Women, Media, Sexual Assault, and Eating Disorders: The Relationship, Research Paper Example

Introduction

The victimization of women is a common occurrence in modern society. Social understandings perpetuate the victimization of women and has made it into a normality. We are no longer surprised when we hear about rape and how the criminals, rather than the victims, are defended. The victimization of women, both sexually and otherwise, is a very common problem addressed in feminist theories and research.  Women are held at different standards from their male counterparts, are expected to act according to a certain type of unwritten guidelines. Its therefore important to determine the rationale behind such societal beliefs. Overall, it appears that the media perpetuates the sense that sexual assault is a reasonable result of the role of women in society. Since women are deeply stigmatized as a consequence of this, they are more likely to find unhealthy ways to cope with their roles in society, resulting in increased stress and tendency towards eating disorders.

In Western culture, men are often those that set the standards of what women should be. For example, in some cultures, men “declare that in order to be beautiful, a woman must look fourteen years old” (Mernissi, 2002, p. 73). This appearance can be extended to a description weight, facial structure, or many other aspects of a woman’s figure.  Aside from the subtle and indirect influence men have over women, there is a startling statistic from the stating that “one in five women” will be raped in their lifetime (as opposed to “one in 71 men”) and that a total of “91% of victims of rape and sexual assault are female” (National Sexual Violence Resource Center , 2015, p. Based on this information, it is clear that there is a high connection between the fact that men are able to determine women’s value in society and the fact that there is a high incidence of sexual crime in the modern world. Because men have the ability to decide what is cultural regularities are, a high expectation of beauty is present, which leads others to the understanding that the purposes of women are sexual in nature. It is important to emphasize that the attractiveness of a man is typically not of concern; rather, it is their income, connections, and ability to attract women. Because of this, when men are not successful with women, they believe that it is their right to take women instead. Their lack of attractiveness is seen as an intrinsic flaw of women, rather than themselves. Thus, women are used to perpetuate the understanding that men are in control of society.

It is necessary to emphasize the trauma that women face as a consequence of societal standards and that this occasionally contributes to the initiation of health problems in this population as well. According to the ANRED survey, 90% of those diagnosed with eating disorders are female, indicating that there is an obvious possibility that the two—being reports of sexual assault against women and recorded percentages of women in eating disordered groups—are related (ANRED, 2011, p. 1). By analyzing the found connections between eating disorders and sexual trauma using both direct and mediational models, this paper will demonstrate the concept that women victimized by sexual trauma, because of high subjugation to criticism and oppression due to their gender, are at an increased risk of developing an eating disorder.

The Relationship Between Gender and Eating Disorders

Generally speaking, the connection between sexual trauma in any gender and control-based eating disorders seems plausible. Groups of oppressed people attempt to cope with their diminished status in society in a variety of ways. Fairburn and Harrison attribute several motivational factors to the development of eating disorders, one of which is “a need to feel in control of life, which gets displaced onto controlling eating” (Fairburn & Harrison, 2003, p. 411). Given the level of violation involved when any type of sexual trauma is forced upon a victim, any control a victim might feel is minimal, if not non-existent, which makes Fairburn and Harrison’s assertion especially relevant. When people feel that they have very little control over options in their own lives, they recognize that there are some aspects of their life they can control. One aspect is the food they eat, including how much or how little. In a sense, eating disorders act as a form of emotional therapy for afflicted individuals, helping them find comfort within their own lives. Perhaps a victim will, in an attempt to regain the control that was taken from them during any sexual attack, attempt to overcompensate by controlling food intake.

Root elaborates on this theory, saying that “the violation of physical space endured during a sexual abuse and rape epitomizes the height of loss of control over one’s body”; this loss of control oftentimes results in an attempt to take control of what can be controlled, which generally equates to food intake and physical size (Root, 2001, p. 98).  Root continues to discuss other theories regarding a possible connection between eating disorders and sexual trauma, even going so far as to say that purging and fasting is a victim’s attempt at purification after the incident. After experiencing rape or sexual trauma, victims often feel violated or impure. They therefore believe that by taking control of their own bodies by controlling what enters and leaves, they are effectively regulating their body in a manner that will ensure purity. By taking a look at factors such as a need for control, which are found in many types of eating disorders, any link found between eating disorders and sexual trauma seems theoretically logical.

