carrie arnold wrote a great post on her blog, ED Bites, about the assumption of the virtues of low-fat and "guilt-free" foods. advertising assumes it, parents assume it, i believe most people assume ti. it all makes our eating disorder seem normal. (for so many insights and great writing, read carrie's blog, if you don't already.)
back to those assumptions. isn't a turkey sandwich the best? aren't we being "good" when we skip the real mayonnaise, full-fat desserts, carbs, any kind of saladed meat (tuna, chicken, egg), half-and-half, salad dressing..... you know the list. are we being virtuous or anorexic?
i wrote something on carrie's blog that's been on my mind. her post spurred me to remember something i thought was odd. i took my niece to buy clothes at Lane Bryant. they have beautiful clothes and the sales people were lovely and helped us so much. my niece felt comfortable and pretty and important. that part was thrilling.
here was the weird thing -- the sales people (plus-size and beautifully turned out in Lane Bryant attire) kept steering her toward "slimming" clothes. and flattering items that hid her stomache, her hips, her large breasts. it was "harder" to do this because she doesn't have a "waistline". they steered away from anything white and, naturally, no horizontal stripes. not flattering at all!
i don't get it -- isn't my niece, particularly in Lane Bryant, supposed to be fine, better than fine, just the way she is?
Yeah, our society is messed up. I don't think culture causes eating disorders, but it's a swell trigger ;)
ReplyDeleteWhat Kim said! Although I think culture is a massive factor; in the Caribbean it is traditional that beautiful women are large and well rounded, with big breasts and hips and a belly... I'd be very interested to see how many anorexic/bullimic girls there are there! And the cases of bullimia/anorexia have only increased in number as society embraced this thin = perfect/celebrity idolising more and more.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame we are all expected to fit into one shape. One box. It's plain illogical.
This sounds utterly flippant but I was saying it the other day to my hubby as we watched the Justice League cartoon with the kids - every woman in that show has been drawn to have an identical body! Curved out hips, non existant waist, and huge boobs. Surely, realistically, that would be so....boring.