ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a feminist evaluation of the context in which eating disorders develop and of the dominant treatment models for eating disorder intervention. It explores the importance of embodiment to understanding and treating eating disorders, emphasizing the relevance of "taking up space" physically and socially as a form of resistance to patriarchal oppression. The chapter also explores the impact of sociocultural narratives of femininity, the reality of normative body dissatisfaction, and its relationship to self-esteem and eating disorders, and conclude by describing eating disorders as a cultural rather than individual sickness. It discusses the importance of integral unity of the mind-body-self in relation to bodies as sites of both oppression and freedom, and the threat of objectification and mind-body dualism in maintaining embodied wholeness. The chapter describes eating disorders as an expression of social compliance and in connection with sexual violence and trauma.
