Between disease and lifestyle, between conformism and rebellion : Anorexia nervosa in feminist interpretations of the 1980s and 1990s
Abstract
The article introduces feminist interpretations of anorexia nervosa carried out by American and English researchers in the 1980s and 1990s: Kim Chernin, Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Susie Orbach, Susan Bordo and Helen Malson. Although there is nothing like one feminist perspective and the deliberations of the mentioned authors differ in many aspects, the starting point for all of them is the recognition that anorexia nervosa affects mainly girls and women.
Most of the authors seek to answer the question why this is so with consideration of the cultural aspects present in Western societies in the second half of the 20th century. The analysis of the cultural, social and philosophical facets is most prominent in the work of Susan Bordo.
Susie Orbach and Kim Chernin, who employ a psychoanalytic perspective as well, whereas Joan Jacobs Brumberg and Helen Malson examine the problem from a poststructuralist perspective, focusing not on finding causes of the disorder, but rather on analyzing discourses about anorexia nervosa, food, the body and femininity. Whilst the earliest feminist works on eating disorders attempt to describe anorexia nervosa in clear categories interpreting it either as an illness or an extreme manifestation of aspects present in the culture, either as a pathology or a lifestyle, either as an expression of conformity to the social norms or a rebellion against them, later writings - represented here by Helen Malson - recognize the ambivalence inherent to eating disorders and their interpretations.
With the development of poststructuralist thought and constructivism there is a shift from seeking definitive truths about eating disorders to the analysis of the related discourses.