Thin is in, Harvard prof says

For women to be considered acceptable in the 1950s, they were expected to be virgins until marriage. Today, though, there is something valued even more: a slender figure. "Thinness has replaced virginity as the key to a good life," explained Catherine Steiner-Adair to a standing room-only crowd during her talk, entitled "Body Politics: Women, Eating Disorders, and Prevention," at the Annenberg School for Communication last night. Steiner-Adair, a Harvard clinical psychologist whose research focuses on the healthy development of girls and boys, the prevention of eating disorders and gender equity issues, spoke to an audience of more than 100 students. She discussed her findings -- that poor body image stems from a culture obsessed with thinness -- with the mostly female audience. "For 80 percent of women in the USA, being female means waking up and having a negative check-in with themselves, saying mean things about their bodies," Steiner-Adair said. She said she believes that this negative body image is ultimately a result of prejudice, which, she maintains, results when an oppressed group wants equality. Specifically, she pointed to the fact that an unrealistically thin body -- like the one possessed by the model Twiggy, for instance -- was embraced by females during the women's rights movement in the 1960s. Eating disorders, under Steiner-Adair's definition, would then be a result of the prejudice displayed toward those who do not conform to the ideal. "You judge the moral content of one's character based on what extent they approximate the ideal [body] image," Steiner-Adair explained. After the talk, Steiner-Adair said she hoped the discussion alleviated misconceptions surrounding body image and eating disorders, particularly the notion that eating disorders are attributed solely to personal problems. Susan Villari, Penn's director of health education, commended Steiner-Adair for her stance on body image. "Body image needs to be viewed as a social justice issue," she said. College senior -- and Guidance for Understanding Image, Dieting and Eating member -- Rebecca Bauer said she was impressed with Steiner-Adair's words, as well. "I like how she said that you don't need to judge yourself by your body, that you should instead focus on your achievements and who you are as a person." And College junior Miriam Kiss, a GUIDE executive board member, praised Steiner-Adair for teaching "women that negative thoughts about their bodies are normal. She showed what causes [negative body images] and how women can work together to prevent them." Steiner-Adair's talk marked the second event of Penn's Body Image Awareness Week 2000, a series of discussions and workshops sponsored by GUIDE to promote awareness and discussion on the topic of body images. The event was co-sponsored by Connaissance, the Graduate School of Education and the Panhellenic Council.

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