Write 5 page essay on the topic Anorexia Nervosa and the Female Body.Download file to see previous pages... The development of the idea of anorexia nervosa and the associated eating disorders is the p

Write 5 page essay on the topic Anorexia Nervosa and the Female Body.

The development of the idea of anorexia nervosa and the associated eating disorders is the product of culture, as much as the prevalence of the disorders within culture. There is an urban myth that a part of the Roman home architecture included a place called the vomitorium in which guests could go and vomit up their orgiastic indulgences with food in order to make room for more indulgence. While the vomitorium actually refers to a passage way that would spew people into a tier of seats in an amphitheater or auditorium, the existence of regurgitation as a part of the dining experience does seem to have literary foundation. Bulimic forms of control over the ingestion of food were culturally considered an acceptable part of a life of luxury in the Roman Empire. Both food and wine consumption was a part of gluttonous indulgence (Kelley 42-43). The idea of purging was never considered a part of a mental disorder within the Roman Empire, but a part of the normative social experiences of the culture. The way in which the act was considered was based upon the purpose that it served for those who indulged in the act. While most of this is speculation from texts that refer to the practice, the idea of this form of acceptable practice is an example of how an act in one culture can be perceived as normal, where in another culture it is understood to mean something entirely different. Who indulges in the behavior and the reasons it is indulged is also relevant to understanding how an action is perceived. In the case of Anorexia Nervosa and the related condition of Bulimia, the causes for the actions and the medical issues that are a result support the definition that modern professionals place upon the disorders. The concept of the ideal woman has changed throughout history, enduring many different forms of painful transformation including breaking the foot over in half to form the lotus foot in Chinese culture and unbearable corsets that malformed the waist and pushed the organs into unnatural positions during the 19th century in Europe and the United States. Women with higher body fat are more often in fashion when populations are low, where women who are thin become the fashion when motherhood is no longer the primary focus. Women have been subjected to expectations of culture for their appearance throughout history and many have suffered greatly at the expense of that pressure. Zhang writes that “a woman who is five feet four inches tall and a hundred and forty pounds trying to look like a five foot ten inch tall, hundred and ten pound fashion model will do nothing except injure her physical and emotional health” (117). Culture and the appearance of women have a link that has affected the overall well-being of women as they struggle to discover the meaning of the gender and the roles that they should adapt. The idea that food control and the emergence of the disorder of Anorexia as a mental issue is a manifestation of the late 20th is not a historical truth. In the late 19th century a fad arose in which notoriety emerged around the idea of the ‘fasting girl’.