Dan Abel wrote:

In article ,
"Pete C." wrote:

"Peer pressure" is itself psyco-babble utter nonsense, just a PC version
of the "They made me do it" crap. Females appear to be predisposed to
eating disorders and the noted clusters are simply the result of the
same trigger affecting multiple susceptible persons.

Just like germs infecting susceptible people?

Not just like, but similar. I expect that in those clusters the trigger
is most likely the presence of a particularly attractive female i.e.
competition for the more desirable potential mates, and it is this local
competition triggering the disorder, not any "peer pressure" or media
barrages of attractive females. There can be tons of images of
attractive females in the media, but if they aren't in the local
population then they aren't competition.