Culture and weight consciousness vs Sex, drugs and young people

Culture and weight consciousness

Mervat Nasser

1997

Anorexia nervosa and bulimia are among the few psychiatric syndromes with a plausible socio-cultural model of causation. Issues of culture and slimness are usually considered in terms of the experience of the western world, but there is a growing body of research suggesting that concern with slimness is becoming more prevalent in non-western cultures. In Culture and Weight Consciousness, Mervat Nasser brings together this research and looks at the recent emergence of eating disorders in cultures that were previously free of such problems. She relates the feminist theories that have been put forward to explain the phenomenon of eating disorders in the west to the condition of modern women in many non-western cultures and concludes that their position is not at all that different from that of their western counterparts. This leads her to address the current limitations of the concept of culture and draw out the implications for future research.

Sex, drugs and young people

Peter Aggleton, Andrew Ball, Purnima N. Mane

2005

Sexual practices and drug use among the young are examined in this book, calling into question mainstream assumptions about 'adolescence'. Bringing together a range of cross-cultural and cross-national contributions, the book reveals both similarities and important differences that mark sexuality and drug use among young in different social and cultural settings. In doing so, it allows the reader to build up a clearer understanding of the challenges that must be faced in public health and education if we are to develop programs and interventions that really serve the needs of young peop.