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Consistently Inconsistent: A Review of the Literature on Eating Disorders and Body Image Among Women of Color

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Handbook of Race-Ethnicity and Gender in Psychology

Abstract

Over the last decade, there has been growing recognition that the eating disorders literature has largely omitted the experiences of women of color and instead presumed these to be “golden girl” disorders which only affect White girls and women (Mastria, Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy 19:59–77, 2002; Smolak & Striegel-Moore, In: Striegel-Moore, Smolak (eds) Eating disorders: Innovative directions in research and practice. American Psychological Association, 2001). Though an increasing awareness of the importance of racial and ethnic differences among women has led more researchers to include women of color in their studies, the majority of this work focuses on comparison studies between White women and women of color (with a higher representation of Black women than other racial groups). Comparison studies with White women can obfuscate important aspects of women of color’s experiences and can, inadvertently, render the White female experience as the “norm” by which we compare others. Furthermore, women of color’s experiences tend to be compared to White women’s experiences by applying concepts such as the thin ideal as if they were universal. Very little effort has been made to attempt to understand women of color’s lived experiences of body image and eating issues outside and apart from existing theories validated with White women (Bordo, 2009).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hartford, Graduate Institute of Professional Psychology, West Hartford, CT, USA

    Christina M. Capodilupo Ph.D.

  2. New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Jessica M. Forsyth Ph.D.

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  1. Christina M. Capodilupo Ph.D.
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  2. Jessica M. Forsyth Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Christina M. Capodilupo Ph.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Columbia University Teachers College, New York, USA

    Marie L. Miville

  2. Department of Human Development and Psyc, Howard University, Washington, USA

    Angela D. Ferguson

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Capodilupo, C.M., Forsyth, J.M. (2014). Consistently Inconsistent: A Review of the Literature on Eating Disorders and Body Image Among Women of Color. In: Miville, M., Ferguson, A. (eds) Handbook of Race-Ethnicity and Gender in Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8860-6_16

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