Developing an understanding of eating disorders beyond the biological/medical framework has become a necessity in present times, especially when eating disorders are swiftly spreading deep roots across the world. In view of the multidimensional etiology of eating disorders, there are increased efforts towards understanding its phenomenological, cultural, and other related non-medical aspects, and Gender, Eating Disorders, and Graphic Medicine leaps past the prevalent notions on eating disorder, and contributes to the developing corpus of affective knowledge on eating disorders among women through comics and graphic medicine. Taking cues from select graphic narratives on eating disorders, this book attempts to posit graphic medicine as one of the most befitting modes of life writing. This book is distinctive in that it is an attempt not only to explore the multi-dimensional etiology of eating disorders in women using graphic medicine narratives but also to understand how graphic medicine humanizes eating disorders by offering a unique ingress into women’s phenomenological experience of eating disorders.
"Introduction Eating Disorders, Biocultures, and Graphic Medicine Why Graphic Medicine? Overview of the Book 1 A Prologue to Graphic Medicine Medical Humanities: Towards the Humanization of Medical Science Narrative Medicine: Understanding the Ordeals of Illness Spectacles of Suffering: Representation of Illness across Media Comics Medium and Healthcare Comics, Women, and the Counterculture Graphic Medicine: Definition and Scope Conclusion 2 Clinical Evolution of Eating Disorders and the Rise of the Biocultures Chronicles of Starvation: A Cultural History of Eating Disorders The Middle Ages: Fasting Saints and Miracle Maidens From Miracle to Madness and Hysteria Eating Disorders: A Medical Introduction Anorexia Nervosa Bulimia Nervosa Binge Eating and EDNOS Pitfalls in the Popular Explanatory Models of Eating Disorders The Biocultural Model Tracing the Footprints of Culture in Science Graphic Medicine and the Biocultures Conclusion 3 Warped Femininities: Understanding the Corporeal Nexus of Anorexia and Culture The Ideal Female Body as a Cultural Construct Anorexia Nervosa: A Biocultural Approach ""At That Time, Nobody Considered It"": Anorexia and Familial Pressure ""Neil! You Look Like a Man!"": Body Shaming and Anorexia ""As Long as I’m Thin… I’ll Be Invincible:"": Media and Thinspiration Conclusion Acknowledgment 4 Subjective Incarnations of Anorexia: Creative Metaphors and Graphic Externalization Comics, Metaphors, and Externalization Graphic Medicine and the Iconography of Illness ""I’m Tyranny, Your Other Self"": The Metaphor of Self-Oppression ""My Ed—so Big and STRONG"": Relationship Metaphors in Anorexia Nervosa Dark Clouds of Despair: The Metaphor of Pervasiveness Epitomizing the Indefinable: The Power of Comics Medium Conclusion Acknolwedgment 5 From Abjection to Anorexia: Eating Disorders and the Horrors of the Female Body Feminist Perspectives on Eating Disorders Abjection: Origin, and Popular Definitions Abjection and Anorexia: Theoretical Interventions of Megan Warin ""I Feel Disgusting"": Menstruation and Abjection in Lighter Than My Shadow ""I Hate This. I Hate Me"": Menstruation and Abjection in Tyranny ""I’m Disgusting"": Self-Disgust and Sexual Abuse Conclusion Conclusion: Towards an Alternative Understanding of Eating Disorders"
