If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
While some use selfies to subvert dominant paradigms, many young women are using selfies in a manner that, like fat talk, extols the thin-ideal and Western beauty paradigm, continues the normalization of body image dissatisfaction, and reinforces the idea that you must self-denigrate in order to fit in and receive positive affirmations from your friends.
We've been socially conditioned to expect breasts to be lifted, supported, high, and facing forward. It's also true that style experts and laypeople alike feel free to criticize women whose breasts don't behave in these ways, regardless of figure, size, personal preferences, or circumstances.
Recently, the editors of xoJane informed me that a group of, ahem...people who shall remain nameless, declared it National Fat Shaming Week on Twitter.
A lot is written about mean girls and bullying, but not that much is focused specifically around the issue of looks.
By rating one type of body as better, you are relegating all others to worse. But, in fact, each body is unique and lumping sizes or shapes together dismisses that essential individuality.
The longer we believe only skinny, white, affluent girls suffer from eating disorders, the more we isolate an entire community of not-skinny, not-white, not-rich, not-so-young, decidedly-not-female human beings, who suffer, not only with the soul-sucking burden that is an eating disorder, but with the belief they can't possible "have" what's killing them.
Emotions will not always feel good, but I will survive. I also learned that though relationships do not rely on food; they consist of emotional sustenance.
Please, dear readers, be kind to yourselves and those around you who suffer from body shame and struggle with their weight. The violence and wounding is darker and deeper than you may think.
It was a late night at Foxwoods when my guy announced he wanted to stay up and gamble. Because I have as much chance of understanding craps as I do learning to speak fluent Mandarin, I headed up to our room for bed.
When we retouch, we say to our clients, "You're better this way." "You're better with a flatter tummy." "You're better with skinnier arms." "You're better with a rounder bum." "You're better without that scar." Who do we think we are?
No matter how many Women's Studies classes you've taken, or even taught, it's hard to silence the noise that tells you: at least part of your worth is tied to your waistline.
It's the holidays. Ho Ho Ho. That means lots of food, sales, crowds and getting together with family. In the movies it's always happy, loving, warm and inspiring. In real life, depending on your family, it can be stressful, anger-producing and even tear-producing.
There are so many factors that can affect the way we see ourselves. We see advertisements that sway us into buying certain products. We read magazines that make us want to dress a certain way. But are all these things keeping our confidence up as well? To what extent does this affect the way we feel about ourselves?
Once eclipsed by an eating disorder, kids are changed in profound ways, and their personalities undergo complete transformations. It's devastating for parents to see their nice, hard working, smart children grow suspicious and manipulative, desperately twisting the truth with fierce determination.
No. Just no. Since you have your heart set on finding a girlfriend who has a "good old-fashioned eating disorder," perhaps you should stake out one of our nation's many treatment centers specializing in treating this disease to court a patient who is just your type.
When you try to reason out why not eating is sexy, nothing makes any sense. The only person who can really turn it around is yourself. Once you think about what you want and what you are willing to do, you will find the perfect weight and healthy mindset for yourself.