However, research has struggled directly connecting sexual trauma and eating disorders, and most statistics are found using retrospective measurements. Therefore, a complete understanding of this relationship may not be present. According to existing statistics, there is a connection between general trauma and eating disorders. Harned and Fitzgerald (2002) interviewed many women who had already been diagnosed with an eating disorder. These researchers found that “29%-64% of women with eating disorders [reported experiencing childhood sexual abuse . . . 11%-27% have been raped at some point in their lives” (p.1170). This demonstrates that many of the individuals who presently experience eating disorders may have this psychological manifestation as a consequence of sexually induced trauma. Subsequently, the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN) (2012) reports that 7% of general-population, underage girls experience sexual abuse and 18% of general-population women were victimized by rape or attempted rape in their lifetime.  When comparing the general population percentage of childhood sexual abuse (7%) to the much higher percentages found in women with eating disorders (29%-64%), a clear red flag is seen; such a great difference between the two percentages is significant and suggests some type of relationship between childhood sexual abuse and the later development of eating disorders.  Whether that relationship is direct or mediated is unknown, but because of the great difference in percentages (between 12% and 57%, with women with eating disorders having far more), it is obligatory to explore how those numbers could come to be so different.

Holzer, Uppala, Wonderlich, Crosby, and Simonich (2008) attempt to explain this connection using a meditational model that links sexual trauma, PTSD from that trauma, and eating disorders discovered later in life.  Rather than questioning subjects that were already receiving treatment for eating disorders, thus looking at the retrospective relationship between sexual trauma and eating disorders like previously mentioned researchers had, Holzer et al. interviewed victims of sexual trauma using questionnaires that assessed “eating disorder psychopathology and posttraumatic stress disorder symptomatology” (p. 561).  Holzer et al. compared the results of the sexually traumatized group with a non-victimized group and found that there was a significantly higher amount of PTSD symptoms in the victimized group than the control; they also discovered that the prior showed increased eating disorder psychopathology than the latter (p. 564).  While Harned and Fitzgerald’s research focuses on finding histories of sexual assault within patients already diagnosed with eating disorders, Holzer et al. do the exact opposite; they look for eating disorder and PTSD symptoms within a group of women that had already reported sexual assault.

Holzer et. al reasons that PTSD is a more “natural consequence” of sexual trauma, and because of the symptoms and demands of PTSD, it is not a stretch for an eating disorder—or at least a mix of symptoms that appear to be one—to portray itself over time.  A common part of PTSD is “arousal,” which is characterized by alertness and easy emotional excitement, which Holzer et al reasons to be difficult to manage; as a coping strategy, victims might use eating disorder symptoms to manage aversive emotional arousal cause by the PTSD (p. 565).  The connection between sexual trauma, PTSD, and bulimia nervosa—a specific type of eating disorder—is supported by Dansky et al (1995), who discuss the connection between sexually- and nonsexually-traumatized women, and eating disorders; by measuring the victimizations separately, Dansky et. al got a better look at how general trauma is related to eating disorders. Dansky et. al’s results show a strong correlation between PTSD and bulimia nervosa, which supports Holzer et al.s’ findings and further suggests that PTSD acts as a mediator between sexual trauma and eating disorders.

Similarly, Dworkin, Javdani, Verona, and Campbell (2014), discuss a second mediation model regarding the relationship between sexual trauma, impulsive and compulsive tendencies, and disordered eating.  Because impulsive and compulsive tendencies “have been identified as sequelae of CSA victimization in some survivors,” Dworkin et al reason that impulsive or compulsive tendencies could potentially mediate the relationship between sexual trauma and disordered eating (p. 22).  By having subjects complete an online survey that asked about child sexual abuse severity, impulsive tendencies, compulsive tendencies, and disordered behaviors, Dworkin, et al. found stronger relationships between compulsive tendencies than impulsive when explaining the relationship between sexual traumas and disordered eating (p. 30).  The relationship between impulse control disorders (ICDs), which are marked by failure to resist an urge to do something, and disordered eating is illustrated as being very strong by Fernàndez-Aranda, et al. (2008), who ran a similar experiment that yielded similar results.

There are obviously many links between sexual trauma and eating disorders, and while no single path can be predicted for a sexual trauma survivor, there is certainly a link of some sort.  Emotional responses to sexual trauma and assault oftentimes result in eating disorders. Kent, Waller, and Dagnan (1999) found that “the effects of CEA on eating psychopathology were mediated entirely through anxiety and dissociation,” with anxiety being the stronger mediator (p. 166). They go on to suggest that the relationship between eating disorders and any type of trauma must have several mediator links rather than a direct cause-and-effect relationship (such as that between childhood emotional trauma and eating disorders), which is in line with the findings and discussions of both Holzer et al. and Dworkin et al. Because of the less defined definition of emotional abuse and because of its non-substantial wounds, a victim of emotional abuse is likely to feel “perceptions of vulnerability (linked to anxiety in the cognitive literature), rather than with clear perceived loss” (p. 166). This vulnerability is oftentimes unwelcomed by those suffering abuse, and it is not a far stretch to assume that those suffering from feelings of vulnerability will want to do whatever possible to stop feeling that way.  As a result, victims of emotional abuse might overcompensate and try to take control of what they can; because food intake is one of the only things they can certainly control, victims might take advantage of the fact.

