Check out this surprisingly informative piece from the sexpert over at Fox News (yeah, I did a double take as well), Yvonne Fulbright about the reported decrease in sex organ functioning and loss of sex drive due to anorexia and bulimia. She writes,
*Possibly triggering*
Having an eating disorder is also linked to deficient sexual functioning in women when they become sexually active. When a female severely reduces her intake of food to the point she's consuming hardly anything, naturally, her reproductive system shuts down.With low body fat, her body fails to produce sufficient amounts of sex hormones, namely estrogen. Thus, she'll quit menstruating, making pregnancy difficult for those hoping to reproduce. These endocrinal changes have a domino effect, starting with a lack of vaginal secretions.
This loss of vaginal lubrication makes intercourse painful and uncomfortable. As a result, many develop an aversive reaction to sex and further loss of interest. Lack of orgasm is also common in women with anorexia nervosa.
That is the medical advice, prior to this Fulbright goes into women with eating disorders and how their low self esteem affects their sex drive. I think her analysis is apt.
The one thing that is rubbing me the wrong way (and perhaps I am reading into it to much!) is the way this is couched as advice on how to have better sex as opposed to how to have a healthier self-esteem. I guess it is a sex column, but the reason women should stop having eating disorders is because of their sex drive, not because it is unhealthy? Also, I was hoping that when she wrote the tag line to the article she was going to suggest that having a curvy figure is sexy, as well, to counter-act the reason that so many women have eating disorders; they are taught that thin is sexy.
Finally, doesn't the advice border on, "you better stop it with that eating disorder, because it is NOT sexy?"
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Sex Drives and Eating Disorders..
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/13662
This is shocking coming from Fox News.
And I take your point, Samitha, about how ideally it should be about self esteem, but sadly, I think that this kind of information may be more effective for a lot of people struggling with eating disorders. When I was anorexic I really thought my world would end if I ever weighed a three-digit number. It was only health scare stories that got me to eat enough to get even close to that, and then what actually propelled me to recover was disvoering that the world did not come crashing down when I started buying 2's instead of 00's (and, sadly, the fact that boys liked me more filled out). I wish I could say that my recovering from anorexia stemmed from developing independent self-esteem, but realistically, that came much later. I think that is the case for a number of people with eating disorders, though certainly not all. Maintaing a full-fledged eating disorder is such an all-consuming task, for many it is necessary to take a little step towards eating more before working on self-esteem becomes a real option.
Before people jump on me, I know that gaining weight because boys like it more is an obviously inferior replacement for actual self esteem. I am just saying that for me, it was a necessary step in the process of eventually getting to a place where I could not care what they think.
Maintaing a full-fledged eating disorder is such an all-consuming task, for many it is necessary to take a little step towards eating more before working on self-esteem becomes a real option.
This is a really good point, particularly given the link between inadequate nutrition, depression, and self-esteem.
Exactly.
However un-feminist it may seem, if it helps, then let the ED sufferer let hear that boys like girls with curves.
I've volunteered in a center that deals with ED sufferers for years, being the official old crone of the self-help meetings. I've used the 'guys will like you more when you have more than 40 kilos' (or whatever argument was applicable) a few times although I don't really like it for the reasons said before - ED are self-esteem thing and self-esteem doesn't come solely from what men think (although flattery and compliments do rock).
I totally understand what you're saying MM.
And Samhita, I also understand your concern, but I see how this kind of information can be very helpful as well. I feel like I am heading into an eating disorder right now (or I'm already there, who knows) and the idea that having an eating disorder could effect my sex drive or the pleasure I take from sex is really upsetting and jarring. I love sex and the idea that this stupid disorder (I'm not saying people with the disease are stupid I'm just really angry at myself right now for being in this situation and having these thoughts) could ruin it for me is horrible. I'm already looking into getting into therapy but information like this (and other medical info) help to kick me into gear sometimes.
