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Eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia have become a major problem with young teen girls in the wealthier countries all over the world. The reasons for such eating disorders to appear in these young girls can vary from pressures from peers, society, and even stress. The emphasis on being thin is viewed as a necessity to be successful in society both socially and professionally. In the poems “Anorexic” by Eavan Boland and “Perfect Dress” by Marisa de los Santos, one of the most prevalent eating disorders, anorexia, is described and told from different points of view. “Anorexic” attributes the speaker’s disorder to the pressures caused by a former lover’s rejection, while “Perfect Dress” gives reason for this speaker’s ailment for the pressures put on her by society. These two poems represent how the pressure felt from outside sources depends on the individual and can vary greatly even though the result is the same.
Author Eavan Boland is in her mid-sixties and from Dublin, Ireland. She comes from an upscale family in which both parents received much success from the career paths they chose. In the mid-fifties and early-sixties, it was not common for both parents to have careers and even more uncommon for both working parents to be successful at what they do. It is quite possible that Boland felt neglected by her parents, especially if she viewed her friends and neighbors enjoying more family time then she ever did. On that note, it is also quite possible that she could have turned to romantic love or the idea of romantic love to cure the hole left by her potentially absent parents. In Boland’s poem “Anorexic,” she describes an anorexic girl who feels excess weight on her body as a
curse; a witch that has transformed her body into gaining unwanted weight. “Flesh is heretic. / My body is a witch. / I am burning it” (Boland 1088). The speaker wants to erase everything that shows an unwanted attribute; she wants to destroy the...