In the article regarding females and femininity, Susan Bordo provides perspectives I had yet to consider when reading sufferers of anorexia nervosa. Bordo argues the anorectics’ political standpoint “that female hunger – for public power, for independence, for sexual gratification – be contained, and the public space that women be allowed to take up be circumscribed, limited.” Accordingly, even if the anorectic is unaware she is making this standpoint, choosing to deny her appetite and allowing her body size to shrink only exaggerates the difference in size between herself and male counterparts. The men appear large and powerful, the woman frail and powerless. Sufferers of the disorder feel their culture disapproves of their hunger and forces them to make transformations to reach an unobtainable (and frankly nonexistent) perfection.
I have a subject. A high school friend – a bubbly spirit with (apparently) a large waistband – that fell into anorexia. My friend’s transformation (destruction) must have begun the summer after our freshman year together. The first day of school people were glad to see her look so healthy and happy, but within weeks she removed herself from social circles, delved in school work, and filled any open time with volunteering. She slipped away from us all as her body size AND personality vanished. Bordo wrote that “at school the anorectic discovers that her steadily shrinking body is admired … for the strength of will and self-control it projects.” This was true. My friend had these strange body practices – she would eat only an apple at lunch, for example, but would cut each slice only three millimeters thick or so to make it last. Girls would call the dainty apple wedges “cute” but by this point, everyone was in a position where they knew there was an underlying issue. Bordo also writes that “we continue to memorize on our bodies the feel and conviction of lack, of insufficiency, of never being good enough." My friend's docile body fought for objects: the highest grade in the class, the prettiest clothes out of our friends, the cutest haircut, the most time spent volunteering…anything to push her to a delicate and socially constructed “perfection”.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Bordo & a 16 year old
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I can totally relate to the story of your friend. My junior and senior year of high school there were two girls in my grade who everyone thought were suffering from anorexia. They barely ate anything at lunch and when they did it was not substantial enough to be called a meal. Eventually one of the girls started to put weight back on and look healthy again. However the other girl still looks unhealthy. This girl however claims that it is due to medical reasons that she is so skinny but wouldn't there be a way to fix her medical problem?
ReplyDeleteMy younger sister had a friend that claimed to have Celiac Disease to cover up her bulimia. She was terribly thin, except for her stomach (which I think was attributed to drinking, not eating or genetics). She'd come over to our house sometimes, maybe eat some pizza and ice cream, and then look at my sister and say "Ohhh I think I'm going to be sick tonight". She tried to pretend as if she could eat normal foods now and then, as long as she knew where the bathroom was just in case, when in reality she COULD eat normal foods but would throw them up afterwards.
ReplyDeleteHowever there was another girl at my high school that did in fact have Celiac Disease, and she was also thin, but had a proportionally thin body.
Now, maybe that girl you are talking about really did have a medical condition and maybe she really couldn't put on any weight, but I'm not too convinced based on your description of her...
It is very interesting to me that there are two positions one is able to take on the disease of anorexia. One side is what you are presenting, how when a woman succumbs to the disease she dwindles away. She takes up less space and focuses all of her attention and energy on everyone around her instead of herself. This position makes the man much more powerful than the tiny, frail, anorexic woman. The other position a reader can take is one of power and control. This is a view that an anorexic woman is strong willed and in control of her body. She sees herself in a competition with men for power, and thinks if she can control her body, she can control anything.
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