Title: Our Culture is the Biggest Loser: Gender, Body Image, and Everyday Acts of Rebellion
1Our 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
2Dr. 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
3What 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
4 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
5On 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
6Easily Extracted MessagesIndulge a Little
7 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
8The 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
9Youll Always Be the Object of My Attention
Always quilted sanitary napkins
10Levines 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
11Sometimes it is Hard to Love the One Body
Youre With
12Pervasive Messages--Multiple Sources
- Health professionals
- Parents
- Educators
- Mass media
- Books
- Peers
- Citizens
13Love 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
14Thus, 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)
15A 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
16What 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)
17Principle 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.
18The New Creation-ismWhere the Boys Are
19An Even GreaterAmerican Hero
20Do You Think Barbie Still Dreams of Ken?
Barbie Ken (1950s)
Michael Levine as undergraduate in The Iliad
(1968)
Spawn
21Principle 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
22Principle 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
23Principle 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)
24The Real F-Word
-
- You look great,
- youve put on fat!
25Us Weekly The Hyprocritic OathEasily Extracted
Messages
- WEIGHTISM
- Prejudice
- Vilification of fat and fat people, especially
females - Glorification of slenderness
26Fat 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)
27Beauty Standards1940s 1950s
28Beauty Standards 1950s - 1960s
29Beauty Standards1970s 1980s
30Beauty Standards 1990s
31Beauty Standards 2003
32But. . . But. . . But What?
33Summer 2004 Still the Objectof My Gaze (and
Your Own?)
34No, 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
35Easily 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.
36I 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
37Return to Gender Address Well Known
38A Recent Media-Based Ericksonian Pscyhosocial
Stage Identity Diffused and Refused and Suffused
Head Optional
39Identity 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)
40Prevention, 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.
41Implications 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
42Principle 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.
43Anger in the Service of Love
- Somebody ought to
- do something
Kappa Slappa Ho
The Ultimate Driving Machine as -- The
Ultimate Attraction --
44But 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
45THE POLITICALHope is Everywhere and so is
determination and skill
- Dads and Daughters, Inc.
- Joe Kelly and Nancy Gruver
- www.dadsanddaughters.org
- Protest, praise, advocacy
46One 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
47Goldberg 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
48Implications 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!
49 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
50THE 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
51THE 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
52THE 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
53Body 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
54THE 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
55Implications 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
56Sensible 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 -
57THE 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?
58Principle 7 Some Things are Like
PreventionHard to Understand How it Could
Happen,But It Needs to be Done
59Reverse Care Bear Stare and the Conditional
Negative Ray Not Ready to Make Nice
Lost Cat Card from Caddylax Graffix
60Were 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
61ITS 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.
62ITS 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
63ITS 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
64Its 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
65Collaboration is Key OR How Many Levines Does
It Take to Change A Culture?
Michael Gambier, Ohio
Paula - Miami, FL
Richard Hershey, PA
66ITS 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. . . .
67ITS 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
68ITS 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. . . .
69On 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
70Hope 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
71Liberal Arts and Health at Every Size