Beneath the Skin: Analyzing College Females with Eating Disorders
             In "Girls in the 90s: A Gender-Based Model for Eating Disorder Prevention," Sandra Friedman discusses the importance of weight for women and particularly for young girls. Adolescent females feel that they are "fat" if they look "fatter" than the models in magazines and television. Friedman explains that young girls develop dramatic changes to their bodies as they experience puberty. They often feel that the changes deform their bodies and make them unacceptable (219). Friedman criticizes society's emphasis on how "to fit in" and to " 'be just like everyone else'" has taught these young females to please others and to forget about their own feelings (220). She points out that as a result many young girls obsess about food and their weight as early as their pre-teen years. Eventually, they develop an eating disorder that will make them sick and even die (217).
             Eating less is becoming a popular ritual for many young girls; they learn to dislike food (218). Friedman states that girls as young as elementary school children start to notice how much they weigh. She argues that many eating disorder prevention programs are unsuccessful because they begin too late. Therefore, Friedman suggests that preventions programs have a greater chance of success if they start helping young girls in elementary schools (220). As young girls hit puberty, they become interested in the opposite sex. She maintains that societal and cultural pressures force these adolescent girls to believe that not only " 'do they need to be attractive but also to be attractive is to be thin'" (219). Thus, they frequently judge themselves in terms of how they look by using a scale. Consequently, young girls "lose their self-confidence and sense of self-worth" (218). According to Friedman, they begin to h...