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BODY SHAMING (e.g Next Top Model Romania - models being insulted by the show's moderator)

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BODY SHAMING (e.g Next Top Model Romania - models being insulted by the show's moderator)

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About a year ago, a piece of concerning research was released. A group of researchers compared Romanian to German students, looking into things like desired weight, psychosocial issues surrounding body image, and eating disorders.

The results did not make pleasant reading. Not only did the researchers establish that Romanian girls were more worried about their weight than their German counterparts, they were also more likely to consider unhealthily thin bodies "normal".

The research also discovered that the rate of eating disorders in Romania had shot up over the last two decades. Why is this and what can we do to help?

Before the events of 1990, official figures put the presence of eating disorders in adolescent Romanian girls at around 0.01 per cent - not a huge figure. In 2010, that had risen to around 0.6 per cent - a substantial increase. However, last year, researchers wishing to study cross-cultural attitudes towards weight, body image, and eating came in for a shock when they compared 196 Romanian and 110 German female students [none of whom had a reported eating disorder], and 31 anorexia nervosa patients.

The results were stark. Of the Romanian sample, 43 immediately presented a lower BMI than is healthy, flagging up health concerns for the researchers. The mean average BMI was far lower for the Romanian group than the German group - although the mean average for the German group was healthy.

What is more, the Romanian group consistently chose lower desired BMIs than their German counterparts, and were more likely to describe dangerously underweight women as "normal" or even as "desirable". The Romanian girls were also more prone to an obsessive "thinness drive", which is known to contribute to disordered eating patterns, such as those found in anorexia and bulimia nervosa.

These findings support a growing body of evidence which shows that eating disorders are growing fast among young Romanian women.
Eating disorders can be fatal:
Eating disorders are extremely dangerous. They have the highest mortality rate of all mental health conditions, and can absolutely destroy the lives of sufferers. While the precise symptoms and nature of eating disorders vary, they tend to be characterised by pathological eating patterns, obsessional preoccupations with calorie intake and extreme control over consumption. An anorexic, for example, will develop obsessive rituals around food, limit their intake to the point of starvation, and potentially acquire a marked antipathy towards eating. Simultaneously, they may "lose touch" with the reality of their body and its condition.

A bulimic, meanwhile, may "binge" on vast amounts of food, and then purge it from their bodies via self-induced vomiting, laxatives, or in some cases by excessive amounts of exercise. Sadly, many individuals with eating disorders damage their organs or their general health permanently if they are not treated in time, and a significant proportion of sufferers ultimately starve themselves to death. If allowed to progress, these disorders can be hard to cure - particularly with Romania's sub-par mental health provisions.
Thinness becomes normalised:
Eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia are mental health conditions whose causes are psychologically complex. However, it is thought that pressure to be thin can trigger such eating disorders. What the researchers from the cross-cultural study discovered was that extreme thinness was becoming "normalised" among young Romanian females, and held up as a desirable condition.

This is concerning on a number of levels, as those experiencing pressure to be unhealthily thin may go to inordinate and dangerous lengths to achieve their goal. While, perhaps surprisingly, many of the Romanian girls studied did not display the same kind of body image dissatisfaction associated with eating disorders elsewhere in the world, they did have a powerful drive towards weight loss, and demonstrated approval for women whose BMI was far lower than is healthy.

These attitudes are definitely worrying. Research in other countries indicates that a greater societal emphasis on "body positivity" can help - valuing healthy bodies over thin ones, and restricting exposure for media which seems to promote extremely thin models etc as paragons of desirability.

Whether this would work or not in Romania - and if it is even possible - remains to be seen. In the meantime, we can teach our daughters some valuable lessons about what is, and what is not, healthy.

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Eating Disorders Worsen Among Romanian Women | Balkan Insight

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About a year ago, a piece of concerning research was released. A group of researchers compared Romanian to German students, looking into things like desired weight, psychosocial issues surrounding body image, and eating disorders. The results did not make pleasant reading.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
About a year ago, a piece of concerning research was released. A group of researchers compared Romanian to German students, looking into things like desired weight, psychosocial issues surrounding body image, and eating disorders.

