And yet, where sufferers of the latter often receive sympathetic medical care and acceptance in Western Society, it is not uncommon to find the same society ostracizing or criticizing the bearers of eating disorders, attacking such aspects of the individual's personality as willpower, self- respect and personal appearance . The alternative, in comparison, must be awful indeed. Women, Body Image and Eating Disorders Social norms for women's acceptable physical characteristics have often been defined as unrelenting, inflexible and unrealistic. Chernin claims that the generations of women taking on today's social change of women's empowerment often act out unresolved identity issues through disordered eating patterns. It seems then, that food, a means by which humans live, is used by many women to express their difficulty with living.
Compulsive eating is a compulsion to eat despite lack of hunger.
A compulsive eater may have eaten a complete meal, feel stuffed, and still eat more. The eating is not connected to physical needs, and the overeater will often feel unwell as a result of the compulsive eating, but will nonetheless continue with the destructive behavior. Being a compulsion, it is something the individual feels she must do, and which, once achieved, may have an anxiety-lowering effect. They will eat large quantities of food, and do not stop until they are uncomfortably full. Most people with this disorder are obese and have a history of weight problems fluctuation.