Hara Estroff Marano, executive editor of Psychology Today, said last night that competitive schools such as Dartmouth create environments that encourage eating disorders.
Marano delivered her speech, titled "Foreign Bodies: The Problem of Real Flesh in a World of Images," to a predominately female audience. The talk centered around the effect of advertising on body image in society.
Marano, who is the author of the book "Style is Not a Size: Looking and Feeling Great in the Body You Have," discussed the trend for smart and motivated women to develop an obsession with their body image.
In her book, she examines image problems produced by advertisers. She claims advertisers create images without thinking of the repercussions on popular culture.
Men are also susceptible to the images advertisers create, Marano said.
"I've learned that everyone here is really majoring in the same thing-controlling your weight," Marano said.
"I've done some talking to people in the Dartmouth community and learned how predominate eating disorders are here," Marano said, "Eighty percent of the students said they know someone with an eating disorder, and it's not like they all know the same person."
Marano said every term 60 students go to Dick's House for counseling on eating disorders. This number works out to 15 percent of women on campus each year.
Marcia Herrin, coordinator of nutrition education, provided the statistics to Marano for her study.
Herrin said she feels having Marano on campus, "continues my interest in the education around food, eating and exercise."
Marano said she was told by various campus women that eating disorders are prevalent in sororities and dorms.
She said these campus women also told her it is normal for women on campus to be terrified of being out of control, many women over-exercise, and "that bulimia is so common [at Dartmouth], it feels normal."
The pressure to be thin is particularly acute among intelligent women, she said.
Marano said the desire to attain success and perfection at a school like Dartmouth contributes to the pressure to be thin.
"Select colleges breed and depend on a culture of competition." Marano said.
Controlling weight to provide stability is a myth, she explained. She said the body's biology reacts adversely to a disruption of its normal eating patterns.
"Women here tell me that they feel an undue amount of pressure to measure up," Marano said. "They are lost into the conventional stereotypes that seem to be ultimately vocalized by Dartmouth men, that brains and beauty don't mix."
Marano said men at other schools have told her that they notice intelligent women feel pressures to be thin.
"Independently, men have told me that they have noticed that the most intelligent women seem to be feeling the most pressure to be thin," she said.
Marano said during the question and answer period that she had not spoken to any men at Dartmouth on the issue of eating disorders among their peers.
The desire for a woman to control her weight can also be a result of the attitudes of conservative males with traditional values who attend the selective schools, she said.
"The social and team life that permeates the Dartmouth community has strong, male tradition," Marano said. "And these may favor if not the establishment, certainly the maintenance, of competitive dieting and eating disorders, by silencing any particular suggestions among women.
