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Anorexia statistics: Naomi Wolf’s Overdo and Lie Factor (WOLF)

The title is taken from a review, by Casper Schoemaker(1), of the gross exaggeration of anorexia statistics by Naomi Wolf in her book, The Beauty Myth.  Schoemaker computed a WOLF factor (Wolf’s Overdo and Lie Factor) by dividing a statistic from epidemiological reviews(2, 3) by the corresponding statistic in the 1991 edition of her book, The Beauty Myth.  He assigned a value of 1 to the WOLF if he could not find the relevant statistic in epidemiological reviews.  If Wolf reported a range such as 5-10%, then the average of the extremes was taken, 7.5% in this case.

The anorexia statistics in The Beauty Myth, compared to objective and accurate statistics, and the WOLF(1)

Anorexia statistic

Beauty Myth

Epidemiology reviews(2, 3)

WOLF

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1. Percentage of anorexia patients that is female

92.5

92.5

1

2. Number of U.S. anorexics at this moment

1,000,000

95,000

11

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3. Number of new anorexia and bulimia patients each year in U.S.

1,000,000

 

75,000

 

13.3

 

4. Percentage of American women suffering from AN

7.5

0.065

115

5. Percentage of American girls and women suffering from anorexia

7.5

0.065

115

6. Percentage of American female students suffering from anorexia

20

0.5

40

7. Percentage of female American students suffering from anorexia or bulimia at this moment

50

3

16.7

8. Percentage of young American women suffering from anorexia at this moment

7.5

0.3

25

9. Number out of ten female American university students suffering from anorexia

2

0.05

40

10. Percentage of anorexia patients that die during treatment

10

5.5

1.82

11. Percentage anorexia patients dying

19

5.5

3.45

12. Percentage of anorexia patients fully recovering

45

55

0.81

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13. Number of anorexia and bulimia patients in Great Britain

3,500,000

110,000

31.8

14. Percentage of British anorexia patients that is female

95

92.5

1.03

15. Increase of anorexia and bulimia patients in Great Britain each year

6,000

?

1

16. Percentage of British girls suffering from anorexia

1

0.3

3.3

17. Percentage of British women suffering from an eating disorder (anorexia or bulimia)

50

0.5

100

18. Percentage of Swedish girls suffering from anorexia

1.5

0.3

5

19. Percentage of Dutch girls suffering from
anorexia

1.5

0.3

5

20. Percentage of Italian adolescents suffering from anorexia or bulimia

1

0.65

1.54

21. Percentage of Italian anorexia or bulimia patients that is female

95

95

1

22. Percentage of increase of anorexia in Italy in ten years time

400

100

4

23. Percentage of American women with serious eating problems (anorexia or bulimia)

60

0.5

120

In 1994, Christina Hoff Sommers -- author of Who stole Feminism? -- pointed out the vastly exaggerated U.S. anorexia deaths statistic by Naomi Wolf, 150,000 to be more precise, and quoted experts who estimated the number of annual anorexia-related deaths in the U.S. to range from 100-400.  The 150,000 figure was taken from a mis-quoted second-hand source, which reported an estimate of 150,000 anorexia suffers as 150,000 fatalities.  An epidemiologic review published in 2003 estimated the number of anorexia sufferers in the U.S. as 95,000, of whom 525 can be expected to die per year from anorexia(3).

In a letter to Time, Naomi Wolf acknowledged the exaggerated fatalities figure(4), but claimed that this was the only bad statistic in her book.  However, as Schoemaker’s review shows, most of her statistics are off the mark, often way off.  Only 5 of 23 (22%) statistics reported by Naomi Wolf are accurate or close; three of them are about the percentage of anorexia patients that is female, one is simply Wolf given the benefit of doubt and the last one is an underestimate of the percentage of anorexia patients that fully recovers.  Half of her statistics are exaggerated over ten-fold.  The mean WOLF is 8.28, not including the 150,000 fatalities statistic (WOLF = 286), and calculated by multiplying the 23 WOLFs together and then computing the 23rd root of the product.  The mean WOLF of the first edition of her book is 8.61.

Feminists like Naomi wolf are prone to greatly exaggerating problems faced by women, and whereas a normal person would be pleased when told that the prevalence of the problems is a lot less, the likes of Naomi Wolf would be angered, which is not difficult to understand; after all, a high prevalence of anorexia is important for her argument, which is that “the beauty myth” drives a lot of women to undereat.  Wolf has argued that having been scared by the increasing successes and power of women in the West, some men [heterosexual, no doubt] decided that the best way to put women in their rightful place is to occupy their thoughts with self-appearance and starve them.  It would be cool to see how Naomi Wolf would respond when confronted by massive evidence that the reason for the typical skinniness of high-fashion models is that this is part of a package of looks that helps them approximate the looks of adolescent boys, which is preferred by the homosexual men that dominate the top ranks of the fashion business.  The influence of heteropatriarchy would lead to a very different kind of high-fashion models.