The results did not make pleasant reading. Not only did the researchers establish that Romanian girls were more worried about their weight than their German counterparts, they were also more likely to consider unhealthily thin bodies "normal".

The research also discovered that the rate of eating disorders in Romania had shot up over the last two decades. Why is this and what can we do to help?

Before the events of 1990, official figures put the presence of eating disorders in adolescent Romanian girls at around 0.01 per cent - not a huge figure. In 2010, that had risen to around 0.6 per cent - a substantial increase. However, last year, researchers wishing to study cross-cultural attitudes towards weight, body image, and eating came in for a shock when they compared 196 Romanian and 110 German female students [none of whom had a reported eating disorder], and 31 anorexia nervosa patients.

The results were stark. Of the Romanian sample, 43 immediately presented a lower BMI than is healthy, flagging up health concerns for the researchers. The mean average BMI was far lower for the Romanian group than the German group - although the mean average for the German group was healthy.

What is more, the Romanian group consistently chose lower desired BMIs than their German counterparts, and were more likely to describe dangerously underweight women as "normal" or even as "desirable". The Romanian girls were also more prone to an obsessive "thinness drive", which is known to contribute to disordered eating patterns, such as those found in anorexia and bulimia nervosa.

These findings support a growing body of evidence which shows that eating disorders are growing fast among young Romanian women.
Eating disorders can be fatal:
Eating disorders are extremely dangerous. They have the highest mortality rate of all mental health conditions, and can absolutely destroy the lives of sufferers. While the precise symptoms and nature of eating disorders vary, they tend to be characterised by pathological eating patterns, obsessional preoccupations with calorie intake and extreme control over consumption. An anorexic, for example, will develop obsessive rituals around food, limit their intake to the point of starvation, and potentially acquire a marked antipathy towards eating. Simultaneously, they may "lose touch" with the reality of their body and its condition.

A bulimic, meanwhile, may "binge" on vast amounts of food, and then purge it from their bodies via self-induced vomiting, laxatives, or in some cases by excessive amounts of exercise. Sadly, many individuals with eating disorders damage their organs or their general health permanently if they are not treated in time, and a significant proportion of sufferers ultimately starve themselves to death. If allowed to progress, these disorders can be hard to cure - particularly with Romania's sub-par mental health provisions.
Thinness becomes normalised:
Eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia are mental health conditions whose causes are psychologically complex. However, it is thought that pressure to be thin can trigger such eating disorders. What the researchers from the cross-cultural study discovered was that extreme thinness was becoming "normalised" among young Romanian females, and held up as a desirable condition.

This is concerning on a number of levels, as those experiencing pressure to be unhealthily thin may go to inordinate and dangerous lengths to achieve their goal. While, perhaps surprisingly, many of the Romanian girls studied did not display the same kind of body image dissatisfaction associated with eating disorders elsewhere in the world, they did have a powerful drive towards weight loss, and demonstrated approval for women whose BMI was far lower than is healthy.

These attitudes are definitely worrying. Research in other countries indicates that a greater societal emphasis on "body positivity" can help - valuing healthy bodies over thin ones, and restricting exposure for media which seems to promote extremely thin models etc as paragons of desirability.

Whether this would work or not in Romania - and if it is even possible - remains to be seen. In the meantime, we can teach our daughters some valuable lessons about what is, and what is not, healthy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Eating Disorders Worsen Among Romanian Women | Balkan Insight

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
About a year ago, a piece of concerning research was released. A group of researchers compared Romanian to German students, looking into things like desired weight, psychosocial issues surrounding body image, and eating disorders. The results did not make pleasant reading.

# data[].attributes.body
Eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia are mental health conditions whose causes are psychologically complex. However, it is thought that pressure to be thin can trigger such eating disorders. What the researchers from the cross-cultural study discovered was that extreme thinness was becoming “normalised” among young Romanian females, and held up as a desirable condition.

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The results stress the importance of eating disorders also in Romania. This may be due to the identification process with Western values.

