“As feminist writer Naomi Wolf argues, the times in history when women have made the greatest political gains—getting the vote, gaining reproductive freedom, securing the right to work outside the home—have also been moments when standards for “ideal” beauty became significantly thinner and the pressure on women to adhere to those standards increased. Wolf explains that this serves both to distract women from their growing political power and to assuage the fears of people who don’t want the old patriarchal system to change—because if women are busy trying to shrink themselves, they won’t have the time or energy to shake things up. It’s hard to smash the patriarchy on an empty stomach, or with a head full of food and body concerns, and that’s exactly the point of diet culture.”
-Christy Harrison
My most recent Debunking Addiction piece has been published.
Here’s a link: Are Women Addicted to Disordered Eating?
This week I wrote about disordered eating as an addiction. This topic has been near and dear to my heart for over a decade. Ongoing diet talk among the women at my job inspired this piece. It seems like body hatred and calorie restriction are normal topics of conversation. In this piece, I attempt to uncover why we, as women, believe that disordered eating makes us “good,” while eating sugar and carbohydrates makes us “bad.” When did our bodies become an issue of morality?
If not for my past with an eating disorder, I would probably still engage in and subscribe to the lies of diet culture. I would still be addicted to disembodiment like the rest of society. My relationship with food might never be perfect, but at least I no longer believe that my worth as a woman is tied to the size of my body.
Progress.
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