Shafran, Fairburn, and Cooper (1998) discuss the relationship between control and anorexia which they, like Kent, Waller, and Dagnan, attribute more so to emotional trauma and socially dysfunctional relationships than any type of physical or sexual abuse or trauma.  Anorexia, Shafran, Fairburn, and Cooper claim, support the idea that anorexia is a show of “direct and immediate self control” that might result from an over controlling environment under the “rule” of others (p. 4).  Bishop, Rosenstein, Bakelaar, and Seedat (2014) provide an in-depth discussion of what is included in emotional abuse, and one of the primary factors of a parent-to-child abuse system is the parents’ overwhelming need to control every part of the child’s life; that control can extend from clothing choice, to friend choice, to time management (p. 10).  Given that emotional abuse victims feel vulnerable and want control, it becomes even more necessary for them to take the control that they can get, wherever they can get it.  Eating disorders have a very deep, emotional drive, which makes the likelihood of the true trauma culprit being emotional trauma rather than sexual trauma even larger.

Bishop, Rosenstein, Bakelaar, and Seedat’s findings were especially important when looking at the link between sexual trauma and eating disorders; women will overcompensate after violation in order to become in control.  Another angle that supports reasons women are more vulnerable to developing eating disorders comes when the media is considered.  Women are bombarded by expectations from society regarding how to look, act, or be, and because most of those expectations are out of reach for a majority of women, it might result in an even higher sense of loss-of-control.  When women have been violated and face emotional trauma following that sexual assault, their emotional strength and resilience becomes compromised, making them even more vulnerable to the pressure of the media. That vulnerability oftentimes shifts to self-hatred, which results in eating disordered symptoms.

There are many things in play when discussing the link between sexual assault and eating disorders; a direct link is possible while other mediating pathways might be considered.  Because of that link, women are especially vulnerable to developing eating disorders due to their high chances of experiencing sexual trauma at some point in their lives; when a woman’s body is violated (which is unfortunately very likely), her need to control her life might lead to the development of an eating disorder.  If that direct link were not there, however, the pressure of the media on a woman’s already shattered esteem will likely assist in driving a woman to an eating disorder.  Women are not only dramatically more vulnerable to being victims of sexual assault (which might result in eating disorders), the heavy scrutiny regarding their looks and what perfection is considered plays a large role in the development of low self-esteem and eventually an eating disorder.

It is important to consider that eating disorders result in the diminished health of individuals that engage it them. It is therefore necessary to help populations that are victims of sexual assault recognize that by engaging in these practices, their attackers are winning. Individuals that have eating disorders are very weak in terms of health and are more likely to experience severe complications due to damage that occurs to their organs and other parts of their body. It is therefore necessary to determine how beliefs related to the development of eating disorders arise and what could be done to eliminate this occurrence.

The Relationship Between Eating Disorders and the Media

It is important to consider that the purpose of them media is to reflect the ideas put forth by society or to attempt to alter commonly held views. However, in the traditional media, women are personified as the weaker sex. As such, it many common forms of entertainment, women were never portrayed as independent figures; their value has held in the context of the value of the men they were associated with. Because women, even in the modern setting, are shown that the perfect woman has low body fat, is concerned with her appearance, and dresses a certain way, women are forced to determine opinions and understandings of themselves within the context of these “perfect” individuals. In many cases, the idea of the perfect woman that is put forth by media is not achievable. Small figures that are proudly displayed in movies and advertisements are often photo shopped. Models with small frames are forced to avoid eating in order to continue having their characteristic appearance. Overall, to achieve an ideal body image, women must go to great lengths. For many, these efforts are not physically possible and some individuals choose to undergo surgery to look the way that society expects. Ultimately, it is important to consider that this stressful ideal is all done for the benefit of men. These individuals define how women should appear and women attempt to fit this definition. However, their mental and physical health will falter as a consequence.

Regularly viewing the media contributes to a false sense of understanding that the female body should look a certain way. According to the National Eating Disorder Association, “numerous correlational and experimental studies have linked exposure to the thin ideal in mass media to body dissatisfaction, internalization of the thin ideal, and disordered eating among women” (NEDA, n.d.). It is therefore possible that this media exposure results in the tendency of sexually abused individuals to regain control over their lives in a symbolic sense by controlling their food intake. The organization also demonstrates that, “There is no single cause of body dissatisfaction or disordered eating. But, research is increasingly clear that media does indeed contribute and that exposure to and pressure exerted by media increase body dissatisfaction and disordered eating” (NEDA, n.d.). It is important to consider that each individual will react to body perfection in the media differently and for different reasons. However, it appears that succumbing to eating disorders as a consequence of exposure to trauma is a common occurrence.

