Feministički pristup sociološkoj analizi poremećaja hranjenja

Brkić, Marko. (2013). Feministički pristup sociološkoj analizi poremećaja hranjenja. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Sociology. [mentor Galić, Branka].

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Abstract

This study considers the eating disorders phenomenon, within a sociological and feminist approach. We contest the dominant psychomedical model which views eating disorders as an individual pathology. As more than 90 percent of people with an eating disorder are female, and as the number of women with an eating disorders is on the rise only since the second half of the 20th century, this study explores the sociocultural context of these two facts. An overview of etiological explanations of eating disorders is presented, context of discovery of anorexia nervosa in the 19th century is questioned, and the analogy in meaning of self starvation then (in the Middle Ages) and now is contested. Causes of eating disorders are searched for within the society, and power relations and gender are viewed as key concepts. Foucault's view of the body is the theoretical footing in relating culture and eating disorders. Different feminist understandings of eating disorders are presented in this study, and an understanding based on social construction of the body is offered. Culture is thus seen as inscribing its rules on women's bodies, and as constructing the feminine ideal. The cult of thinness and the beauty ideal in contemporary society create a troubled relationship of women with their own bodies, and eating disorders are viewed as extremes on that continuum of problems. Through disciplinary practices of dieting, exercise etc., women are trying to achieve the physically impossible beauty and feminine ideal. Causes of eating disorders are to found in the today's feminine ideal, and culture is considered not only as contributing to those disorders but as indeed productive of eating disorders. Eating disorders, namely anorexia, can potentially be „read“ as a women's response to the dominant feminine ideal and their resistance to culture, and the existence of such a political/feminist conscience is also considered in this study.

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