Culture and Weight Consciousness

Issues of culture and thinness are usually considered in terms of the experience of the Western world, but there is a growing body of research suggesting that concern with weight is becoming more prevalent in non-western cultures. Culture and WeightConsciousnessbrings together this research and looks at the recent emergence of eating disorders in cultures that were previously free of such problems. It relates the feminist theories that have been put forward to explain the phenomenon of eating disorders in the West to the condition of modern women in many non-Western cultures and concludes that their position is not at all that different from that of their western counterparts. It addresses the current limitations of the concept of culture and draws out the implications for future research.