Deanna M. Staskel, a dietetic intern at Massachusetts General Hospital, said that the media representative did not take enough responsibility for their power to monitor images portrayed in advertising.
Serena K. Mayeri '97 attended the forum out of general interest. She said she has had personal contact with individuals suffering from eating disorders.
"[The panelists] brought out the fact that eating disorders are a frustrating problem, in part because they have a multiplicity of causes," said Mayeri. "The forum [showed] that media images are one troubling manifestation of larger social problems."
Some students felt that the panel did not focus enough on the physiological causes of eating disorders.
"[The panel] didn't deal more immediately with the diseases them-selves," said Sarah M. Baskin '99, a psychology concentrator.
Baskin attended the panel as part of her research for a paper on body weight regulation for her sophomore psychology tutorial. The Eating Disorders Center is a national non-profit organization dedicated to research and education