Gender Stereotyping Associated With Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is commonly known to be as a female problem in the world. However, men are also in risk for such mental illness as well. Although statistically females do have a higher ratio of developing AN, men should deserve the same recognition for being equally in danger. The gender stereotyping in our culture leads to the emphasized focus for females in AN. Little attention has been paid to this imbalance while majority of the researches are done in general questions about AN such as causes and treatments, and most case studies are done with female subjects (Soban, 2006). To investigate more about inequalities between gender in AN, my question for the research is how are men isolated from AN by gender stereotyping? Gender stereotyping is camouflaged in our daily lives, but we can identify it by thinking critically. As Burke states in his essay, Terministic Screens, â€Å"Even if any given terminology is a reflection of reality, by its very nature as a terminology it must be a selection of reality; and to this extent it must function also as a deflection of reality† (Burke, n.d.). One of my evidence, a brochure titled Anorexia by the Counseling and Psychological Services of Oregon State University, provides a good demonstration of selection of reality by specifically mentioning ‘she’ rather than ‘he or she’. In there, the author has chosen only to write about females, which ignores the possibility of male AN patients. This is then a deflection of reality. In WhatShow MoreRelatedEssay about Eating Disorders: A Feminist Issue1575 Words   |  7 Pagesan effort to understand the prevalence of eating disorders among women. Fat is sexual in women. . . to ask women to become unnaturally thin is to ask them to relinquish their sexuality (Wolf, 193). 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