(((llevinso)))
I understand what you mean about the science being helpful. I don't want to be triggering, so I'll be vague, but knowing the medical facts helped me get myself to try to avoid and/or stop certain behaviors because I knew they didn't work (I didn't care about the jeopardizing my health part).
I found this site helpful for referrals for ED treatment and general medical information: http://www.intuitiveeating.com/ - my nutritionist sent me there.
The one thing that is rubbing me the wrong way (and perhaps I am reading into it to much!) is the way this is couched as advice on how to have better sex as opposed to how to have a healthier self-esteem. I guess it is a sex column, but the reason women should stop having eating disorders is because of their sex drive, not because it is unhealthy?
I thought this was a rather odd read on the article. She's describing, quite straightforwardly, the sexual symptoms and effects of eating disorders, which are not necessarily all that well known and are important things for both patients and their loved ones to understand--particularly since the underlying conditions related to the disorder may make many patients uncomfortable discussing their sexuality. I did not think the article was presenting impact on sex drive as the primary reason to seek recovery from eating disorders--if anything it came across as "we all know eating disorders are bad news--here's one more reason why that you might not know about."
Also, I was hoping that when she wrote the tag line to the article she was going to suggest that having a curvy figure is sexy, as well, to counter-act the reason that so many women have eating disorders; they are taught that thin is sexy.
I know this is a debate that's been had here before and I don't want to start it up again, but I'm really surprised to hear you saying this. For the vast majority of women with eating disorders the causality is much more complicated than simply that women are trying to reach a cultural idea that says thin is sexy. Certainly, cultural messages play a role at least in the patient's choice of food and body as a focus, but issues of depression, control, sexuality, family dynamics, and even genetics are usually involved (not all in all cases) as well. That's why eating disorders are so difficult to treat, much more so than a matter of "women should stop having eating disorders," which was rather shocking (although I'm sure totally unintentional) language for you to use here.
One more thing: As a recovered anorexic, I can state from experience that the sexual side effects are very real. Unfortunately, for some patients, eliminating sex drive and secondary sex characteristics is one of the major appeals of the disease.
I think that since Fulbright's report is meant for a sex column it is acceptable. Alluding to society's standards of beauty was not the intention of the article - it seems the intention of the article was to talk about how eating disorders affect sex drives and reproductive systems. I agree that this evidence is very one-dimensional, but that might have been the intention.
"I was hoping that when she wrote the tag line to the article she was going to suggest that having a curvy figure is sexy, as well, to counter-act the reason that so many women have eating disorders; they are taught that thin is sexy."
Having a curvy figure is sexy, but telling someone with an eating disorder that is almost always ineffective. People told me that all the time (I am "in recovery"; anorexia) but it didn't register. It made no difference. When people told me it was unhealthy, I felt guilty but didn't stop. I was hospitalized and subsequently put in therapy a few months later before those statements had any positive effect on me. Assuming those statements will have any positive effect on their own minimizes the scope and seriousness of eating disorders. I know that's not your intention and that you do take it seriously, but simply suggesting that as an addition to Fulbright's report without further analysis did trivialize eating disorders to a certain extent. You can't help someone with a brain disorder by telling them it's unhealthy and that society's standards of beauty are unrealistic and inaccurate.
"Too Skinny? Not Sexy."
Oh thanks a lot, Yvonne Fulbright. Like I don't have enough self-esteem issues without you telling me that by the way, my eating disorder makes me unsexy. Nice.
"I was hoping that when she wrote the tag line to the article she was going to suggest that having a curvy figure is sexy, as well, to counter-act the reason that so many women have eating disorders; they are taught that thin is sexy."
Anorexia has nothing to do with wanting to be sexy or attractive to men. So many people used to say to me "men like a curvy figure!". It just shows complete ignorance towards the real reasons that people suffer from eating disorders and what they are really about.
Also what about women who are naturally skinny? How is it supposed to make them feel if you spread the message that it's more sexy to be curvy?
Well, they have to learn to live with it. As anyone who doesn't look like the photoshopped ideal (so, basically, everyone) because life is not all rainbows and ponies.
