everal observers say that a major contributing factor to eating disorders is the widening gap between reality and the cultural ideal.

Two Melbourne schoolgirls once wrote this to the newspaper: “Lining our walls are magazine cut-outs of often adolescent boys stylised and photographed in women’s clothing to shape the unattainable ideal in our minds. The toilets no longer smell of smoke, but of vomit. Last year a girl was hospitalised with anorexia nervosa, only to appear six months later gracing the pages of a fashion magazine.”

Several eating disorder clinics will not allow any women’s magazines on the premises.

Boys are also seeing more images of impossible looking role models these days. Of the men who seek help for eating disorders, some will be models or jockeys who are told to keep their weight down for work. The website www.nationaleatingdisorders.org contains a whole section for men and boys.