Dying to be Thin Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Dying to be Thin - Assignment Example old Erin, who starved herself, under the illusion that she was fat and ugly, even when she was way below her normal weight and at the verge of death due to malnutrition. In Chapter 6, Jennifer Schmid, who is a victim of another form of anorexia, is unable to balance diet and workout. She eats well but burns a lot more, while exercising, than what she is capable of consuming. And in Chapter 7, we see Anne Chavarro, who suffers from Bulimia, taking to purging to keep up with her binge eating habits. What surprised me the most, was the fact that these eating disorders possessed the power to make human beings capable of withstanding all emotional and physical hardships or of resorting to extremely unpleasant methods like purging or of even putting themselves through starvation which is the worst a human body could suffer, just to be extremely thin. The victims seemed only too pleased about having a disease which left them a subject of admiration, even if it came with a death warrant. Towards the end of Chapter 2, Dr. Joan Jacobs Brumberg, talks about cases of anorexia recorded in history, of women who lived hundreds of years ago. She opines that the common theme in those instances is that those women were using the appetite to express different things, depending upon their historical situation. In Chapter 1, we learn about how Katey Tracey starved herself in a desperate attempt to be accepted by her teacher as the best dancer in her group. Eleena Melamed, another ballet dancer, talks out in Chapter 5, about what led her to anorexia. Her story matches more or less with that of Katey Tracey. It could be said that they were expressing their need to be accepted and admired. Erin, who felt lonely and insecure when her mother had to stay away for a year, took to starvation, to become thin and look glamorous, in order to attract the attention of those around her. She also admits to have been sexually harassed, which added to her feeling of insecurity. Here, she is