Dieting, Dating and Denial: Whose Body Is It?

Until recently, understanding about women's health has been traditionally mediated by the medical model, which tends to regard each health problem in a vacuum. Such an approach ignored important considerations, such as body image. In an effort to explore this health factor, a review of the literature regarding women's health and its relation to body image is presented here. The paper examines the concept of women's body image, including the obsession with thinness, the beauty myth, media impact, the commodification and objectification of women, pornography, the rape myth, women's self-worth, and multicultural differences in body image. The desire to be thin is rampant in U.S. society and the next section examines eating disorders and body image. Some of the issues covered include: the epidemiology and etiology of eating disorders and their pervasiveness on college campuses. Sexual violence is also a growing problem and some of the factors associated with this statistic, such as the rape trauma syndrome and coping with sexual violence, are discussed. Another contextual problem connected to body image is substance abuse, particularly the abuse of alcohol, as well as depression, anxiety, and sexuality. Some practice implications for counselors in how to address these various issues are outlined. (RJM)