Last month in Australia a 6 foot tall 19 year old woman weighing 108 lbs ran for Miss Universe. That gives her a BMI of 15.1 when normal weight is between 18.5-24.9!!!!!! No wonder her size brought scandal, and rightfully so! In the dancing and modeling world the smaller you are the higher up in that world you will be (or so its promised by teachers and coaches). In an account I had read in my Abnormal Psych book, one teacher told a ballerina that he wanted to be able to see each bone in her rib cage (Butcher, Mineka & Hooley, 245). Because of the demands of such occupations many women find themselves suffering from anorexia. In my grant proposal I discussed individuals overcoming obesity who place themselves through rigorous exercise that can be constituted as torture. Here, I wish to discuss the opposite of this notion.
Foucault discusses torture as 1- causing a certain amount of pain, 2- controlling in type, length, and intensity of pain, & 3- ritualizing the pain by either marking the body or by the spectacle that goes with it (33-34). Under these criteria the process anorexics place themselves through can be considered torture as well. Not eating can cause hunger pangs (1), the amount of food eaten as well as the time in between eating is heavily controlled (2), the small amounts of food eaten are taken care of in a very precise manner in a ritualistic way and the lack of sufficient nutients leaves numerous marks on the body with the most noticeable being emaciation (3).
Overall, it is a very serious disorder that highly affects the body which causes much physical torture as well as psychological torture.
- http://www.thatsfit.com/2009/04/24/super-thin-miss-universe-contestant-sparks-outrage/?icid=mainmaindl2link3http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thatsfit.com%2F2009%2F04%2F24%2Fsuper-thin-miss-universe-contestant-sparks-outrage%2F
- Foucault, Michel. Sheridan, Alan trans., “Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison”. New York: Random House, Inc., 1977.
- Abnormal Psychology: Core Concepts. Butcher, Mineka & Hooley. Pearson, 2008.
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