ABSTRACT
Earth may have been the first divinity to be worshipped by most peoples of the world. For those not separated from nature by urban technology, earth appeared to be the literal source of all life, human and non-human. From a feminist theory perspective, three facts about eating disorders are striking. First, as significant social phenomena eating disorders are new. Instances have been documented, infrequently, throughout history, but it is not until the second half of the nineteenth century that something like a minor epidemic of anorexia nervosa is first described in medical accounts. Ideas about eating disorders have undergone many changes. Ecofeminism aims to have feminism and ecology mutually inform one another, developing a feminism that is ecological and an ecology that is feminist. Ecological feminism challenges people to understand the contribution of gender to the forms of culture and economic rationality that bring contemporary societies into ecological danger zones.
