We don’t tend to think of the fragile and delicate as violent and dangerous. We admire the grace and beauty of the butterfly with no fear. We see the white swan, fluttering beautifully or the sweet gossamer-like beauty of Nina at her minimal breakfast, and we don’t fear them. We might even say that one egg and half a grapefruit is a normal and appropriate food for such a light and delicate being.
Here you will find articles discussing the various ways culture and media can affect both the development of an eating disorder and eating disorder recovery.
Links to various articles in the news and other websites and blogs representing cultural voices will be posted here along with commentary.
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- Category: Culture and Media
I’m glad the Black Swan filmmakers included Nina’s stealing from the older ballerina, Beth. Stealing is often a component of an eating disorder. The person doesn’t steal because she has a criminal mind and seeks to earn her way in the world through theft.
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- Category: Culture and Media
In the film "Black Swan," the character Nina is portrayed as emotionally and physically trapped in a child-like state, In the film "Black Swan," the character Nina is portrayed as emotionally and physically trapped in a child-like state, heavily dependent on her mother for care and guidance. Their mother-daughter relationship is characterized by a binding pattern where Nina's mother treats her as a child, and Nina, in turn, cannot function as an adult.
To improve their relationship realistically, Nina's mother would need to treat her as an adult, and Nina would have to embrace adulthood. However, this transformation never occurs, and they both remain stuck in their co-created dynamic.
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- Category: Culture and Media
In the film, The Black Swan, Nina obsesses about being a perfect ballerina. Her dancing in a troupe is inextricably tied to her sense of self. To endanger that activity is an intolerable nightmare. To stop dancing or to lose progress toward unapproachable stardom is equivalent to the death of her identity.
Anorexic and bulimic women in real life go into weeping tantrums, rages, manipulative arguments and pleading when their eating disorder symptoms prompt family or medical advisers to suggest even temporary life changes in support of their health and psychological well-being.
- Cautionary Tale and Need for Self Development
- Reality TV and Eating Disorders Part III - Informed Consent Issues
- Reality TV and Eating Disorders Part II - Emotional Cost and Alternatives
- Eating Disorders and Reality TV Part I - First Response
- Inspiration from John Wooden
- Women's Fear of Fat is Reasonable in This Culture: Let's Change That
- Women Are Human Beings, Not a Bundle of Symptoms
- Healing Work: What's Yours?
- Healing and Joy Experience at UCLA Sculpture Garden
- Sex, Beauty and Eating Disorders: Let Love and Reality Win