Final answer:
White women in Western cultures are at higher risk for eating disorders due to societal pressures to adhere to slim beauty standards and media influence. Meanwhile, historical accounts from elite southern White women highlight other hardships like trauma from childbirth and isolation.
Step-by-step explanation:
White women from industrialized, Western cultures are considered to be at the highest risk for eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia nervosa. One reason may be the societal pressure to conform to narrow beauty standards that valorize slimness, which is prevalent in these societies. This pressure can lead to a distorted body image and extreme dieting or eating patterns as methods to achieve or maintain a low weight. Additionally, the role of media in glorifying and continuously promoting these unrealistic body types significantly contributes to the incidence of eating disorders.
Conversely, the historical account of elite southern White women reveals a starkly different set of challenges. They often spoke of the trauma of childbirth, the mourning over the loss of children, and the profound sense of isolation living on plantations could bring. These experiences provide insight into the psychological stress and physical hardships faced by women in different contexts, which are not necessarily connected to the contemporary issue of eating disorders, but demonstrate diverse forms of suffering related to their roles and expectations in society.