Our Culture is the Biggest Loser: Gender, Body Image, and Everyday Acts of Rebellion

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Our Culture is the Biggest LoserGender, Body
Image, and Everyday Acts of Rebellion
Michael Levine, Ph.D., FAED Department of
Psychology, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH
43022-9623 October 24, 2007, Beloit College,
Beloit WI Levine_at_kenyon.edu
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Dr. Michael Levine

• 1. Professor of Psychology, Kenyon College
  BMI 30.0476483 Obese
• Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology Fellow, Academy
  of Eating Disorders Daughter is Philosophy
  Political Science major Wife has Ph.D. in
  Medieval history, teaches in Religious Studies
  and WGS Both shop at Victorias Secret. . . .
• 3. Age 58 Really likes Pat Benatar
• 4. Grew up in Southern California Idol was
  philandering, alcoholic, immature superstar
  ballplayer Mickey Mantle
• No body images issues at all
• Note Rare photo -- Michael Levine
• as assistant professor, Fall 1979

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What Happening in Fiji? Study by Anne Becker,
MD, Ph.D., M.Sci., et al. at Harvard Medical
School

• Culture-specific illness called
  macake-undereating disorder
• Culture-specific condition called going thin
• 1995 - just after television was introduced - 3
  of Fijian girls (average age of 17) reported
  vomiting to control weight.
• - 13 scored high risk for disordered
  eating
• 1998 - 38 months post television - 15 of Fijian
  girls
• reported vomiting to control weight.
• - 29 scored high risk for disordered
  eating

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Levines Wrestle-maniaCorrelation does not
imply Causality, But. . . .

• Pronounced gender difference in body image issues
  and disordered eating (8-101)
• Developmental and historical risk points
• The normative discontent
• Hows that War on Obesity
• workin out for ya?
• Emergence of body image problems steroid abuse
  among males

1904 American Greeting Cards
2005
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On Shared Ground -- Weight (too much or too
little), Health, Disordered Eating

• Body dissatisfaction ?life dissatisfaction
• Disturbances of interoceptive awareness
• Unhealthy dieting
• Maladaptive weight management
• Binge-eating and chaotic food consumption
• Inadequate nutrition
• Dealing with culture(s) and cultural change
• Unhealthy relationships with food/activity/exercis
  e

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Easily Extracted MessagesIndulge a Little
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Levines Wrestle-maniaCorrelation does not
imply Causality, But. . . .

• Pronounced gender difference in body image
• issues and disordered eating (8-101)
• Developmental and historical risk points
• The normative discontent
• Hows that War on Obesity workin
• out for ya?
• Emergence of body image problems
• steroid abuse among males

Head Optional
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The Adonis Ideal

• Mesomorphic ideal
• Men are defined by size, power, and strength
• Lean muscular attractive
• muscularity manly success
• muscularity health

All Muscle except for Fat in Head
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Youll Always Be the Object of My Attention
Always quilted sanitary napkins
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Levines Recommended Principles of Everyday
Rebellion and Truly Primary Prevention

• 1. The issue for prevention is us and our
  cultures, not them and their eating disorders
  or their obesity. Thus we must think
  contextually and in terms of how each member of
  the community can contribute

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Sometimes it is Hard to Love the One Body
Youre With
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Pervasive Messages--Multiple Sources

• Health professionals
• Parents
• Educators
• Mass media
• Books
• Peers
• Citizens

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Love Or at Least Accept and Care For the Body
Youre With

• Body dissatisfaction is neither feminine nor
  normal
• in the sense of being natural and unchangeable
• Body dissatisfaction is not motivational
• Body dissatisfaction is typically not harmless
• Body dissatisfaction often feeds on prejudice,
  trauma, and objectification

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Thus, According to a Sociocultural
Perspective Sociocultural variables are causal
factors in the development of risk factors (for
eating problems and eating disorders

• Negative body image
• Weight concerns
• Thinness and/or
• muscularity/leanness
• schema

