According to Caroline Walker Bynum, medieval women fasted for the purpose of a. becoming thin. In discussing standard models of womanhood as presented in women's magazines, the author suggests that the traditional ideal picture of a woman was a. understood by most women to be unattainable. In current magazine depictions of women, the one feature that diverse models all share is a. slenderness. The main problem with magazine images of women is a. they don't represent the majority of women. In the author's opinion, the Evangelical approach of Christian dieting a. provides a more effective motivation for losing weight.
Society promises to reward women who achieve slenderness with a. social approval.
Many dieters train themselves to experience intense hunger as pleasurable. Effective methods of weight loss are equally available to everyone. Dieting is a profitable business because it produces permanent results. This provides a clue that the struggles of girls and women with eating problems indicate a. a wish for death. Moving out of the prison of eating problems depends first upon a shift in consciousness which occurs when a girl or woman a. realizes why she started this habit in the first place.