Living in a world characterized by the fixation with appearance, it is no wonder that children, especially girls, are learning to distrust and abuse own body. Susan Williams defines the structure of female gender with the idea of ​​a “gender regime” – or the concept that gender is fluid and specific to time and place (Williams 31). Being one of these environments, family life contains strong parental influences capable of drastically altering gender spaces and therefore children's gender perception. Specifically, the connection between mother and daughter body types and eating habits, examined both racially and cross-culturally, shows that women may inadvertently inherit body dissatisfaction and negative attitudes toward food, a tendency that is has been identified as one of the many origins of beauty and culture. obsession with weight among modern women. Girls' lack of self-esteem and resulting vulnerability to dieting and eating disorders stems in part from early female psychosexual development (Beattie 1). The initial struggle to identify with the maternal figure as another woman, while simultaneously creating a distinct individual identity, occurs in early adolescence, the same period in which women experience the least amount of body satisfaction (Beattie 3). The conflict and turmoil of standing out as an individual manifests easily in eating disorders, especially in controlling mother-daughter relationships in which the girl experiences little autonomy. In such a situation the girl resorts to self-regulation of food, since she has control over little else. Motherly figures generally purchase and prepare food for the family, but limit the scope of their daughter's power. Without legal medical sovereignty, girls are subjected to even… middle of paper… until late adolescence." International Journal of Eating Disorders 39.8 (2006): 729-740. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. November 17 2009. Thompson, Becky “Childhood Lessons: Culture, Race, Gender, and Sexuality.” Gender Studies 242-262.Thompson, Sharon H., et al. “Body Size Beliefs and Mothers' Weight Concerns.” of their adolescent children." Journal of Child & Family Studies 8.1 (1999): 91-108 Web. November 17, 2009. Williams, L. Susan. "Experiencing Gender, Gender Regimes, and the Process of Becoming a Woman" Gender and Society. and Mary S. McLellan “From Mothers to Daughters: Transgenerational Communication about Food and Diet in a Disadvantaged Group.” Journal of Cultural Diversity 11.1 (2004): Academic Search Premier, November 17. 2009.