Sociocultural Factors or Pressures
Continuum of Clinically Significant Disordered
Eating
Parents
Parents
Peers

• Negative affect
• Negative self- concept

Media

• Ego deficits
• Emotional instability
• History of overweight
• Impulsive or SS

Other (School, Athletics)
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A Sociocultural Perspective Does Not

• Deny any role for genetics or neurobiology as
  important but not the only important sources
  of individual differences in vulnerability
• Minimize the seriousness of full-blown eating
  disorders, nor fail to make any distinctions
  between different types or levels of disordered
  eating
• Expect that one model of risk will fit all
  cultures or both genders or all ages

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What About the Rarity of EDs?A Look at Risk
Factors Probability (Hanson, 2004)

• If there were 4 (relatively) independent risk
  factors for bulimia nervosa, then to achieve a
  population frequency of .02 (the point
  prevalence), each would have to occur at a
  frequency of .38 in the population, because .38
  to the 4th power (.384) .0208.
• The factors that lead to schizophrenia, as Dr.
  Gottesman taught us, are multiple. These factors
  must be quite common in the population and thus
  are not necessarily abnormal. We need to get
  out of our mindset of searching for abnormal
  schizophrenia genes and broaden our view to look
  at normal individual genetic variation in
  conjunction with exposure to common environmental
  agents (p. 214)

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Principle 2 Prevention and treatment are not
just a female issue they are a community
issue that involves boys and men in various ways.
Head Optional Whatever. . .

• Blue Oyster Cult Syndrome (BOCS) Im Burning
  for You.

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The New Creation-ismWhere the Boys Are
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An Even GreaterAmerican Hero
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Do You Think Barbie Still Dreams of Ken?
Barbie Ken (1950s)
Michael Levine as undergraduate in The Iliad
(1968)
Spawn
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Principle 3 Raging Against the Machine will be
Challenging because it inevitably means
confronting and challenging pervasive ecological
messages Gender, Class, Race, and Power

• Womens bodies belong to men
• A woman of substance and power
• is a frightening, ugly thing
• Success is narrowly defined and it
• means being up to date and stylish
• Diversity in physical appearance and
• in culture is undesirable
• Women must negotiate dramatic changes in
  cultures--and do it in a quiet, pleasing way

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Principle 4 Everyday Acts of Rebellion and
Machine-Focused Raging (MFR) Take
OvariesCulture change requires a
critical/analytic perspective, attention to
social justice, and activism--and thus it
requires dialogue, collaboration, and courage.

• This cause is not altogether and exclusively
  womens cause. It is the cause of human
  brotherhood as well as human sisterhood, and both
  must rise and fall together. Woman cannot be
  elevated without elevating man, and man cannot be
  depressed without depressing woman also.
• - Frederick Douglas
• 1848

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Principle 5The Issue is Us (Weekly) - Continued

• Prevention will failand may well be harmfulif
  it concentrates solely on the definition of
  clinical syndromes, the portrayal of fascinating
  cases, and the dangers of disordered eating.
• The issue is the cost to individuals and
  society of set of issues, each of which (1)
  relates to negative body image and disordered
  eating and (2) could be seen spectrum or
  continuum
• negative body image internalization
  of impossible ideals
• self-objectification drive for
  thinness/leanness
• fear of fat unhealthy weight
  management
• shaky self-esteem chaotic
  (including binge-) eating
• compensatory extremes of
  activity/exercise
• extremes (perfectionism)

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The Real F-Word

• You look great,
• youve put on fat!

