Eating Disorders in Film - In the Shape of the Beholder

How can we look at visual representations of eating disorders beyond the pathological frame? What do they tell us about obsessions and contradictions of a society that strongly promotes self-optimization and the introjection of control? Clio Nicastro focusses on the intricate connection between anorexia, bulimia and other forms of food consumption deemed »disordered« and their visual representations in film. Eating disorders are inherently linked to images through fantasies and bodily symptoms which are considered to be triggered by mass media through shame and identification. Despite ongoing debates on the negative influence of media on the proliferation of eating disorders, little research has been conducted on the ways films engage with this topic.