This project began as two separate projects. Both of our projects experienced setbacks and in an effort to understand one another, ourselves and our community we combined our efforts. Debbie began with the idea to create and co-facilitate a support and treatment group for adolescent girls with eating disorders. One of the local professionals who specialized in this area had begun a similar project and was unable to finish it. She was thrilled to have help and we began to plan the group. The professional had created a video for parents and teachers to educate them about the need for such a group in our schools for girls in junior high and high school. The plan was to distribute the video to recruit a group. Both projects did not work out as planned and at the beginning of the Spring semester, Deb and Carmen began to collaborate together on a one time presentation of a video for the young "womyn" at Fairview High. The purpose of the presentation was to educate the girls about the media's influence on their self-esteem and assess the need for future groups around eating disorders and body image.
Statement of Need
Research in the area of self esteem and eating disorders in adolescent girls provided the background for our project. We learned that the numbers of young womyn with behaviors and precursors to full blown eating disorders is huge, about 9 out of 10 (Flannery-Schroeder, Ellen C.; Chrisler, Joan C. (1996).
Behaviors such as dieting and preoccupation with body size are now beginning in girls as young as 5 or 6 years old. These behaviors become significant by the age of 10 (Flannery-Schroeder, Ellen C.; Chrisler, Joan C. (1996). It is well known that eating disorders are linked to our culture's preoccupation with thinness. This societal belief continues to be perpetuated through magazines, movies and MTV. Every article addressed the problem of adolescents being particularly vulnerable to the influence of peers, trends and the media. Yet the prepubescent images of girls being portrayed as womyn in fashion magazines and on television continues. In one study, young girls today were found to report being more afraid of getting fat than of nuclear war, cancer or their parents dying (Lise Welsh, 1999). This important piece of addressing the media's influence on young womyn's self-esteem and body gave us the idea of showing the film, Slim Hopes by Jean Kilbourne.
Description of the Intervention
We held a presentation with a group of girls from Fairview High School. Our intervention began with introductions and rules of the group about safety and confidentiality. We looked at magazine ads and discussed how these ads made us feel about our bodies. We also looked at the messages the ads portrayed about what womyn's bodies are supposed to look like, what womyn and men are supposed to want. Some things the girls noticed were the depiction of perfection as the standard and the idea of "feeling fat." This sparked a discussion of fat becoming a feeling in our society. The girls were bringing up points discussed in the video! It was exciting to see how much they already knew and how critical they were of the magazine ads. We showed the video, Slim Hopes. This film explores hidden meaning in advertisments on how the female body is used to sell products. The film depicted how the media cuts and mutilates images of the female body, objectifying it. The video reveals the messages behind the ads about power and gender role construction. It also depicts how recently a completely perfect computer generated image was used for the first time as a magazine "cover girl". After the video, we talked briefly about the connections between the video and what we had discussed, and how much the girls already thought critically about what they viewed. They completed an evaluation for us, and we handed out a list of websites related to eating disorders and body image self esteem.
Evaluation of the Intervention
The evaluations the girls filled out expressed their interest in the video and this subject. I was surprised with how forthcoming the girls were about their eating habits and views of their bodies. They thought it would be important to share this information with the boys. From the group discussion and the evaluations, we discovered that these girls had much of this information already. None of it was new to them, yet two of the girls both identified themselves as having anorexia. It was important to realize that information and education are not enough alone, and we discussed with the girls the ecological perspective on this problem. They seemed to understand and agree that much of their beliefs and values about beauty and size came from outside themselves and was not congruent with their own experiences with people who were larger or less attractive. They were able to acknowledge that they wanted boys to like them for who they are not just their bodies; but they believe that all the boys want are their bodies. It was valuable for us to find out how much they already knew. We speculated that other school districts don't provide this much information on eating disorders in their curriculum. Some of them expressed interest in a continuing group discussing body image and eating disorders. We felt that we met our purpose of providing information and assessing for future groups.
Reflections on the Project
Be flexible! Always have a backup plan. It was vital to this project and our objective to be flexible with each other and the systems we were attempting to intervene with. Group work takes practice and it was invaluable experience. Carmen and Deb both would have liked to have been more in touch with each other and with the staff at the school. The presentation had to be rescheduled from the first appointment because the day of the presentation, only one girl was on campus. We learned the importance of clear communication and follow up, as well as planning ahead. For anyone interested in working in this area in the future, Debbie would like to offer herself as a resource to help coordinate future groups or
presentations (email serenesea9@aol.com). As the girls suggested, it would be interesting to show the boys this video or one like it.
For further information, check the World Wide Web pages listed below. Each of these websites has other links that will inform, educate and support you.
www.bodypositive.com
References
Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders Inc. (ANRED) cite (1998). First person, singular (writings). Retrieved on October 3, 1999 from the World Wide Web: http://www.anred.com/motiv.html
Cramer-Azima, Fern (1992). Adolescent group treatment. In Harper-Giuffre, Heather and MacKenzie, K. Roy (Eds.) Group Psychotherapy for Eating
Disorders. Washington DC: American Psychiatric Press.
Cummins, Paige N. (1996). Preparing clients with eating disorders for group counseling: a multimedia approach. Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 21(1), 4-11.
Flannery-Schroeder, Ellen C.; Chrisler, Joan C. (1996). Body esteem, eating attitudes, and gender-role orientation in three age groups of children. Current Psychology, 15(3),235-249.
Kidney, Walter (Ed.)(1992). Webster’s 21st Century Dictionary. Nashville: Thomas-Nelson
Shekter-Wolfson, Lorie F.; Woodside, D. Blake. (1997). Social work treatment of anorexia and bulimia: Guidelines for practice. Research on Social Work Practice. 7(1), 5-32.
Zerbe, Kathryn J. (1995). Integrating feminist and psychodynamic principles in the treatment of an eating disorder patient: Implications for using countertransference responses. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic. 59(2), 160-177.
^top