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Abstract

Introduction: Eating Disorders are often considered to be culture-bound syndromes, occurring mainly in industrialized Western countries. In the last decade several epidemiologic studies were published in Eastern European countries, indicating that eating disorders are wide-spread also in this region. The present paper is an epidemiological study of eating disorders in Romania and analyses the prevalence of eating disorders and some pathological eating behaviours in secondary school samples from Romania.

Methods: A total of 2,396 secondary school adolescents from Romania (1,140 male, 1,256 female) 1,312 Hungarians and 1,084 Romanians were surveyed.

Results: The prevalence of AN was 0.6% in the Romanian female population and no clinical cases of AN were found in the Hungarian female sample. As for subclinical AN, the rate in the Hungarian female sample was 0.4% and in the Romanian one 1.9%. The prevalence of BN was 1% in the Hungarian and 1.3% in the Romanian female sample. The prevalence of subclinical BN in the Hungarian female sample was 0.8% and for the Romanian female sample it was 0.7%. We did not find clinical or subclinical AN in the male sample but the prevalence of BN was 0.2% in the Hungarian male sample. The subclinical BN was 0.3% in the Hungarian male sample and 0.5% in the Romanian male sample.

Conclusions: The results stress the importance of eating disorders also in Romania. This may be due to the identification process with Western values.

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[Prevalence of clinical and subclinical forms of anorexia and bulimia nervosa among working females and males].

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Isomaa R, Isomaa AL, Marttunen M, Kaltiala-Heino R, Björkqvist K. Isomaa R, et al. Eur Eat Disord Rev. 2009 May;17(3):199-207. doi: 10.1002/erv.919. Eur Eat Disord Rev. 2009. PMID: 19308945

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feeding and eating disorders / epidemiology*

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feeding and eating disorders / ethnology

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national center for biotechnology information

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[Prevalence of eating disorders in the cultural context of the Romanian majority and the Hungarian minority in Romania] - PubMed

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Introduction: Eating Disorders are often considered to be culture-bound syndromes, occurring mainly in industrialized Western countries. In the last decade several epidemiologic studies were published in Eastern European countries, indicating that eating disorders are wide-spread also in this region.

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'Romania, I’ve come to understand, is a place that is heavily influenced by western beauty culture (and social media) and has developed some harsh beauty standards. If I had to describe it, I would say it is like the 1980’s America.

People are still into “fad” diets (severally restricting calories even though it’s been proven that doing so does not lead to weight loss and is actually very unhealthy). They drink teas and diet thinking it will stave off damage from drinking or smoking. Some of them smoke so they won’t eat, some smoke to stay skinny.

There is a lot of pressure to be skinny here. When I first came to Romania so many years ago I was 5′8″ and weighed 260 pounds — obese by western standards although it was proportioned well. People would laugh behind my back. Especially in the summertime, when you wear shorter clothing and dresses. Comments like, “Who is she dressing nice for, herself?” and so on were commonplace. Every day was a struggle to get outside and walk and do something because people in Romania are cruel when it comes to teasing other people.

It is a mentality I have never understood and that is not commonplace abroad. In America, for instance, it would be seen as a MAJOR social faux pas to talk about someone's weight or laugh at them, or gossip. This is seen as very childish and is a huge turn off for a lot of people. You could even lose your job for this kind of behavior. You just don’t do it. So that was a major culture shock to me when I came to Romania.' - https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-Romanian-beauty-standards-for-women

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What are some Romanian beauty standards for women?

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Answer: It's nearly summer time here in Bucharest. More women are stepping out in dresses and skirts - myself included. It's weird walking around in a dress here. In the USA, it's no big deal. People don't talk about you or stare at you usually. You especially don't feel the burning sensation of...

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Pacteau, F. (2004). Symptom of beauty. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

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Pacteau, F. (2004). Symptom of beauty. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

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Harris-Moore, D. (2014). Media and the rhetoric of body perfection : Cosmetic surgery, weight loss and beauty in popular culture. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

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Harris-Moore, D. (2014). Media and the rhetoric of body perfection : Cosmetic surgery, weight loss and beauty in popular culture. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

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BORDO, S., 2003. UNBEARABLE WEIGHT : FEMINISM, WESTERN CULTURE, AND THE BODY. BERKELEY: UNIV OF CALIFORNIA PRESS.

