y a female
             problem. The American Psychiatric Association (1994) estimates the ratio of
             women to men with eating disorders to be 10 to one. (ibid) A further
             statistic is that most of the sufferers are young females. The American
             Psychiatric Association has estimated that the prevalence is 4-22 percent
             of college-age females. (Ibid) Another alarming aspect is that research
             estimates that "the incidence of disordered eating has risen steadily over
             the past 30 years, and disordered eating has begun to change from a disease
             of young, white, middle class girls and women to a more equal-opportunity
             affliction, especially in Westernized societies (American Psychiatric
             Association, 1994; Dolan, 1989; Schwartz, Thompson, & Johnson, 1982;
             Stoutjesdyk & Jevne, 1993)". (ibid)
             The statistics point clearly to the predominance of female sufferers
             with eating disorders. It is estimated (1986) that eleven million women and
             one million men in the United States suffer from eating disorders--either
             self-induced semi-starvation (anorexia nervosa) or a cycle of binging and
             purging with laxatives, self-induced vomiting, or excessive exercise
             In a 1990 nationwide survey of 20 high schools at least nine out of
             ten eating-disorder sufferers were female (Wolf 1991). According to the
             American Anorexia and Bulimia Association, 150,000 American women die of
             The reason for the increase in eating disorders among young women is
             closely linked to the history of images that are exposed to the general
             public of the desirable female form, as presented by the media. The fact
             that the media has increased its influence and pervasiveness through new
             technologies, such as television and the Internet, obviously leads to a
             greater proliferation of the image of socially acceptable female
             "Several autho...