January 11, 2011

Native women binge and purge

American Indians suffer eating disordersAmerican Indian populations experience eating disorders to the same degree Caucasians do, U.S. researchers say.

Study leader Ruth Striegel-Moore of Wesleyan University in Connecticut finds the prevalence of binge eating, purging or being "diagnosed for an eating disorder" among American Indian women parallels ethnically white women.

"This commonality between American Indian and white women refutes the myth that eating disorders are problems that only affect white girls and women," Striegel-Moore says in a statement.
Comment:  These days Native and non-Native probably feel the same pressure to match Hollywood's ideal. I.e., to be young and beautiful like a model, actress, sex symbol, or princess.

This wasn't part of traditional Native cultures. Alas, it's part of them now.

For more on how society pressures girls, see Disney's Princesses Grow Up, a Little, Lovely Indian Girl Make Up Game, and Male Warriors and Female Princesses.

Below:  Who wants to be a squaw?



When she could be a princess?



Women, you too can be a Lovely Indian Girl like Pocahontas if you just binge and purge.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, it's more than that. People with eating disorders usually feel a need to have control over something, because their lives are out of control. The really bad cases actually become psychotic, anthropomorphizing their eating disorders with a pun name.

Wild One said...

I have never known any Indian women who did this, but it must be the younger generation catching on to it as the article states. Too much access to all the twisted modern media.