WIN Wyoming

Thought Bullets
for
November 1999

Several WIN Wyoming members sent me an article a few months ago by Ellen Goodman of the Washington Post Writers Group. The article appeared in the Casper Star Tribune on June 1, 1999. Goodman’s article highlighted research completed by Anne Becker, an anthropologist and psychiatrist, who directs research at the Harvard Eating Disorders Center.

The article describes the marked difference in body image perceptions on the South Pacific Island of Fiji before and after the arrival of television to the island in 1995.

• Prior to 1995, big truly was considered beautiful in Fiji. A typical exchange of remarks between women was often along the lines of: "You look wonderful. You’ve gained weight." Fijians often consumed herbs to stimulate appetite.

• Within just 38 months of the arrival of television, the number of teens at risk for eating disorders had doubled to 29%. In the post television era, 74% of Fiji teens felt they were too fat, and 62% of teens had dieted in the past month.

• In three years and with only one television channel, a culture that had defined fat as robust and healthy defined fat as repulsive.

• In Goodman’s words, "...the big success of our entertainment industry is our ability to export insecurity. We can make any woman anywhere feel perfectly rotten about her shape."
  

Compiled by Betty Holmes, MS, RD, 4-H Youth Specialist, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Wyoming; bholmes@uwyo.edu.

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