News
Cynthia Whitehead-LaBoo Ph.D., Director of Emory University's Eating Disorders Program, will be speaking on the multicultural aspects of body image and eating disorders this Thursday in honor of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week.
Whitehead-LaBoo's lecture, entitled "Does Everybody Hate Their Body?" will address the similarities and differences in body image and eating behaviors among people of different ethnic groups, gender and sexual orientations.
"Bringing in a national speaker allows students to focus on this issue for a week," co-coordinator of the College's Eating Disorders Prevention, Education, and Treatment Program Marcia Herrin said.
The Eating Disorder Prevention program will also be holding a seminar on what the College does for sufferers of eating disorders on Thursday morning, which will be open to the public.
Up to one in five women attending elite American universities may suffer from an eating disorder, according to some estimates, and Herrin hopes that Eating Disorders Awareness Week will help to diminish the number.
"Our hopes are always that the programs we are doing this week will encourage worried friends and even sufferers themselves to come forward," Herrin said.
The traditional image of an anorectic or bulimic is that of a white, middle class, heterosexual female, but recent reports from psychologists indicate that this conception no longer applies to modern America.
"I think that the stereotype is changing because the stereotype is no longer true," Herrin said.
