Backbench business

Debate between Caroline Nokes and Claire Perry

Thursday 14th February 2013 Westminster Hall

[Caroline Nokes]

My hon. Friend is aware of the work that I do with the all-party group on body image. We have been sending that message to the media time and again. We need more realistic images in magazines and publications. Shortly, I will quote a 21-year-old sufferer from anorexia who made that point to me powerfully.

The causes of eating disorders are complicated and varied, and although there may be broad similarities, it is dangerous to suggest that any two individuals will have identical experiences or paths into illness or recovery. I know from talking to sufferers, experts, charities and families that genetics, low self-esteem, stressful life events such as death or divorce, academic pressure and cultural and social pressures, can all contribute. For every sufferer there will be different triggers or different combinations of triggers. It would be naive to suggest that a single cause could be identified. However, an issue that brought me to this debate is the social pressure to conform to a stereotypical view of the ideal body image, so ably demonstrated to us in advertising and magazines.

Last November, I attended an event in this place organised by Anorexia and Bulimia Care, and was impressed by the moving account given by Katie Waters, a 21-year-old student, who told MPs:

“Six years ago the eating disorder well and truly look over. The stress of GCSEs in a high-achieving all-girls…school meant my weight dramatically plummeted and I…developed anorexia.

During this time I did everything—speech and drama exams, piano exams, I sang in the choir, I was in school plays, actively taking part in church activities and of course was buried under a mountain of homework. I constantly pressured myself to be perfect at absolutely everything.

But the trouble is, when it comes to weight and body size, the images I frequently saw in the media of apparent perfection were unattainable. We have only just been recently made aware in the last few years of the transformation airbrushing and digital photo techniques do to women’s bodies in the media. So what I was seeing from such a young, vulnerable and impressionable age was actually not a real person.”

To those who dismiss the impact of the images we routinely see in the media, I hope the words of Katie, and other sufferers like her, will hit home. Although I do not claim that such images are causing eating disorders, they are contributing to them, and editors and advertisers can work to portray more realistic and positive images.

I should like briefly to mention the relatively new phenomenon of pro-ana websites. First appearing in the 1990s, these sites are numerous and are often characterised by a frequent migration to different web addresses or blog sites. Ana, or thinspiration, is portrayed on many of these sites as not a serious mental illness, but a lifestyle choice, and although those supporting the sites claim that they can provide the only forum for socially isolated sufferers, solid academic studies support the claim that they do damage.

[Claire Perry (Devizes) (Con)]

I hope that you will accept my apologies for joining the debate late, Mrs Osborne. Does my hon. Friend agree that the progress we are making on making it much easier to filter out pornography, violence, abuse, anorexia and self-harm from the family home is welcome?

[Caroline Nokes]

I commend my hon. Friend on the work that she is doing in that area. I sincerely hope that we see some progress on that, so that these websites, which are proliferating—there is evidence of a 470% increase in just one year, between 2006 and 2007—can be prevented from being accessed from family homes. US studies have shown a clear correlation between increased body dissatisfaction and viewing such sites.

We live in a complex, changing world where higher numbers of people than ever suffer from mental illness, and so it is with eating disorders. It is not just the number of sufferers, but the severity, that is increasing. What would have been considered an eating disorder 20 years ago might now be regarded merely as a bit of disordered eating. I do not say that in any way to dismiss the seriousness of disordered eating, but to demonstrate that the conditions now have to be a great deal worse to be recognised as such, and to make a sufferer a priority for treatment. That is one of the serious issues that I would like to mention.

In my home city of Southampton—not in my constituency, but in that of the right hon. Member for Southampton, Itchen (Mr Denham)—is April House, a unit specialising in eating disorders, which I have had the privilege of visiting, and where I met service users and health care professionals. I attest to the outstanding work done there. Some of the service users and staff are here today. I admire their courage and determination.

I agree with the firm message that I received from staff at April House. With all eating disorders, there is a critical window of opportunity when a sufferer has been diagnosed, wants help, has acknowledged that they have a problem, and are reaching out for the assistance they desperately need. That opportunity can easily be lost if help is not available at that time.