Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Just another death
What a busy week it's been already! a CIA report blaming the Iraq war for the upswing in terrorism since 9/11 is "leaked," throwing the Bush team on the defensive; Maureen Dowd skewering Hillary for being too calculating as the 2008 presidential elections come into the political crosshairs; John Tierney lambasting Donna Shalala and her all-woman panel of experts for concluding that yes Virginia, there really are still barriers to women entering career paths in math and science.
But what's really caught my attention this week are two stories which at first sight do not seem to have much in common: Nicholas Kristof's two-part series on maternal mortality in Africa, and the revolutionary Spanish ban on stick-thin fashion models, discussed at length in Judith Warner's blog "Domestic Disturbances."
Kristof's description of a 24-year-old Cameroonian mother of three dying unnecessarily in childbirth, for want of a $100 worth of surgical supplies to support a Caesarian section, is harrowing and heart-breaking, especially after he drives home the point that 500,000 young mothers die like this in childbirth every year. "An African woman now has one chance in 20 of dying in pregnancy," Kristof reports. "In much of the world, the most dangerous thing a woman can do is to become pregnant."
Meanwhile, in the fashion capitals of the West, young women face quite a different threat: self-inflicted starvation. Bravo to the regional government of Madrid, which recently legislated that fashion models participating in that city's annual fashion shows must have a body-mass index of 18--much higher than the average model's B.M.I. of 15. Normal B.M.I. for women is around 20.
If for women in developing countries getting pregnant is the most dangerous thing they can do, for women in developed countries, it's opening a magazine or turning on the TV. How many young girls are starving themselves today to try to meet the "ideals" they absorb from the media?
Some 8 million American women suffer from anorexia nervosa, the self-starvation mental disease. Another several million are categorized as bulimics, who alternate between binging and starving. And there must be many many more borderline cases who don't make the official statistics, but who are at risk nevertheless.
Did you know that:
This is pretty frightening! But what's really jarring is the disparity between what's happening to women in the developed world vs. the developing world. In rich countries, women starve themselves to increase their sex appeal, and end up dying as a result. In poor countries, women don't worry so much about their sex appeal, but they end up dying for it anyway: sex=pregnancy=death. That, is, if AIDS doesn't get them first.
As Kristoff concludes, if men were suffering and dying at this rate over their sex appeal, the world would pay more attention.
But what's really caught my attention this week are two stories which at first sight do not seem to have much in common: Nicholas Kristof's two-part series on maternal mortality in Africa, and the revolutionary Spanish ban on stick-thin fashion models, discussed at length in Judith Warner's blog "Domestic Disturbances."
Kristof's description of a 24-year-old Cameroonian mother of three dying unnecessarily in childbirth, for want of a $100 worth of surgical supplies to support a Caesarian section, is harrowing and heart-breaking, especially after he drives home the point that 500,000 young mothers die like this in childbirth every year. "An African woman now has one chance in 20 of dying in pregnancy," Kristof reports. "In much of the world, the most dangerous thing a woman can do is to become pregnant."
Meanwhile, in the fashion capitals of the West, young women face quite a different threat: self-inflicted starvation. Bravo to the regional government of Madrid, which recently legislated that fashion models participating in that city's annual fashion shows must have a body-mass index of 18--much higher than the average model's B.M.I. of 15. Normal B.M.I. for women is around 20.
If for women in developing countries getting pregnant is the most dangerous thing they can do, for women in developed countries, it's opening a magazine or turning on the TV. How many young girls are starving themselves today to try to meet the "ideals" they absorb from the media?
Some 8 million American women suffer from anorexia nervosa, the self-starvation mental disease. Another several million are categorized as bulimics, who alternate between binging and starving. And there must be many many more borderline cases who don't make the official statistics, but who are at risk nevertheless.
Did you know that:
- Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness
- A study by the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders reported that 5 – 10% of anorexics die within 10 years after contracting the disease; 18-20% of anorexics will be dead after 20 years and only 30 – 40% ever fully recover
- The mortality rate associated with anorexia nervosa is 12 times higher than the death rate of ALL causes of death for females 15 – 24 years old.
This is pretty frightening! But what's really jarring is the disparity between what's happening to women in the developed world vs. the developing world. In rich countries, women starve themselves to increase their sex appeal, and end up dying as a result. In poor countries, women don't worry so much about their sex appeal, but they end up dying for it anyway: sex=pregnancy=death. That, is, if AIDS doesn't get them first.
As Kristoff concludes, if men were suffering and dying at this rate over their sex appeal, the world would pay more attention.
