'Feast, Famine and the Female Form'

More than 10 years ago, Beth Williams-Plunkett, a Baltimore-based psychologist who specializes in treating eating disorders, collaborated with the Seattle-based nonprofit Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention Inc. (known now as the National Eating Disorders Association) to develop "Feast, Famine and the Female Form" at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The occasional program, consisting of a lecture and tour of pieces in the museum's permanent collection, was designed to help girls ages 9 to 16 see past today's beauty standards. Last week, Williams-Plunkett put on a tour for the Health section, explaining how she uses the art to communicate three messages about women's bodies.

"We are going to, first, see that lots of different sizes can be considered beautiful," says Williams-Plunkett.

Second, she continues, " 'Thin' can give messages other than just beauty -- for example, that someone is sick, that someone is poor, that someone is isolated and not connecting with people, and that someone is weak."

Her third message is that the body has two different kinds of beauty; one is as an object and the other is as an instrument, which involves all that the body does for you, such as allowing you to move, to touch and to feel sensual pleasure.

-- Meaghan Wolff