Globalization of Eating Disorders by Susan Bordo

Susan Bordo’s article “The Globalization of Eating Disorders” will really question how you perceive others as well as yourself. Bordo’s article gives us plenty of examples of women as well as men across the world changing their habits to look like someone else.
Most of these women have an eating disorder, an image disorder, or maybe even both. What happens to these women is serious. To these women it is never good enough. They cannot seem to satisfy themselves until they get very sick.
Some men with this image disorder are obsessing over the way they look too. We all want to be ripped, lean, and tone, but some men take it too serious and start abusing steroids. Facial creams to make men look younger are becoming more and more popular.
People all across the world are changing eating habits and the way they dress. In Bordo’s article she gives us an example that explains how one country can change in only three years. Prior to 1995 Fiji did not have televisions and women did not have eating disorders. In 1995 Fiji introduced the first television station. In 1998 girls were dieting during previous months. Some girls admitted to vomiting to control their weight.
As you read on in Bordo’s article and as I already mentioned, men everywhere are developing this eating and image disorders. Why is it that this is becoming an issue for men now too? Men are always teasing women about their insecurity. Now we find out that these men are insecure about the way they look as well. Bordo tells us that men will look in the mirror to find that they are “soft and ill defined” regardless of how muscular they actually are. Women look in the mirror and think “I’m fat, I need to lose weight.” Men look in the mirror and think “I’m weak, I need to work out and build my arm strength.” Although these are different thoughts, they are exactly the same. They share a body image disorder. The women will stop eating and become very ill and the men will use steroids to build themselves up. Obviously neither of the two solutions are very healthy at all.
The role the media plays is so powerful that men and women across the world are willing to change their believes and their day to day habits only to look like someone else. Bordo wrote this article to warn us all how serious these disorders can be. Who is to blame for these changes across the world? There are many variables we can blame it on but we simply do not know. What will you do to stop it from affecting you and your loved ones?