References:

  1. Schoemaker, C., A Critical Appraisal of the Anorexia Statistics in The Beauty Myth: Introducing Wolf's Overdo and Lie Factor (WOLF), Eat Disord, 12, 97 (2004).
  2. Hoek, H. W., Review of the epidemiological studies of eating disorders., in Eating disorders and obesity : a comprehensive handbook, Fairburn, C. G., and Brownell, K. D., Eds., Guilford Press, New York, pp. 233 (2002).
  3. Van Hoeken, D., Seidell, J., and Hoek, H. W., Epidemiology, in Handbook of eating disorders, Treasure, J., Schmidt, U., and Furth, E. v., Eds., John Wiley, Southern Gate, Chichester ; Hoboken, N.J., pp. 11 (2003).
  4. Wolf, N., Statistics on anorexia (letter), in Time (1994, Aug 22).
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Comments

This is one of many reasons why I hate feminists. They over exaggerate womens' problems, ignore men (unless they're able to blame them for said problems), and remove any right that men can have that women may also have. They're worse than blacks that talk about slavery all the time, but never do anything but talk. Lot of people died for their right to be free, to improve themselves, but they'd rather talk about the problems their ancestors had. Why is Rosa parks recognized more than Vivien Thomas? Because Rosa was only a victim. Vivien made something that helped the world. Feminists need to stop talking about the problems that don't exist, and go change the ones that do, not only womens', but the ones of the entire human population.

Josh: If you believe that Rosa Parks was a victim, you had better read this (other content at the site not endorsed).

Things looks serious, perhaps too serious. We can't deny that eating disorders are a real problem in our nation, there are many evidences to prove that but I find it hard to believe that 50% of young female students have this condition. What causes this condition? Their lifestyle... they need to change that but until then they need eating disorder treatment to make it through.

An eating disorder is very similar to an addiction treatment. Eating in a bad manner is an automatism built with time and because of certain events. This can be changed, but don't think it will go away by snapping your fingers. You need a while to rewrite the bad patterns.

"They're worse than blacks that talk about slavery all the time"

Seriously? At least now I know anything you have to say will be tainted with ignorance.

"Feminists need to stop talking about the problems that don't exist, and go change the ones that do, not only womens', but the ones of the entire human population"

I think that's why we're called FEMINISTS and not humanitarians. We focus on issues facing women. That's like saying vegans need to start focusing on human problems.

And also to the person who runs this website: You are a sexist, ignorant and delusional pig.

Suffering from Anorexia is nothing compared to drugs. I would rather take part in a Drug Treatment rather than an Anorexia one. Just my 2 cents.

It appears to me that the world is suffering from a shortage of non-biased educated individuals. It seems like every time we get just the littlest bit of knowledge, we go right to work spinning it to endorse of substantiate our agenda. It's col, we all do it. That doesn't make it any less pathetic though. Inflated statistics or not, anorexia is real, and there are people suffering from it. I would love to see society start moving away from agendas, and start moving toward compassion. Just my opinion though.(and it's probably just as biased sounding as everyone's)

Wow, it looks like Ms. Wolf grossly over-exaggerated the popularity of anorexia. I knew it was a big issue among teenage girls, but I didn't think it resulted in very many deaths. Many girls just take dieting to an extreme because they don't know how to lose weight in a healthy way. I think better education on nutrition and weight loss might be helpful.

I am not that big a supporter of beauty myths. Not at least of the ones fashion critics talk about. A woman`s beauty, in my opinion, is mostly based on her kindness showing, as well as being and looking healthy. You know, it`s more like in those body care products where they say beauty means health. Health makes you more good looking due to a bright mood and a serene look on your face. I prefer to see beauty in those women that are kind, self-confident and take care of their health. Not so much make-up, but proper skin care. Not so much beauty surgical procedures, but gym and maintenance of your good looking. In one word, I go with the natural.

Basicly to all the tranies shown on this site i would love to stick in. Therefore Clearly I must be gay and of course the gay must die. Truthfully if you actualy are a good and proper heterall male you should be premoting gaydom, it would make it so easy to get layed. But perhaps smart and heteral can not go togeter.

Obviously you are gay.

Note: nowhere is it stated on this site that 'the gay must die'. Typical strawman.

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