Eating disorder expert discusses image, dieting

Eating disorder expert Jane Hirschmann comes to her subject with first-hand experience. Hirschmann, who wrote When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies and is leading a national anti-diet campaign, once struggled with an eating disorder herself. And more than 200 women crowded a large lecture room in Meyerson Hall yesterday to hear Hirschmann discuss how to free oneself from obsessions over self-image, dieting and food. Hirschmann, co-director of the New York City branch of the National Center for Overcoming Overeating, focused discussion on her newest book, which she co-authored with Carol Munter. The event was part of the third annual Body Image Awareness Week, sponsored by Guidance for Understanding Image, Dieting and Eating, or GUIDE. Several other campus and community groups co-sponsored the event. "We're trying to promote self-acceptance, eating right and having a positive body image," said GUIDE member and College senior Kim Davis. "And she definitely advocates the message we're trying to get across." Hirschmann focused on the need for women to "overcome body hating and dieting," and the "bad body fever" that women feel concerning their bodies. But she also said these seemingly individual-centered problems have broader causes and effects, because "the negative preoccupation with our bodies is debilitating and quite anti-female." "We've come a long way," Hirschmann said, in reference to women's place in society. She added, however, that "little girls" are still taught that their job is "body shaping rather than world shaping." She explained that "awareness" is the first step in curing negative body images, encouraging women to "catch the bad body thought when it happens" and "apologize to yourself." Hirschmann said most women would not speak to their worst enemies as negatively as they speak to themselves. She explained that by avoiding the real problems they are dealing with, women are taking a "detour of feelings." Hirschmann said she leads an anti-diet campaign because "diets make us fat [and] make us food junkies." She explained that her books teach "women how to reconnect eating [with their] physiological needs." According to Hirschmann, many women spend half their time obsessing with their weight and appearance. "What do you think would happen if women all over the world stopped hating their bodies?" she asked. Audience members screamed answers in response, ranging from being happy and being able to speak one's mind to "there would be a woman president of the United States." College sophomore Alix Kutnick said afterward that she found the speech "very, very appropriate to this campus."