ABSTRACT

This chapter presents the case study of Emma. Emma was well aware of size prejudice and the sadistic entertainment size-bullying provided some students. If her mother noticed food disappearing, there were plenty of other eaters in the house to account for it. Josh (older brother) had a voracious appetite and provided an especially good cover. The dread of school hung over Emma like a dark cloud that never quite gave way to rain and was mostly foreboding, for her and her whole family. Emma loved her cookies at school, but as she became increasingly self-conscious about her larger-sized frame, she began to project onto others her own self-consciousness. Emma was subjected to weight bias not only by peers, but also by her parents. As with Emma, K. N. Balantekin, L. L. Birch, and J. S. Savage found that eating in the absence of hunger often predicted binge-eating disorder in adolescents.