Trapped by the cult of thin

A new survey shows that teenage girls' obsession with image is at crisis levels, writes Kate Holmquist.

Are we women our own worst enemies? And our daughters' too? Have we allowed ourselves to become brainwashed into believing that the thinner we are, the better we are as human beings, so that it's become impossible for most teenage girls to feel comfortable in their skins. The ideal female body shape is to look like a boy with breasts. No wonder three quarters of teenage girls suffer from body-image paranoia.

Research revealed last week that three out of four girls think they are overweight and that among girls of normal weight, nearly half think that they are fat, did not surprise Dr John Griffin, who runs the eating disorders programme at St Patrick's Hospital. "The problem is much worse than 20 years ago and it's getting worse all the time," he says.

The research, which found that 38 per cent of 400 14-16 year old girls throughout the State were on a diet, was conducted by University of Ulster doctoral student Elaine Mooney, a home-economics lecturer at St Angela's College, Sligo.

Eating disorders are threatening the lives of girls as young as 10, says Dr Griffin, and he doesn't blame the women and mothers who are fighting a losing battle against mass brain-washing. It is, he says, "a social virus".

The popular reaction is to solely blame the media: the magazines featuring airbrushed, photo-shopped models who are not real; the gossip magazines that give actresses and celebrities publicity for their weight loss or gain, rather than their career achievements; the incessant chatter about "extreme skinniest" celebrities on TV.

In reaction, Bodywhys, a support, prevention and awareness organisation dealing with eating disorders, has been running a radio campaign raising awareness of eating disorders and has introduced a voluntary education programme in some schools. Boys are also included in this, because they are increasingly experiencing eating disorders as they try to attain the six-pack look.

Three-quarters of parents of teenage girls are dealing with their daughters' food anxiety on a daily basis. Parents want to know if they can de-programme their children from a cult of slimness so pervasive that internet sites extol starvation as a lifestyle choice.

But parents also know that there is an even bigger issue than damaging media messages: bullying in schools about body weight, which is at its worst in fifth and sixth class in primary school, says Dr Griffin.

He believes that bullying is the macro-problem behind the worsening epidemic of eating disorders, which affect 200,000 Irish people, according to a Department of Health document, A Vision for Change. Calling another child "fat" is the among the worst insult that school-children can dole out. The victim is made to feel that obesity is a crime that makes you ugly and lazy. Dr Griffin says he has one young patient whose anorexia began when she was teased in school and called "Nelly the Elephant", though name-calling is only the most obvious symptom.

He says: "Bullying can be very subtle, with children excluded from cliques and sent to Coventry. Children know that complaining about bullying makes it worse, because then teachers confront the bullies, who retaliate by intensifying their victimisation of the child who complained." While there may be exceptions, he says, parents of children who have been bullied know that schools are ineffectual in dealing with the issue.

Family members can trigger eating disorders too. One of Dr Griffin's patients developed her eating disorder after her aunt told her that she looked fat in her Confirmation photographs. "Two years later she was a five-and-a-half stone bag of bones," Dr Griffin says.

Another underlying cause of eating disorders, which are much more common than they were 20 years ago, is the relatively low status of women, who are not equally represented in politics and leadership positions in business, for example.

Dr Griffin believes that women's inferior status leads girls to feel they have no choice but to try to conform to an image that they think society wants. Mooney's research found that girls are crash-dieting in order to appeal to boys - who ultimately hold the power to raise a woman's status. It's the wife and girlfriend (WAG) syndrome gone mad, with celebrity magazines selling marriage to a rich footballer as the ultimate career move.

These are all huge issues that parents cannot change on an individual level, but there are things parents can do. Discuss body image with your children and tell them that fashion and advertising photographs of models are not real. Tell your kids that it's okay to be a normal weight. Be alert to behaviours such as crash-dieting, vomiting after eating and, less publicised but also dangerous, binge-eating. Ensure that your children can't access internet sites that extol the virtues of the anorexia and bulimia "lifestyles".

If you're worried, bring your child to a good GP earlier rather than later. "A GP who can talk with a child in a way the child responds to is worth his or her weight in gold. Many eating problems can be nipped in the bud in this way," Dr Griffin advises.

In schools, Dr Griffin adds: "We need a programme of prevention and education, starting in fifth class in primary schools. Without it, we are just fire-fighting."