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Us Weekly The Hyprocritic OathEasily Extracted
Messages

• WEIGHTISM
• Prejudice
• Vilification of fat and fat people, especially
  females
• Glorification of slenderness

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Fat People Spoil the Environment

• Fat people lack self-control
• Fat people are neurotic and overeat for
  psychological reasons
• Weight and shape are highly malleable

• Fat and weight make you sick thin is healthier
• Fat people cannot be physically fit
• Fat people need to diet, and fatter people need
  to diet a lot (more)

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Beauty Standards1940s 1950s
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Beauty Standards 1950s - 1960s
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Beauty Standards1970s 1980s
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Beauty Standards 1990s
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Beauty Standards 2003
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But. . . But. . . But What?
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Summer 2004 Still the Objectof My Gaze (and
Your Own?)
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No, Really You are Still the Objectof My Gaze
(and Your Own?) 2005

• Bad Ad Contest Winner for 2005, New Mexico
  Media Literacy Project
• www.mnmlp.org
• Submitted by Max Africk. Isidore Newman
  School, New Orleans LATeacher Ann Sayas

Open Season Advertisement for __________?
Everybody wants a piece of Dentyne Gum
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Easily Extracted Messages VIII But. . . But
When Tempted To Overindulge (1930)
We do not say smoking Luckies reduces flesh. We
do say that when tempted to overindulge, reach
for a Lucky instead.
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I know weve come a long way were changing
day-to-day
Woman 112 lbs Body wt 111 lbs Pantsuit 1 lb
BMI at 58 is 16.9
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Return to Gender Address Well Known
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A Recent Media-Based Ericksonian Pscyhosocial
Stage Identity Diffused and Refused and Suffused
Head Optional
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Identity Diffused and Refused and Suffused
(continued ad nauseum)
Any culture that treats its women as children
and its children as women is going to have major
problems with images, bodies, and body images
(Smolak Levine, 1990s)
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Prevention, Knowledge, and Research
If you want to truly understand something, try
to change it

• - Kurt Lewin (1890-1947)
• (no date/source, as quoted in)
• APA Policy and Planning Board. (2007). Who cares
  about APA policy
• and does it have an impact? American
  Psychologist, 62, 491-503.

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Implications of a Sociocultural Perspective A
Bolder Model of Prevention (Irving, 1999)

• "Each of us must be the change we want to see
  in the world
• - Mohandas K. Gandhi

• Personal
• Professional
• Political

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Principle 9 Prevention and Education requires
a critical/analytic perspective, attention to
social justice, and activism--and thus it
requires dialogue, collaboration, and courage.
Mae Jemison, M.D. First African American Astronaut

• Elizabeth Cady Stanton
• 1815-1902
• Reformer.

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Anger in the Service of Love

• Somebody ought to
• do something

Kappa Slappa Ho
The Ultimate Driving Machine as -- The
Ultimate Attraction --
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But What, Like, Really, Can Anybody Do?

• Kenyon
• 2001-2002 ?
• Andy Mills Becky
• Osborn Erica
• Neitz (01)
• (with support from Drs.
• Levine, Smolak, Murnen
• and
• several counselors, teachers, and
  principals in the Mt. Vernon City School System)

See www.gurze.com
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THE POLITICALHope is Everywhere and so is
determination and skill

• Dads and Daughters, Inc.
• Joe Kelly and Nancy Gruver
• www.dadsanddaughters.org
• Protest, praise, advocacy

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One Person in a Small Town Can Begin the Process
of Making a Difference

• A great model an ongoing narrative of
  courage, resistance, and change is the Red
  Wing, MN non-profit organization described at
  Higherself.com, which grew out of the GO GIRLSTM
  program guided by
• Sarah Stinson

• High school girls who have
• Protested
• Taught
• Advocated
• Testified in the US congress
• Formed a non-profit corporation

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Goldberg et al. (2000) The Adolescents Training
Learning to Avoid Steroids (ATLAS) Program

• Education, media literacy, media advocacy,
  refusal skills, nutrition strength training
• HS football players (vs. controls) 1 year FU
• -- greater knowledge (exercise, AS)
• -- less investment in images of use
• -- less intent to use
• -- less new use
• -- saw coaches as less tolerant
• ATHENA for girls
• http//www.ohsu.edu/hpsm/atlas.html

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Implications of a Sociocultural PerspectiveAn
Ecological ApproachA Simplified Look at the
Rose Paradox (Austin, 2001 Rose, 1995)

• Number Risk - Disorder
  N___
• 10,000 High
  12 1200
• 90,000 Lower
  2 1800
• 100,000 total Low-mod? 3
  3000
• Selective-Targeted Prevention is not the only
  answer!

