders are not defined to females; at least one in 10 who develop an eating disorder will be males according to Mrs Divehall. “I don’t deal often with males but I do believe they feel the pressure too.” Majority of referrals to Mrs Divehall come via concerned friends and it is a long road for a trust relationship to be established before the school counsellor can address the issue. “It’s a hidden disease, people will go to huge lengths to hide what they are doing,” she says. “They don’t want people to know they have a eating disorder and do everything in their power to hide it. Usually it is their friends, or sometimes their mums who dob them in.” Several school curriculum discuss the topic of body image in its health class, looking at healthy eating, exercise and accepting different people have different body shapes, but Mrs Divehall says some students still ignore the advice. “No matter how much you tell students they often don’t think it refers to them, they think it’s about someone else,” she says. “They are almost blind to it, although it’s portrayed all around them. Thin bodies on music videos, on TV, in magazines, everything they come into contact with portrays thin.” The Auckland Regional Eating Disorder programme include a full assessment, an intensive programme for severe cases, a shared care programme combining GP advice and health system workers, a psychological education programme and a half day outing programme. • candicer@times.co.nz TEENAGERS have long been the most susceptible to body image pressure. Times reporter Candice Reed, spoke to local teenagers about the pressures to look good.
You feel pressure not to be fat, but people don’t mind if you are stick thin or not. I notice the subtle things people do, like friends not eating their lunch or even just walking through school or people saying, ‘oh, you’re on a diet because you’re drinking diet coke’ and you aren’t on a diet at all. It doesn’t worry me, but I can see how it would worry some people. I think Keira Knightley has a good image.
Some people are like ‘oh I’m getting fat’ and you have to tell them they’re not. You do get pressured, people don’t say ‘you’re fat’ to your face, but they say it silently by looking at you differently or looking at certain aspects of your body. I don’t think they mean to do it, but sometimes it can be your friends who put pressure on you. KIMONE Naidoo – 15 years
SHARON Tuck – 16 years
I don’t think guys feel the pressure as much. The media has different images for different people and males have a separate image of this big bulky good-looking man. Each society and age group has a different image too. I don’t think it is fair that females have way more pressure than males. I think Johnny Depp is the man, someone I look up too. ANDREW Rose – 15 years
I don’t feel any pressure, but I see other people could. I think it mainly comes from their friends and is more that they want to get accepted than look certain ways. Usually guys don’t say to each other,’ you’re fat’, or ‘you need to lose weight’, so it’s not really something I worry about. I think Johnny Depp is pretty cool too. | |||||||||
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