Yay for being sensitive!
:|
I think it's important to disentangle being attractive to others from feeling sexual desire. And for the most part the article is focused on the effects that EDs have on women's sexuality, not on whether other people find them attractive, and I found that refreshing. Like several of the others who have struggled with eating disorders, I had absolutely no interest in whether men found me attractive. It's true that social attitudes toward weight affected me, but I've always felt that was a reason my mental illness took the form it did, rather than the main cause that I had one. It has been about control, depression, childhood trauma, and self-hatred, more than a desire to be attractive.
So I found this article oddly affirming of my experience. I had absolutely zero interest in sex while I was actively engaged with my eating disorder. I had a partner who was at a loss for how to help me and felt rejected, and I kept complaining to my therapist that I didn't want to have sex, I wanted a sandwich. Seriously, all my fantasies were about food. There wasn't room for sex. Then I got treatment, went through putting weight back on, finally got my period again, and voila! I'm interested in sex again. It took two years after my stint in an intensive outpatient program for it to happen.
Hugs to all the commenters and readers who are dealing with this.
Also, I was hoping that when she wrote the tag line to the article she was going to suggest that having a curvy figure is sexy, as well, to counter-act the reason that so many women have eating disorders; they are taught that thin is sexy.
This seems like a really reductive and medically ignorant analysis of the roots of eating disorders, and it sort of insults the intelligence of anorexic or bulimic women -- like it's just all those pictures of skinny models who've gotten them sick. They have medical disorders to which a sex advice columnist's assurance of the sex appeal of a full figure is hardly a cure.
I like that she's addressing things in terms of sexuality, because a healthy sexual self is a huge contributor to healthy self esteem -- even though it could definitely be approached better than "you better stop it with that eating disorder, because it is NOT sexy?"
However, the "curvy is sexy" thing is terrible because it pre-supposes another beauty standard that's as or more out-of-sight for most women than the ultra-thin standard (how many Jessica Simpsons per each Scarlett Johansen?). Not to mention that a different beauty standard still oppressive to the women who are dismissed sexually and pressured to conform because they don't fit the mold, or the women who're endlessly objectified because they do.
I, for one, can vouch that when I was anorexic my sex drive plummeted, Not as a result of the lube or self-esteem issues but I just didn't crave sex. I think it had to do with hormone levels. I guess this article is ok cause it is in a sex column but anywhere else it would be kind of stupid. I mean, eating disorders are such big take over your life and possibly kill you things that the effect they have on your sex life is a real but minor side effect when compared to what else they can do to you. Yes, relationships suffer from eating disorders, but not just cause there is a lack of sex. They suffer from eating disorders in many other ways. People with eating disorders are not mentally healthy and having a healthy relationship with someone in that unhealthy mental state is very difficult, no matter how many times you are having sex. There are a ton more important reasons why someone with an eating disorder should seek help that are more important than sex drive. I'm not minimizing sex, but reasons like, say, They Can Kill You take priority.
But lots of people with eating disorders don't listen to the "They Can Kill You" speeches. I think this article is helpful because it lists another bad side effect of an eating disorder. And you don't know what side effect is going to be the one (if any) that gets one person to start wanting get help or what have you.
Like I said above, sex is very important to me. So for me it would be a major effect over say other health problems. This is because I have a fucked up view of myself and the health concerns don't really bother me, but losing my sex drive does. Should the other health concerns bother me? Of course, but right now that's not what's making me want to get help.
I can see what you are saying. Maybe it depends on how deeply entrenched the person is in the eating disorder and how severe it is. (Not that any eating disorder is not severe but there are still degrees.) Most people who are in the grasp of full blown anorexia and having heart palpitations due to the disorder are not going to say, oh, well, now that I know it can effect my sex life I'm going to get help. However, I can see where it would be knowledge that is helpful to somebody who is heading in that direction but for whom the health dangers are not yet quite real or for those people who have that false sense of security where they feel immortal. Kind of like people who won't go to a tanning bed cause of the wrinkles instead of cause of the cancer. I had that immortal feeling going into the disorder but when I started to have physical side effects of starving myself that feeling quickly left.
the reason that so many women have eating disorders; they are taught that thin is sexy.
