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Eating disorders went from a little-known condition to a major public health concern in just a few decades, shaped by media, medicine, and advocacy. Hilde Bruch's 1978 book and Karen Carpenter's death in 1983 were pivotal in raising awareness, while campus studies revealed how widespread bulimia had become. By 1991, Congress had officially designated an Eating Disorders Awareness Week.
What began as a rarely discussed diagnosis in the mid-20th century became a recognized national health crisis within just a few decades — and historian Alice Weinreb's research reveals exactly how that transformation happened. Hilde Bruch's 1978 book The Golden Cage, which sold over 150,000 copies and was translated into 12 languages, was a turning point, cementing the image of anorexia as a disease of young, white, high-achieving women. The death of singer Karen Carpenter in 1983 further amplified public alarm.
Medical education played a key role too, with training materials teaching clinicians a narrow patient profile — young, white, and middle class — while feminist authors simultaneously reframed eating disorders as a product of societal pressures on women. Self-help organizations grew from typewritten contact sheets into nationwide networks, eventually gaining political influence.
By the Numbers:
Why it matters: The narrow patient profile that dominated early awareness efforts — young, white, and female — left men and non-white populations underrecognized, a bias that continues to shape diagnosis and care today.
