Gendered Racial Microaggressions, Feminism, and Asian American Women’s Eating Pathology: An Intersectional Investigation

Although multiple studies have examined the effects of sexism on women’s disordered eating behaviors, Asian American women’s unique experiences of gendered racism in regard to disordered eating have often been ignored in the psychological literature. With a sample of 192 Asian American women, we examined (a) the extent to which sexism, racism, and gendered racial microaggressions were associated with disordered eating symptomatology, (b) the extent to which feminist identity dimensions and womanism were associated with disordered eating symptomatology, and (c) if self-objectification, media internalization, and emotion dysregulation mediated the association between gendered racial microaggressions and disordered eating symptomatology. Results revealed that gendered racial microaggressions were positively associated with disordered eating, whereas neither racism nor sexism were. Womanism was linked to decreased disordered eating, whereas none of the feminist identity dimensions were related. Finally, in partial support of our hypotheses, body shame, media internalization, and emotion dysregulation together mediated the association between gendered racial microaggressions and disordered eating, whereas body surveillance did not. Our findings emphasize the importance of prioritizing intersectionality when examining the unique lived experiences of Asian American women who engage in disordered eating behaviors.