I follow the crowd in really objecting this. Do cultural factors play a role in eating disorders? Yes. But I will join the essential unanimity of women who are in the perennial "in recovery" phase and emphasize that this is NOT what drives them. It is a mental health issue with complex etiology and expression. Being anorexic/bulimic is no more caused by the culturally dominant preference than being schizophrenic - something that disproportionately befalls males, incidentally - is caused by the CIA's occasional use of surveillance. (And, just as telling someone having a delusional episode that the CIA really isn't following him will make him think you're out to get him too, telling an ED sufferer you're concerned about how thin she's looking will likely make her think something like, "Good, it's working.").
To be frank, actually, I'm really tired of the so-called feminist approach to eating disorders (which only ever seems to apply to anorexia, bulimia, and EDNOS; compulsive eating never seems to enter into it - I'll follow this usage for coherency's sake, but I don't like it at all). I don't mean to direct this at Samhita over a chance comment, but as a general critique. It usually appropriates the experiences and problems of ED patients to advance arguments in the beauty myth/fat acceptance constellation of concerns - but I've yet to read a single feminist treatment of eating disorders that seems informed by any sustained conversation with former/current patients or substantive consultation with health care providers and others who have extensive experience with it. The assumption is that anyone with ED is too stupid or vain to avoid being brainwashed by "the patriarchal standard" or whatever - an assumption that seems to have become culturally prevalent and really, really, really does not make it any easier to seek treatment or confront problems.
I guess what I'm getting at is that while a lot of feminists and body acceptance advocates claim they care about ED, most of them don't seem to in practice. Don't get me wrong: oppressive beauty standards and rejection of bigger people are not okay. But appropriating the problems of ED sufferers without even trying to learn about their experiences and the issues they face in order to use them as a support prop or token victim for another cause isn't okay either. And it's even less okay when the resulting perspective on ED is something that actually makes the situation for ED sufferers worse, not better.
Oh, I agree 100%!
This feminist approach to eating disorders is total B.S.
I find both your and gowingviolets response really offensive. (this is a response to both) I had an ED that I believe was directly related to the portrayal of women's worth being their appearance and that to be beautiful one had to be thin. I believed this because it was what my peers and the media told me (and the media told my peers). Now, did other factors mean that I was more susceptible than others? Of course. But, I maintain that had I not been inundated with those messages of a woman's worth being her looks and the value of being thin I would not have developed my ED. There have been studies showing that with the rise of american media and its portrayal of women and thin as beautiful in other countries that EDs grow. I also credit feminism with helping me to recover from my ED. I can even pinpoint the turning point of attending a feminist slam poetry event and how things clicked in my head. So, while I will agree that this is a complex disease and for some it has nothing to do with feminism or wanting to be attractive, etc for some it does. Don't discount it just because this was not your experience. (I don't think I was stupid or vain as you assume that agreeing with a feminist approach to EDs means, I think I was 13 and had not been taught to analyze the media and believed my culture's dominant message about what is important. Even now the pressure I feel to look beautiful is very strong, I am just now better equipped with feminism to resist it)
Your posting makes me realize how potentially hurtful it can be to generalize about eating disorders. Everyone's experience is different. There was a study a few years ago (on mostly white college women, which I know limits its applicability) that suggested that college women with feminist values were less likely to exhibit signs of disordered eating. I find that tremendously encouraging. And I'm so glad that feminism has helped you...it's also helped me.
