Disturbi alimentari e ruolo di genere

Summary Eating disorders, of epidemiological relevance in our time and in the western culture, are considered pathologies with multidetermined aetiologies, which prevalently affect the female sex. In a sociocultural view, the increase in cases of eating pathologies is tied to the change in expectations towards women and to the pressure towards corporal thinness, as a stereotype of the feminine sexual role. The study, through the Eating Disorders Inventory 2 (EDI 2) (Garner, 1985) and the Bem Sex Role (BSRI) (Bem, 1974), intends to evaluate the possible correlation between the assumption of a sexual role and eating disorders, starting from the hypothesis of hyperfemininity as a risk factor (Boskind-Lodahl, 1976). The results have evidenced a significant relationship between the adoption of the feminine role, intended as an extremely typecast role, and nervous anorexia and bulimia. The assumption of such a role, which implies a precarious dynamism (Bem, 1977), could therefore constitute an important predisposing factor for the beginning of eating disorders.