The media persuades young girls that eating disorders are normal, or are reasonable options by presenting them with images that include models that are skinnier than members of the normal population. In this industry, models under eat to achieve this look and in many cases, their images are still altered to give them particular bodily dimensions. According to a recent study conducted at the London Center of Management “According to the multifactorial etiological model, the impact of mass media can be regarded mainly as a precipitating factor. The literature review showed that mass media have a considerable impact on the development and perpetuation of eating disorders. Mass media contribute to the promotion of the thinness ideal as a way to achieve social approval, recognition and success” (Gonidakis, 2011). It is evident that the media is a negative influence on the body image of many individuals and may contribute to increase incidence of eating disorders among those who have experienced trauma in their past.

The Relationship Between Media and Sexual Assault

As stated, the media has the ability to influence the frequency of eating disorders because ultimately, many members of society choose to mimic what they see. However, this concept extends to the prevalence of sexual assault in society. It does not appear that sexual assault, the media, and eating disorders could be examined in an independent context because it is apparent that they are all related and contribute to the same effect. The present data does not demonstrate that sexual assault leads to eating disorders necessarily; it may be that individuals with eating disorders are more likely to be victims of sexual assault. An understanding of the directionality of these relationships are important. Thus, it is also important to determine how media reflects the sexual assault that occurs in society or how it contributes to it. Understanding the relationship between media and sexual assault is the third puzzle piece that is necessary in determining the connections between women, sexual assault, eating disorders, and the media.

Many anti-violence advocates believe the way that assault is presented on the news media will prevent sexual assault from ever truly abating. In many instances, important details are left out of reporting to make the scenario appear ambiguous or more in favor of the attacker. As a consequence, when women attempt to report that they were attacked, not much is done about the attack and in many instances, the attack is considered to be their own fault. In 2013, Meghan Warner was sexually assaulted at a party at a fraternity house on her college campus. She reported the crime to her university, which is now facing outrage from several students who believes that it mishandles sexual assault on campus. “Warner may not have gone to court, but she still wanted justice. She was one of 31 UC Berkeley students and alumni who filed a complaint against the university in 2014 alleging that the school mishandled student sexual assault case” (Johnson, 2015). It is apparent that it isn’t just the media that does not take sexual assault seriously; it is schools and law enforcement as well. Because there is no real recourse that occurs after sexual assault crimes are committed, there is incentive to continue committing them. Thus, these crimes will continue to occur because there is no punishment in place for these attackers. 

Women, Media, Sexual Assault, and Eating Disorders: The Relationship

There are many factors that cause media, sexual assault, and eating disorders to be intrinsically connected. The way that people perceive society in addition to societal norms is perpetuated by what is presented in the media. Everything that we believe that we know about the news is told to us in a biased light. As a consequence, we are left to consider for ourselves what the reality of situations are and what can be done to make them better. Sexual assault and eating disorders are therefore perpetuated by the media. They are established as norms for women, so women are not considered wrong when they starve their bodies as a response to their lack of ability to have control, while men are not severely punished for their violent actions.

While it is challenging to determine the directionality of the relationship between sexual assault and eating disorders because no relevant longitudinal studies have been conducted, it is apparent that many women who have experienced sexual trauma also have eating disorders. Psychologists explain this phenomenon as a coping mechanism, but it is apparent that this action results from mental damage that was triggered by the assault and feeling powerless, not only in the hands of their attacker, but in society as a whole.

Recommendations for Future Studies

Based on the presented evidence, there is a need to gain a more scientific understanding of the relationship between women, sexual assault, media, and eating disorders. It is challenging to determine which factors contribute to sexual assault and eating disorders in addition to the direction of these statistical relationships based on known information. It would therefore be valuable to conduct longitudinal studies to determine how individuals develop eating disorders over time in addition to what common influences in their environment might be. Care must be taken to identify confounding variables that may influence this relationship in order to generate a comprehensive understanding.

Conclusion

It is therefore apparent that eating disorders are used as a coping mechanism to help women endure the mental anguish of being a victim of sexual abuse. However, not every individual will engage in an eating disorder because of sexual abuse and some that experience sexual abuse may already have been formally or informally diagnosed with an eating disorder. Eating disorders are not only a result of sexual trauma; there are many factors involved in this relationship. Likewise, the manner in which women are portrayed in the media contribute to this perception problem, but it is not an absolute cause for this issue. Overall, it is important to consider that while women, the media, sexual assault, and eating disorders are related, they are individual parts of an incomplete picture. One cannot be used to explain the other; this is a more complex issue than what is typically put forth by sociological researchers. Therefore, it is necessary to gain a deeper evaluative understanding of this relationship in order to help women who have faced trauma. The real trigger of eating disorders appears to be an interaction of psychological deficiencies, which can be impacted in part by sexual assault and perception of women in the media. However, there is a need to gain a more scientific understanding of these variables so that we could enact real change in a manner that will help these individuals that are suffering from the outcomes of abuse. 

References

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