To the Editor:
This week is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (NEDAW). It is a nationally-coordinated event in its 20th year, and is currently the nation's largest eating disorder outreach effort. I encourage everyone to check out the website, NEDAW's home page, at www.edap.org.
The slogan for NEDAW this year is, "Be comfortable in your genes. Wear jeans that fit the real you." One of the premiere events of NEDAW is the Great Jeans Giveaway, where women donate old (and new) jeans that do not comfortably fit them.
Furthermore, the first part of the slogan is in response to the publication of a letter by the Department of Health and Human Services in October 2006 addressed to the CEO of the National Eating Disorders Association. The letter includes the following statement:
"Research tells us that anorexia nervosa is a brain disease with severe metabolic effects on the entire body. While the symptoms are behavioral, this illness has a biological core, with genetic components, changes in brain activity, and neural pathways currently under study."
This research is, of course, not meant to undermine the reality that America is weight-obsessed society and culture, but rather to further awareness about the complexity of eating disorders and to underscore the fact that they are treatable and curable. For, the letter goes on to state that, "Most women from anorexia recover, usually following intensive psychological and medical care."
Furthermore, I am proposing that over the course of the next week, women on campus break the culture of silence and secrecy that is inextricably linked with eating disorders. I encourage women to speak candidly and openly about their experience with eating disorders. The silencing of women is a discrete historical phenomenon that is rooted in the institutionalization of patriarchy. I remind everyone that the high rate of eating disorders among American women is a symptom of a much larger social, cultural, economic, and political problem.
And, finally, on a more personal note, after suffering with an eating disorder for the past seven years I am just now finding the power and authority that my voice speaks with. I urge those of you who have unnecessarily suffered at the expense of disordered eating or an eating disorder to find the powerful courage to do the same.
Rachel Umberger Senior Co-creator Third Wave: A Place For Feminists
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