Supergirls Speak Out by Liz Funk

Author:Liz Funk
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2009-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

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“Dieting is so ubiquitous…. It was rare to see people of above average weight on campus.”

—former Smith College psychologist and author Dr. SuEllen Hampkins

* * *

Sasha, the UC–Berkeley student, was able to get control of her struggle with bulimia by starting to work at the Gender Equity Center and planning programming for the campus’s Love Your Body Week: she recognized that latching onto activism could help her recognize what went wrong for her and could help others before eating disorders got to them. Certainly, there are steps everyone can take (without necessarily getting all activist-y) to confront the eating disorders epidemic: holding the media accountable for the images of bodies they run, like fashion magazines running ads of models with bones protruding where bones shouldn’t protrude or publishing alarmist articles on “muffin tops.”

We also have to take a breather from freaking out over the obesity crisis and reevaluate why our society has such a weird relationship with food; we withhold food to feel loved, but isn’t food also a cultural herald of warmth and love? Personally, I sense that until American society really evaluates why it vaunts this dichotomy of self-deprivation of the soul versus the indulgence in the material as cultural ideals, it will be impossible to genuinely love your body.

Something that really chilled me, a year or so ago, was my mother holding the newsletter for the National Eating Disorders Association in her hand and recommending that I join the organization: “Because NEDA does so much for research on eating disorders and for advocating for better and more affordable health care for eating disorder patients.” She swallowed hard. “And you and I both are aware of the rate at which eating disorders surface again.”

Although I like to think that I go easier on myself now than I did when I was anorexic five years ago, there are nights when I write and work until my eyelids are draping over my dry eyes and I feel like nothing I do will ever be enough. There are still days when I finish a long power walk or a session with the Stairmaster…and I want to go longer. And there are happy hours when I feel pretty guilty about downing an order of chicken flautas and a margarita (or three). But I’m conscious of how our society raises young women to hate their bodies…and perhaps, if all young women were, there would be no need to preemptively join the National Eating Disorders Association.

But there’s also another step to be taken, and it’s a step that requires young women to really collectively examine their lives and examine how they pit themselves against other women. To be perfectly candid, I know when some people I’ve just met guess that I’m an unassuming overweight girl, and it’s not until I do a little name-dropping, mention that I’ve written a book, or just flash my Tiffany bracelet that said people will stop talking about themselves as though they’re so interesting and finally ask me about myself because, you know, I might actually be interesting.

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