Research Article Eating Attitudes of Women Living With a Vision Impairment Alexandra Page 1 and Fiona Ann Papps 1 Abstract Internalization of cultural standards of attractiveness and subscription to gender-based discourses are significant predictors of disordered eating attitudes in fully sighted women. Yet, whether these variables predict the disordered eating attitudes of women who are legally blind is underexplored. In the current study, we examined how internalization of White European cultural standards of attractiveness and subscription to gender-based discourses (body surveillance and self-silencing) and body shame predicted the disordered eating attitudes of 80, primarily White, heterosexual, Australian women who are legally blind. Participants completed an online survey comprising existing validated measures of all variables. A path analysis was performed using the Hayes PROCESS approach. As predicted, in women living with vision impairment, body surveillance, self- silencing, and shame fully mediated the relation between internalization of cultural standards of attractiveness and disordered eating attitudes. Results showed that in much the same way as sighted women, women living with vision impairment are susceptible to internalizing harmful messages related to socio-cultural standards of attractiveness. We provide further support for including subscription to gender-based discourses in research on women’s body-image disturbances. Data will be available for other researchers from the author via email. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQ’s website at http://journals.sagepub.com/page/pwq/suppl/index Keywords impairment, disordered eating attitudes, objectification, self-silencing, internalization Over 30 years ago, Rodin, Silberstein, and Striegel-Moore (1985) observed such a widespread dissatisfaction with the body among young White, middle class women, they claimed it to be a “normative discontent.” Since their claim, researchers such as Grogan (2017) have reported that concerns with body image are epidemic in Western societies. These body image concerns underpin the etiology of eating disorders (Tiggemann, 2013) and in part have been attributed to the internalization of cultural standards of attractiveness imparted by various socia- lization agents in women’s lives, such as peers, the family, and, not least, the visual media (Brady et al., 2017; Choma & Pru- saczyk, 2018; Stice & Argas, 1998). Objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) has been useful as a framework for understanding how experiences of sexual objectification explain mental health issues, such as disordered eating beha- viors, reported by women. However, as Piran and Cormier (2005) note, any account of the relations among internalization of cultural standards of attractiveness, objectification, and dis- ordered eating must be contextualized within the experience of gender, with subscription to gender discourses such as body surveillance (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) and self-silencing (Jack, 1991) incorporated into the account. Furthermore, extant models of disordered eating have been developed using research conducted with sighted women and, as such, the roles of internalization, subscription to gender discourses, and body shame in predicting disordered eating attitudes in women living with a vision impairment have been underexplored. In the pres- ent research, we examined how internalization of White Eur- opean cultural standards of attractiveness and subscription to gender-based discourses (body surveillance and self-silencing) and body shame predicted the disordered eating attitudes of primarily White, heterosexual, Australian women who are leg- ally blind. We used objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) as an overarching framework. Internalization of Cultural Standards of Attractiveness Social influences, such as peers, family, and the media, pres- sure individuals to adhere to culturally defined standards of attractiveness (Stice & Argas, 1998). White attractiveness ideals in Australia and the United States emphasize the importance of being thin for women and muscular for men. 1 Discipline of Psychological Sciences, Australian College of Applied Psy- chology, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Corresponding Author: Fiona Ann Papps, Discipline of Psychological Sciences, Australian College of Applied Psychology, 255 Elizabeth Street, Level 11, Sydney, New South Wales 2000, Australia. Email: fionaann.papps@acap.edu.au Psychology of Women Quarterly 2018, Vol. 42(4) 477-488 ª The Author(s) 2018 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0361684318792853 journals.sagepub.com/home/pwq