Class Discussion 1-4
TW: Eating disorders
This week two of my classmates chose to post readings about the relationship between food, women, and body image. There is something so personal about the way people interact with societal expectations. While reading them, I thought of my own experiences growing up. Megan posted “The Famine Mystique,” and the article discusses how women unintentionally pass on certain body expectations to their daughters. I remember being 13 and my mother telling that when she was my age, she only weighed a 110 lbs compared to my 125lbs. Did she mean any harm in it? No. But I could see the disappointment in her eyes whenever I never matched up to the image in her head.
Society expects so much out of women when it comes to their weight, it is scary. I was recently rewatching the whole of Project Runway, and for 15 seasons, there were only stick-skinny models. In a couple of challenges where the designers had to dress normal women, there would always be someone who would blame their bad design on the women’s body weight. It would always be something like, “I am just not used to designing for women with curves,” but I would sit there and think, she is just a normal-sized woman. What do you mean you don’t know how to design for her? It was jarring because these people wanted to be the next big fashion designer, but here they are admitting they could not, would not, design for the average woman. The judges would rightfully chew out these designers, but that never changed the fact that these bad designers are not alone in their thinking.
It took until Project Runway Season 14 for a designer to focus solely on plus-sized women. However, this is not just one simple problem. So many parts contribute to eating disorders, and the culture that surrounds them. I remember when Tumblr used to have so many people posting about how cool it was to have anorexia. I remember my friends following those accounts because it was 2010, and our parents weren’t monitoring our internet use. Eating disorders are so appealing to people who feel out of control because their body is the only thing they can control. It was why my friends, ages 10-16, felt they needed to shove their fingers down their throats. When I look back at those years, all I want to do is cuddle those kids and tell them it will be okay. They will get to the other side, and I wish I were a better friend to them. Eating disorders are so complex, and while they do affect everyone, there is so much pressure on young girls to stay skinny. These readings felt like coming back to reading about my teen years all over again.
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