THE
Volume XXII, Number 6
Pendulum
Informing the Elon College Community
October 3,1996
INSIDE
EDITORIALS/
LETTERS
2-5
16-17
CROSSWORD
mm
Women, the media and
eating disorders*
6
What's up with
College Coffee?
7
l^hotoEssayj
Family Weekend.
10-11
Superdance for a
supercause*
15 *
Crime Watch: same
crimes^ new names.
18
mm
A staple of the Bfon com
munity- Bleonore Dtinn,
A&E
KISS concert review.
12
Festival of the Oaks; an
Elon tradition*
13
SFORTS
Assistant baseball
eoach takes oven
19
s
days until
Fall Break!!
Women’s soccer and
volleyball undefeated*.
20
Organizations
Look Forward
to '96 Elections
Betty Carroll
In 1988, the percentage of
young people voting in a presiden
tial election fell to an all-time low
of 36.2 percent, according to the
Youth Vote Organization.
The same organization re
ported that the 1992 election had
the largest voter turnover from
young people, ages 18-25, in 24
years.
Because the efforts of Youth
V ote, 42.8 percent of young people,
voted in the 1992 presidential elec
tion.
The Elon College Democrats
and Republicans are hoping that a
large number of students will turn
out to register to vote in the 1996
Presidential Election.
The two Elon organizations
will be sponsoring voter registra
tion drives beginning Sept. 30, in
the Moseley Center, to encourage
students to vote in the Presidential
Election on Nov. 5.
The college
Democrats are
supporting the
Alpha Phi Al
pha Fraternity
and the Delta
Sigma Theta
Sorority voter
registration
drive from Sept.
30 through Oct.
5.
to
Where
register
Students
will be able to
register in the Moseley Center from
11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and at College
Coffee on Oct. 2.
Students wanting to register
need to know their Social Security
number as their form of ID.
The registration forms are ap
plicable for most states. However,
students that live out of state are
being encouraged to register in
Members of Hillel pose at their Shabbat dinner, held
Friday, see story page 15.
last
Photo Submitted
North Carolina, said Tanya Brown,
a member of the college Demo
crats.
Educating students during the
registration drives to form their own
opinions on the election is the main
priority, said David Weslow, a
member of the college Republi
cans.
A voter registration drive was
sponsored by the college Demo
crats on Sept. 19, at Senator Fred
Harris' lecture on the 1996 elec
tions.
About 10 students were suc
cessfully registered to vote, Brown
said.
Both groups are hoping that
the number of students registering
see VOTING, page 6
The Pendulum Explores Eating Disorders
Andrea Stoffer
“It is time to stop judging
women by the size of their waists
and the size of their breasts, espe
cially when one in five of our col
lege girls has an eating disorder,”
said Marilyn Van Derbur, Miss
America.
An estimated 2.5 percent of
adult women suffer from chronic
binging, bulimia (binge-and-
purge), or anorexia nervosa (self
starvation), according to the Na
tional Academy of Eating Disor
ders.
The definition of an eating dis
order has changed since it emerged
in the 1970’s. So it’s difficult to
gauge the prevalence of eating dis
orders.
But some studies show these
problems are more common among
preteens, teenagers and college
women. Nearly three-quarters of
women in 1992 weren’t happy with
their bodies.
A survey was enclosed in the
last issue, and in this issue, of The
Pendulum to find out how Elon
women feel about their bodies.
“Eating disorders are more
common among women than men,
perhaps because of the present cul
tural emphasis on thin women,”
according to Lauren Perdue and
Brett Silverstein, authors of an eat
ing disorder conference report.
Television is one of the pri
mary influences of this thin stan
dard of attractiveness.
Elon sophomore Heather
Robalik thinks she is more influ
enced by television ads than other
media portrayals of women.
Perdue and Silverstein did a
study rating the age and weight of
male and female characters from
33 popular TV shows. An analysis
of age and weight ratings showed
that women on American televi
sion were rated as younger and
thinner than men.
The Miss America televised
swimsuitcompetition, which nearly
a million viewers across the nation
voted to maintain this year, contin
ues to emphasize the importance of
women’s external appearance.
An article in the Sept. 17 edi
tion of The Philadelphia Inquirer
stated: “Had the public done the
unpredictable and voted down the
swimsuit competition, the pageant
was ready to substitute the parade
of bare thighs with a dance routine
that would have shown plenty of
skin."
Thin role models such as
Katherine Hepburn were admired
in the past. However, later in the
50’s Marilyn Monroe was admired
as a heavier and healthier model.
Untortunately, current media criti
cized Alicia Silverstone for appear
ing to have gained weight at the
Academy Awards.
Also, magazines victimize
women by “running well-re
searched articles about eating dis
orders and loving ourselves ‘just as
we are’ at the same time advertis
ing under-weight pictures of
women," said Donna Britt in an
April 1 Washington Post article.
“Roger Moore, former Janies
Bond actor criticized Calvin Klein
and the fashion industry over waifs
such as Kate Moss,” stated an Aug.
30 article by The Raleigh News &
Observer.
Robalik said, “Society always
compares itself to supermodels in
stead of focusing on more realistic
appearing models.”
Brad Hamm, an Elon journal
ism professor, said, “Magazines di-
• see EATING DISORDER,
page 6