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BORDO, S., 2003. UNBEARABLE WEIGHT : FEMINISM, WESTERN CULTURE, AND THE BODY. BERKELEY: UNIV OF CALIFORNIA PRESS.

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Fallon, P., Katzman, M., & Wooley, S. (1996). Feminist perspectives on eating disorders. Guilford Press.

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Fallon, P., Katzman, M., & Wooley, S. (1996). Feminist perspectives on eating disorders. Guilford Press.

# data[].attributes.body
Murray, S. (2008). The 'fat' female body. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

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Citation

Title:

Authors:

Berry, David¹

Source:

Slovo (Maney Publishing). Autumn2004, Vol. 16 Issue 2, p131-142. 12p.

Document Type:

Abstract

Subject Terms:

*POPULAR culture
*WOMEN'S periodicals
*TEENAGERS
*ETHNOLOGY
*MASS media

Geographic Terms:

ROMANIA

Abstract:

This paper considers whether elements of popular culture can he seen as subversive in the contemporary Romanian context and, with this in mind, aims to initiate a debate and perhaps generate future ethnographic research into this particular field of enquiry. In this vein, this paper perhaps poses more questions rather than offering definitive answers on whether we can indeed view popular culture in subversive terms. The main points under consideration concern whether the forms of female representation which have emerged since the 1989 revolution are currently producing new forms of subjective cultural identity and new definitions of femininity. The paper thus addresses the production of new female audiences who have developed new tastes and lifestyles, and asks whether we can begin to perceive female subjective cultural development as a disruptive force to pre-existing traditional norms and values that have dominated the Romanian cultural landscape and whether new levels of social consciousness and female identity are currently transforming or reinventing society through cultural production. To foreground the debate, the article begins with a brief analysis of popular culture, then discusses representation and outlines some of the content in magazines. In the final part of the article, I discuss whether we can view the freedom to reflexively interpret both text and image as a revolutionary and subversive moment in Romanian history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Slovo (Maney Publishing) is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Author Affiliations:

¹Southampton Institute.

ISSN:

0954-6839

Accession Number:

14521585

Database:

Academic Search Ultimate

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Is Popular Culture Subversive in Romania? An Assessment of Teenage Girls' a...: Discovery Service for University of Portsmouth

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Title: Authors: Berry, David1 Source: Slovo (Maney Publishing). Autumn2004, Vol. 16 Issue 2, p131-142. 12p. Document Type: Abstract Subject Terms: *POPULAR culture*WOMEN'S periodicals*TEENAGERS*ETHNOLOGY*MASS media Geographic Terms: ROMANIA Abstract: This paper considers whether elements of popular culture can he seen as subversive in the contemporary Romanian context and, with this in mind, aims to initiate a debate and perhaps generate future ethnographic research into this particular field of enquiry.

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After struggling with an eating disorder and coming to terms with prejudices in the industry, Patricia Luiza Blaj decided to create the clothing she wanted to see on offer: personal, romantic, inclusive.

Patricia Luiza Blaj is loud. She's loud about feminism and LGBTQ rights. She's loud about politics and entrepreneurship. Most of all, she's loud about living in and loving the body you're in. Which is why when clothing shops in Romania stopped stocking her size, she took matters into her own hands.

"It's easy to say, 'Oh, fashion is superficial' when you can fit into anything in the store - because really, you have the opportunity to express yourself [through clothes] however you want," she told The Calvert Journal. "When you can't do that, it feels restrictive. It's a kind of self-censorship."

Blaj's answer was to create and promote Loud Bodies: her own clothing line in sizes XXS to 5XL. Unapologetically overstated and romantic, each outfit is a world away from the bland or oversized outfits typically reserved for Romania's plus-sized sections. Each design was a step into the unknown - but also deeply personal.

