Comments on: Very Un-Fat Girls in . . . Is it Art? Or just a disturbing brew of images? http://manolobig.com/2008/05/26/very-un-fat-girls-in-is-it-art-or-just-a-disturbing-brew-of-images/ Fashion, Lifestyle, and Humor for the Plus Sized Woman. Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:57:14 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: jenny http://manolobig.com/2008/05/26/very-un-fat-girls-in-is-it-art-or-just-a-disturbing-brew-of-images/comment-page-1/#comment-26338 jenny Tue, 27 May 2008 09:06:53 +0000 http://manolobig.com/2008/05/26/very-un-fat-girls-in-is-it-art-or-just-a-disturbing-brew-of-images/#comment-26338 I pretty much agree with Marvel. I would like to add that I think that in terms of eating most people have had a point in their life when their eating habits and attitudes were (psychologically) unhealthy, whether overeating or restricting their food intake or whatever. I think one of the problems with having these kind of messages floating around is that they seem to justify this kind of behavior as an acceptable coping mechanism. Which can turn what was a transient phase, in reaction to a particular circumstance, into a longer running problem. So maybe to an extent they do promote mental illness. I pretty much agree with Marvel.
I would like to add that I think that in terms of eating most people have had a point in their life when their eating habits and attitudes were (psychologically) unhealthy, whether overeating or restricting their food intake or whatever. I think one of the problems with having these kind of messages floating around is that they seem to justify this kind of behavior as an acceptable coping mechanism. Which can turn what was a transient phase, in reaction to a particular circumstance, into a longer running problem.

So maybe to an extent they do promote mental illness.

]]> By: Marvel http://manolobig.com/2008/05/26/very-un-fat-girls-in-is-it-art-or-just-a-disturbing-brew-of-images/comment-page-1/#comment-26328 Marvel Mon, 26 May 2008 23:00:48 +0000 http://manolobig.com/2008/05/26/very-un-fat-girls-in-is-it-art-or-just-a-disturbing-brew-of-images/#comment-26328 Intriguing question with probably no right answer. But I think it likely that "popular culture" has always and will always promote some alternative as better or more desirable than another--whether that be thinness vs fatness, intelligence vs athleticism, goody-two-shoes morality vs rebellious individualism, think of any random (and oversimplified) dichotomy and insert here. Some percentage of people will be able to withstand the messages of popular culture, and some percentage won't. So I guess I'm arguing that popular culture won't "cause" mental illness, but it may define the form that some mental illnesses take. Which then opens the question of what defines a mental illness. Some are easy to define (anorexia, paranoid schizophrenia), but many appear to be an extreme form of normal human behavior. Severe depression can look a lot like a prolonged and deep, but natural, grief reaction. What is called an "illness" and what is just variation is not always easily defined--I once read an article in the late 1990's that stated that 20% of Caucausian boys in the 5th grade in a given school district were on medicine for ADHD. Some probably had a true illness characterized by attention deficits, but some were probably normal active boys that didn't conform to the parent/teacher expectations of behavior in a confined classroom setting. (When you call _20%_ of an otherwise normal population mentally ill, the definition is probably unnecessarily broad.) So if you're asking if society or "popular culture" can define some set of human behaviors as mental illness, then, yeah. My personal opinion--most true mental illness is probably primarily genetically determined, modulated by in utero and early childhood environments. Popular culture cannot "cause" mental illness in a person, but may determine the form a mental illness takes. Intriguing question with probably no right answer. But I think it likely that “popular culture” has always and will always promote some alternative as better or more desirable than another–whether that be thinness vs fatness, intelligence vs athleticism, goody-two-shoes morality vs rebellious individualism, think of any random (and oversimplified) dichotomy and insert here. Some percentage of people will be able to withstand the messages of popular culture, and some percentage won’t. So I guess I’m arguing that popular culture won’t “cause” mental illness, but it may define the form that some mental illnesses take.

Which then opens the question of what defines a mental illness. Some are easy to define (anorexia, paranoid schizophrenia), but many appear to be an extreme form of normal human behavior. Severe depression can look a lot like a prolonged and deep, but natural, grief reaction. What is called an “illness” and what is just variation is not always easily defined–I once read an article in the late 1990’s that stated that 20% of Caucausian boys in the 5th grade in a given school district were on medicine for ADHD. Some probably had a true illness characterized by attention deficits, but some were probably normal active boys that didn’t conform to the parent/teacher expectations of behavior in a confined classroom setting. (When you call _20%_ of an otherwise normal population mentally ill, the definition is probably unnecessarily broad.) So if you’re asking if society or “popular culture” can define some set of human behaviors as mental illness, then, yeah.

My personal opinion–most true mental illness is probably primarily genetically determined, modulated by in utero and early childhood environments. Popular culture cannot “cause” mental illness in a person, but may determine the form a mental illness takes.

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