*!$%&£! oppressive diet culture

[ajva]

Im very confussed about something, I dont eat alot, or on a regular basis, but when I do eat I get all the essitials...well atleast try to, I dont eat chips, or big out on bon bons or anything, But I just cant lose weight if anything ive packed it on more then lost it, I dont know If its all the caffine I drink thru out the day, ive heard thats a bad thing, or if im just naturally fat, how can my eating help me lose weight, and is the caffine im drinking a bigger issure then the food im eating?
-Dallas

An average comment from caloriecounter.co.uk, also the site of gems like this one:

I hate myself so much. I weigh 140 Lbs. and I am 5'5" I just started not Eating anything, because nothing else works. I have tryed everything and nothing will work, so this is my only option. I don't even care if I die, I would rather be dead than continue life fat. Seriouslly, I hate myself so much. I don't think about anything except for how fat I am. I can't take it anymore. Please help me.

and this:

Recent studies show that fasting can be really good for you in moderation and it doesn't neccasseraly mean no food at all, it can mean just liquids so that you can have soups and things. Fasting should not be 10 days at a time if your nat experienced. Try 1-2 days a week for a while. If you fast not only does it give your organs a little break it also flushes your body out of all toxins and impurities as well as burning off excess fat.

TIPS FOR FASTING-
1) Drink plenty of water do prevent dehydration.
2) boil veg and drink the broth so that you still get essential vitamins.
3) take calcium supplements.
4) meditate and keep your self busy.
5) dont eat loads after ending a fast, slowly re-introduce fruit and fibre first and then the rest a few days later

I HATE THIS FUCKING INJUSTICE!!!!!!!!! IT'S A FUCKING SCANDAL TO BRING UP LITTLE GIRLS TO BELIEVE THAT IF THEY EAT A CERTAIN AMOUNT, AND EXERCISE A CERTAIN AMOUNT, THEN THEY WILL ACHIEVE THE IDEAL WEIGHT AND IF THEY DO NOT IT IS BECAUSE THEY'RE NOT TRYING HARD ENOUGH!!!!! IT'S A FUCKING LIE!!!! I WOULD NEVER LOOK SLIM UNLESS I WERE DYING!!! AND IT'S SO ALL-PREVALENT AND ACCEPTED AND INSIDIOUS THAT EVERYBODY BELIEVES IT, EVEN A LITTLE BIT!!! SO LET'S GO OVER THAT AGAIN, AND ASK YOURSELVES THIS TIME HOW MUCH YOU AGREE WITH WHAT I SAID "I WOULD NEVER LOOK SLIM UNLESS I WERE DYING". NO - YOU DON'T FUCKING BELIEVE IT, DO YOU - A PART OF YOU THINKS THAT IF I DIETED AND EXERCISED ENOUGH I WOULD BECAUSE ISN'T THAT THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD? BUT NO IT FUCKING ISN'T BECAUSE THAT'S NOT THE WAY THE HUMAN BODY OR THE NORMAL DISTRIBUTION WORK!!!! SO IF EVEN YOU LIBERALS THINK LIKE THIS, AND IF EVEN DOCTORS THINK LIKE THIS THEN WHAT FUCKING HOPE IS THERE THAT WE WILL EVER BE FREE? AAAAAAARGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!! IT MAKES ME SO FUCKING ANGRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Comments

[ajva.livejournal.com]

The other thing is, this really is largely a gender issue. Yes there are fat men, but what I'm talking about here is the impulse to diet which all women discover at a certain age (I did it in my teens; I was lucky enough to have my Damascene moment in a bookshop in 1994, aged 20). Now my concern is genuinely with health. Thus I try to get enough exercise and at the moment I am trying to eat like an athlete, with exactly the nutrients required to fuel what I happen to be doing. Now the thing is, when I was 15 I would have said something similar, no doubt. I would have said "I'm not dieting - I'm going on a healthy eating programme", or some such rubbish. But it was all cover. Really I would rejoice whenever I managed to eat only 450 calories in a day (which wasn't very often, I hasten to add). Women dieting lie about health. They lie both to themselves and others because to shout health is to give a good excuse for the torture and suffering they're putting themselves through. They also lie about other things: "Oh no, I'm not hungry.", "Oh, no. I don't like cheese.", "Oh no, I only eat at mealtimes." etc. etc.

The first effect this has is isolating for individual women. That time when I was 15 and I ate a whole packet of biscuits - or my habit of eating several packets of crisps at a time - I thought that nobody else in the world did such a thing. I thought I was a greedy freak. I didn't realise that everybody (well, many people) did, but in secret, because they felt exactly the same as I did.

And the other effect this has is to leave our male friends completely bamboozled once they start going out with women (if they're into women, of course). I was in my early twenties when it suddenly struck me just how totally unaware most men were of the sheer agonised tormented hell suffered by their female friends/lovers over something which, to them, was a relatively minor consideration in life. Most men do not understand what it is to feel the dieting impulse and all that comes with it. In fact, most men are utterly confused as to why women worry about it so much, and they have no insight into the tears, the misery, the hunger, the self-hatred, the guilt and the physical pain. And the emotional torment of isolation. They hear about it and intellectually appreciate it and believe it, but they don't KNOW it. If they did, they would never pass comments about womens' appearance. They would never say they like this or that. They would never criticise or make comments about our eating habits. At all. Ever. But the fact that men I know and have known comment freely about this kind of thing just as they do about everything else shows how little they understand it. Guys - would you go up to a person in a wheelchair and wax lyrical about the joy and wonder and sexiness of salsa dancing?

Thought not.

[ergotia.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I would just add that I have certainly found women, whether lovers,family, friends or strangers, can cause just as much pain and apply just as much if not more pressure than men on this issue, albeit often in a more insidious way. The really crude, vicious and/or unthinking stuff tends to come from men though.

[djm4]

Guys - would you go up to a person in a wheelchair and wax lyrical about the joy and wonder and sexiness of salsa dancing?

Quite possibly, if I thought the person in question liked salsa dancing. It can piss people in wheelchairs off something chronic if everyone treads on eggshells when choosing conversation topics around them.

Point taken otherwise, though. Mind you, I'm notoriously bad at noticing appearance. Jill one asked me (after having been on a diet) 'Am I looking thinner?' to which I replied 'Than what?' I am so not the right person to ask that question of; be what weight you choose, but don't expect me to get excited about it. I'll care that you're happy or unhappy, but that's it.

[jhg.livejournal.com]

Jill one asked me (after having been on a diet) 'Am I looking thinner?' to which I replied 'Than what?'

Chuckle.

'Does my bum look big in this?' - 'No, you've just got a big bum...'

I'll care that you're happy or unhappy, but that's it.

Good, good.


J