Fijian girls succumb to Western dysmorphia

In 1982, Harvard Medical School psychiatrist Anne E. Becker was still an undergraduate at Radcliffe when she traveled to Fiji for a summer of anthropology fieldwork. What struck her about this South Pacific island nation — and has in many research trips since — was “the absolute preoccupation with food and eating,” she said. “Family and social life really revolve around food. … It’s all about food, all the time.” In a recent lecture at Radcliffe Gymnasium, Becker described “the rhetoric of encouragement” older women use to draw passersby into lavish meals. Afterwards, she said, eaters “unbutton, they unzip, they just lie down where they are. … That’s a good meal in Fiji.” read more

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