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A Bolder Model of Prevention (Irving,
1999 Levine, Piran, Stoddard, 1999 Levine
Smolak, 2006 Maine, 2000 Piran, 2001 Sigall
Pabst, 2005)


5 Components of Effective Prevention
Cultural Literacy

Personal

Collaboration Consciousness-Raising Competencies
Choices and Changes adapted from gender
literacy work of Sigall Pabst
Awareness Analysis Activism and
Advocacy Access (e.g., to media)

Professional
Political
You must be the change You wish to see in the
world - Ghandi
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THE PROFESSIONAL Implications of a Focus on
Nervosa for College Campuses
Consciousness-raising Connections
Collaborations Competencies Choices Change
Undergraduate Education

• Student Life
• RA training
• Panhellenic groups
• Service learning in schools
• GLTG groups

Graduate and professional education

• Front Lines Clinical Services
• Therapy and counseling
• Support services
• Continuing education and professional development

• Athletics
• Athletes
• Training
• Coaching

• Other Forms of Outreach and Advocacy
• EDAW, or ANAD
• Alumni Magazine
• Arts and Lectures

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THE PROFESSIONAL Implications of Current
ResearchEducation is a Foundation

• Content
• The Clash
• Critical analysis
• Gender and identity
• Health and performance ? well-being
• Action and activism
• Media and cultural literacy

• Processes
• Dialogue
• Discovery
• Teaching
• Social norms
• Integration

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THE PERSONAL Body Image Remember and Practice
The Bill of Rights I have and will exercise the
right to

• Nourish my body and spirit
• Appreciate my body, which will never be perfect
• Feel good in and about my body
• Remind myself that there are hundreds of very
  admirable people whose body shapes vary
  tremendously my role or real models
• Exercise my control over what I watch, pay
  attention to, talk back to, buy. . . .

• Remind myself, constantly if necessary, of the
  following 10 or more good things about my body
• Be fit and energetic, no matter what I look like
• To dance, swim, sunbathe, and be active no matter
  what I look like
• To wear clothes that are comfortable and express
  my selfmy styleno matter what I look like

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Body Image Be a Real Super Model

• Reject weightism as an untenable form
• of prejudice
• Modify your body image, not your
• weight and shape
• a. Practice refusing self-criticism,
• not restricting
• b. Draining the mirror scale
• c. Drunk on the street test
• Make contact with people,
• not war on your body, your mind,
• your spirit. Refuse fat talk or the BDG
• Hills Daily Diet of Praise Affirming
• skill, strength, care, presence

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THE PERSONAL Body Image Be a Real Super Model

• Study culture, cultures,
• history, gender, resistance,
• transformation--for both
• boys and girls
• Talk to others, making
• the private into the public
• Promote safety, respect,
• and substance

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Implications of a Sociocultural Perspective
Critical Reflection

• A democratic civilization will save itself only
  if it makes the language of the image into a
  stimulus for critical reflection--not an
  invitation for hypnosis

-- Umberto Eco
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Sensible Nutrition, Activity, andOther Changes
for Health

• Make healthy lifestyle changes, not war on your
  weight, your body, and your spirit
• Nourish yourself with sufficient fuel
• eating small(er) amounts throughout the day
• Dont diet -- reject the dieting mentality
• Eat less salt, red meat, saturated fat
• Eat more fruit and vegetables
• Exercise and Be Active for the four Fs Fun,
  Fitness, Friendship, and Function

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THE PERSONALSensible Nutrition, Activity,
andOther Changes for Health

• Make healthy lifestyle changes, not war
• on your weight, your body, and your spirit
• Make meals sociable and pleasant
• No calorie- or fat-talk at meals
• No watching people eat
• Turn off the TV
• Whats eating me? Not What am I
• eating?

