EDs and Mixed Messages

Am I fat?  Am I thin?  Am I normal?  Am I different?  Is that bad?  Is that good? 

HELP!

They are questions even those without eating disorders have trouble answering, and popular culture doesn’t provide many clear-cut answers.

Let’s face it — in the same magazine there can be an article touting the newest diet fad, an advertorial spread discussing the dangers of being nutritionally bereft, and an interview with a starlet who had anorexia and is now battling major health issues. 

It’s very confusing.  And the younger you are, the more confusing it can seem.

Now that I’m in my 30s, I’m not as moved by everything I read, but when I was a teen, the pages of YM (then “Young Miss”, now “Young and Modern”), Self and similar publications were gospel.  They said, I did.  Case closed. 

I still remember a Seventeencover of a gal about my age.  She had on high-tops.  Dear Lord, I wanted to look like her, right down to those dang sneakers!  But I felt I could never “pull it off” because I (in my mind) wasn’t thin enough to be beautiful like she was.  So I never got the high-tops, never even bothered.  Her “look” was unattainable… the pages of the magazine confirmed it for me. 

But please don’t get me wrong.  I do not blame the mass media for anorexia, bulimia and binge eating.  They can certainly be a factor, but not everyone who consumes regular servings of fashion mags feels compelled to restrict or purge. 

However, I do think it’s wise for mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, clergy and educators to understand what the young people they love are reading… and how those youthful males and females are interpreting all the mixed messages they see.

Maybe you’ve already started on this path to gaining a healthy body image for yourself and the tweens, teens and beyond in your life by discussing the crazy jumble of body image signals every magazine issue contains.  If so, I’d love to hear how you’re tackling this issue.