Despite that, I do identify with GrowingViolet and jjgirl's frustration. My ED was late onset, and I had long identified as a feminist when it developed. It pushed me into a kind of crisis of feminist faith. I felt like a bad feminist; I was ashamed that I somehow hadn't been strong enough to ward off all those messages about thinness. I knew exactly what was going on, and yet it didn't help me. And books like Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth just didn't seem to offer a narrative for what I was going through. And I felt angry at her for what felt like a trivializing of what was a debilitating mental illness, even as I wanted to deny that I was mentally ill. I still kind of want to deny that I have a mental illness. Our society's dysfunctional relationship with food and body image is unhealthy for everyone, but we don't know why some of us develop eating disorders and others don't. I had a lot of risk factors--sexual abuse, a mother with a bad body image, etc. That said, I don't think I would have developed an eating disorder if I didn't live in this culture. I used the fat-hating aspects of popular culture to fuel my disorder, even if the root causes were something else. That's why I would say that I feel like our culture is the reason my mental illness takes the form it does, even if it's not the root cause.
And like you, I feel like feminism ultimately helped my recovery. I sought help before I was officially underweight enough to be diagnosed as anorexic rather than EDNOS, because in the end my feminist consciousness was rooted deeper than my desire to hurt myself, and I do think feminism has made my recovery easier. Feminism has helped combat that voice in my head that tells me the Today show is right, and it's disgusting to eat muffins. (Their "health" sections should come with a trigger warning...I know they don't come right out and say muffins are disgusting, but that's what it feels like when they cut one into fourths and say that's a serving size.) Basically, feminism helps me recognize that the evidence I'm collecting to support my unhealthy beliefs isn't valid--that eating really isn't a moral issue, even if it feels like it, for example. So this is a long way of saying that we need feminist accounts of eating disorders that acknowledge the biological model, but I also agree that the social analysis can be crucial for those of us in recovery.
No my dear, I would never discount your eating disorder, regardless of the reason. In fact, there was a time in my youth that we had to have a Twiggy type body (you're probably too young to remember). In my case, I believe I starved myself because, at the time, it gave me a false sense of control. You see, somebody else had always been in control of my life. With anorexia, I had the last word.
I'm sorry if my phrasing wasn't as considerate as it should have been - and, more than that, I'm glad that you've found resources within feminism that have helped you to recover! That said, I don't think I'm alone in my feelings, and I suspect it's an issue on which some of us can only agree to differ, if not necessarily disagree.
That was really well expressed and insightful (not to patronise lol). Perhaps you should do a community post or something.
Sorry, left out the "r" in growing
Perhaps you should do a community post or something.
I'm flattered that you liked it! A community post on this issue, by someone, might be useful... I have to admit that this whole discussion hasn't left me in a good head space, and I'm not sure I should be the one to do it. Then again, I'm guessing that many of those who share my sentiments feel the same way...
Yes. This frustrated me to no end in my WST class. The professor insisted that eating disorders of all types were not only linked to, but CAUSED BY the media.
I called bullshit, and cited the historical analysis of hunger strikers fasting to death (after the hunger strike was over), and the incidence of holy fasting throughout history. Most of these cases were in young women. I was largely ignored, of course, because it's very easy to blame the beauty myth.
My professor seriously thought that young anorexic girls were starving themselves to become appealing to young men. As a person with an eating disorder, whose sex drive fell to virtually zero at my worst, I found this both insulting and absurd.
I totally agree with your use of the term "appropriation" here. Anorexia is relatively rare and quite dangerous when it does appear, but a culture that shames women for not looking airbrushed is a problem in itself. It doesn't have to put all women at risk of anorexia to warrant some criticism. I've only ever had a shaky hold on a good body image, but I have never even been close to actual anorexia territory. My often abysmal body image has caused me quite a lot of pain, even if it hasn't been significantly physically dangerous.
There's really no reason our culture should be making women miserable, but it often does, and it matters.
I don't visit here often, but when I do, it's amazing what I learn. For instance, it's very obvious to me now that I had anorexia long before the disease was ever diagnosed. It was caused by a horrible gang rape. Listen, the term "gang rape" had not even been coined when it happened to me. Thanks ever so much for your continued support and prayers~!
Please click me on at
http://www.georgia-tech-rape-victim2.blogspot.com