Diet-wellness culture objectifies women.
In that world, women are aesthetic objects and projects to be approved and consumed.
Said culture ties a woman’s value, morality, and self-worth to her weight and appearance.
Her body is an object to be constantly scrutinized and transformed.
And in America, little girls are born into this toxic culture.
Many of them are taught from an early age that their bodies are to be constantly monitored—while completely overlooking how they function and feel. (Forty to sixty percent of girls ages 6-12 worry about their weight and becoming “too fat!”)
Little girls learn eating can be laced with moral virtue; feeling guilt and shame over the simple act of being hungry and desiring nourishment.
And, dare I say, as these little girls mature, female thinness can even play into patriarchy: men’s desire for power and control over women’s bodies.
Thinness is normalized and praised.
As women, we need to seriously ask ourselves: have I been pressured by society, or by men to shrink myself?
Am I underfeeding my body in order to achieve unattainable ideals?
Or am I content with respecting my body and appreciating what it can do—rather than how it looks?
Is the most interesting thing about me my size?
Do I get a lot of praise and attention for shrinking myself?
If shrinking my body has become the primary focus of my life, I’ve been heavily indoctrinated into diet-wellness culture. (Wellness culture has the same toxic pressure to modify the body—except it’s wrapped in a pretty bow—and it’s still diet culture. To the inexperienced, it doesn’t appear to be harmful, but it can become just as damaging to one’s body and mental health.)
As long as we perpetuate a culture in America where women are expected to hate their bodies unless they are thin. . .we will continue to spend thirty-three billion dollars/year on weight loss.
And, we will continue to pass it on to future generations of women.
Emily Boller, wife, mother, painter, and author is on a mission to create expressive works of art in her lifetime; and to bring awareness to the potentially harmful traps of diet-wellness culture. In her free time, she loves to chase skyscapes, grow flowers and vegetables, and can homemade soups.