This is why I believe it is crucial that we continue to provide care for the patients, even when they refuse it, and that we continue to seek a better understanding of these disorders. We are taught that the ideal North American woman is pencil-thin, with no hips and no tummy, and that such impossible thinness will bring us success and happiness. We do not always recognize these images of the ideal woman as being myth, and instead respond by trying to force our bodies into a socially acceptable size and shape. We often look outside ourselves for a definition of how we should be, and try to live up to it. They urge their daughters to conform, to stay slim, and to make themselves more attractive.
Public figures try to be slim, and very few public women accept their large bodies.
We do not see acceptance of a large size as a reasonable alternative. The value placed in our society on looking good outweighs considerations of character, personality, productivity and social contributions. We have a strong need to belong, so we try to look like the social ideal. Try to understand as much as you can about the pressures on you to be different, to be slim, to diet, to exercise beyond reason. Give serious thought to what you believe about your body, why you believe it, and what such beliefs mean to you.