"I've always been interested in fashion, but more fashion journalism," she says. "I think when you start out, you're always drawing things that you would want to wear, and that's normal. But really, I wanted to make something of my own that I could believe in. Before, I would try to squeeze into clothes. Now, I'm wearing the right size for me and it makes such a difference."

The decision to make her own clothes came at a turbulent part of Blaj's life. The 22-year-old journalism graduate was recovering from bulimia. But as she gained weight, Blaj was hit by prejudice, as well as support. Despite having already built a loyal following as an Instagram content creator, sponsorships with Romanian companies began drying up.

"I had to prove that I was worthy to work with. Other plus-size influencers either talk a lot about weight loss or avoid the subject. That's more acceptable than what I'm saying: this is me and I am just living my life"

"As an influencer, brands would not work with me. I had to prove that I was worthy to work with," she says. She believes her outspoken views and embrace of the plus-size label were to blame - even today, she is one of the region's few body positive bloggers. "There are other plus-size influencers but they either talk a lot about weight loss or avoid the subject," she says. "That's more acceptable than what I'm saying: this is me and I am just living my life."

Setting up shop, however, wasn't easy. Blaj has no formal design training, and at first struggled to manage all the logistics from scratch. Finding reliable suppliers is a constant battle: when we speak, one bolt of fabric has been waiting in a warehouse for delivery for the past week and a half. Blaj wants to be honest about the strain of startup life. Setting up your own business isn't a smooth path to success, and it certainly doesn't come about without plenty of support from family and friends.

"I did get help from my parents to buy my first sewing machine and my first bolt of fabric," she says. "My boyfriend is a fashion photographer who does our catalogue. I want to be upfront about that: we save a lot of money doing that work in house. It doesn't mean I've put in less work, but no one is 100 per cent self-made. We should celebrate the fact that no man is an island."

Read more Body positive: for these Russian women, self-love is a radical weapon

The struggle was worth it. If brands didn't believe in Blaj's market appeal, her customers did. Word of Blaj's collection first spread through her own Instagram following, then other plus-size influencers. Now, shoppers from across the world race to snap up Loud Bodies' designs. Aged just 23, Blaj has three employees working beneath her, all to cope with the number of orders being shipped out of their workshop in Cluj-Napoca. Some 80 per cent of orders go to the international market. "When we launched, we had no coverage or support in the Romanian press," Blaj says. "Social media is really important for us."

But while most Romanian brands would die to have Loud Bodies' international success, Blaj still feels frustrated by Romania's reluctance to accept bigger bodies. Blaj says that she regularly struggles to be taken seriously by her own doctor, who delayed her diagnosis of PCOS - a common condition which often causes weight gain - with the insistence that she just wasn't trying hard enough to lose the pounds.

Shop assistants regularly challenge larger customers by announcing unprompted that the store will be unable to meet their needs. The country's body positivity movement is "quite non-existent," says Blaj. Faced with this kind of pressure, it's difficult for plus-size women to rock the boat, even when they do choose to wear clothes that aren't solely designed to help them blend into the background for once.

"In Romania, the body positivity movement is still just starting out," she says. "And that can be lonely. People are still afraid to speak out and I don't blame them. It's always a bad thing. You're always patronised. From a young age you learn that you have to be careful if you're not how you should be."

For now, Blaj's dreams remain small. Her main goals are to keep her employees paid and happy and to make rent each month. If things go well, she wants to dream a little more about designing a line of evening dresses. But even small steps, she says, can make a large difference.

"If we stay silent, this bullying and discrimination will prevail," she says. "One gay person, one fat person, one disabled person: they can't take all this on their own. If one person goes downtown and screams, it's useless. But if one hundred people do it, together? That can change something."

Read more

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Meet the former influencer behind a new body positive clothing brand in Romania

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After struggling with an eating disorder and coming to terms with prejudices in the industry, Patricia Luiza Blaj decided to create the clothing she wanted to see on offer: personal, romantic, inclusive. Patricia Luiza Blaj is loud. She's loud about feminism and LGBTQ rights. She's loud about politics and entrepreneurship.

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Eating disorders sourcebook, 5th edition. (2019). ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

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Eating disorders sourcebook, 5th edition. (2019). ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com