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Eating Like an Ox: Femininity and Dualistic Constructions of Bulimia and Anorexia

Department of Psychology, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand.mburns{at}orcon.net.nz

Using a feminist discursive analytic approach this article investigates descriptions of anorexia and bulimia for the purposes of deconstructing some of the hierarchies implicit in them. Data includes interview accounts of women who practise bulimia and of health professionals, and items from popular culture and psychological literature. Analysis demonstrates how a binary logic and discourses of femininity are involved in the inscription of value to the category of, and practices associated with, anorexia. The practices and category of bulimia are therefore often constituted as the eating disordered ‘other’ to anorexia. Potential implications for women who practise bulimia are examined, as is the destabilizing potential of other ways of describing eating disorders.

Key Words: binary logic • discourse analysis • eating disorder • femininities

Feminism & Psychology, Vol. 14, No. 2, 269-295 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/0959353504042182


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