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Principle 7 Some Things are Like
PreventionHard to Understand How it Could
Happen,But It Needs to be Done
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Reverse Care Bear Stare and the Conditional
Negative Ray Not Ready to Make Nice
Lost Cat Card from Caddylax Graffix
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Were Not Going to Take It

• When will women not be compelled to view their
  bodies as science projects, gardens to be weeded,
  dogs to be trained?
• Marge Piercy, cited in M. Maine (2000)
• ANAD Hersheys (1988)
• EDAP Hormels (1996)

1983 Nobel Prize Winner (Chemistry) Barbara
McClintock at Cornell, 1929
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ITS TIME TO STAND UP IF YOU REALLY DO BELIEVE
THAT

• The type of person you are
• your character,
• your substance,
• your spirit and guts
• are more important than your
• weight or pants size.

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ITS TIME TO STAND UP IF -- YOU REALLY DONT
BELIEVE THAT

• Every person
• is entitled to
• respect and dignity
• no matter what their
• size and shape,
• their apparent fitness,
• the color of their skin,
• or their gender

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ITS TIME TO STAND UP IF YOU REALLY DO BELIEVE
THAT

• Individual differences -- diversity -- in height
  and weight and body shape are a very bad thing
• And
• All girls should be tall and thin, while all
  boys should be tall and muscular People should
  be more like the manikins in the store

Model for Rosa Cha Spring 2007 Fashion
Week 9-14-06
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Its Time to Stand Up and Take on and Take Up
Space The Final Frontier

• Work to surround yourself with, and connect
  yourself and your loved ones to, women of
  substance women who take up space in the world
  and have something to say about it

Queen Latifah
Carolyn Costin
Margo Maine
Wm. Elliot Amy Dennis
Linda Smolak
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Collaboration is Key OR How Many Levines Does
It Take to Change A Culture?
Michael Gambier, Ohio
Paula - Miami, FL
Richard Hershey, PA
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ITS TIME TO STAND UP IF YOU REALLY DO BELIEVE
THAT

• People -- and especially girls -- should treat
  their bodies as objects, things, and commodities
  to be sculpted, starved, leered at, jeered at,
  sneered at, and painted into shape -- that
  peoples bodies are in many ways no different
  than cars. . . .

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ITS TIME TO STAND UP IF -- YOU REALLY DONT
BELIEVE THAT

• You can tell how good a person is -- how
  talented, caring, friendly, trustworthy, funny,
  spirited, spiritual -- by watching what they eat
  and seeing how much they weigh or whether they
  work out a lot and look hot but somehow cool

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ITS TIME TO STAND UP IF -- YOU REALLY DO BELIEVE
THAT

• People should work together with their family,
  their friends, their colleagues, their church,
  and other groups who refuse to keep silent and to
  sit still when they see injustice and lack of
  necessary resources in the world That it is
  important to take a stand for what is HEALTY and
  RIGHT and DECENT. . . .

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On SG-1 and Led Zeppeln and You-TubePlanning
the Day for Prevention

• It is hard to know when to respond to the
  seductiveness of the world and when to respond to
  its challenge. If the world were merely
  seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely
  challenging, that would be no problem. But I
  arise in the morning torn between the desire to
  improve the world and a desire to enjoy the
  world. This makes it hard to plan the day. . . .
• 
  - E. B. White

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Hope is the Thing with Feathers. . . .

• Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful
  committed citizens can change the world. Indeed,
  its the only thing that ever has.
• -- Margaret Mead

Pillars of Fulfillment Tribute to Dr. Lori
Irving (1963 2001) by Women Who
Weld Washington State University, Vancouver, WA
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Liberal Arts and Health at Every Size