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Anorexia Before Spring Break

Jill

On a Xanga blog ring called the Bikini Coming Soon Challenge, one 19-year-old related the anxieties she was experiencing only days after returning from a week on the beach with friends: “Tonight I was looking on Facebook at people’s albums from spring break. I saw the guy’s album that I kind of was starting to like before spring break. In his album were pictures of all these pretty girls — tan, skinny, looked perfect in their bikinis — and all these guys were commenting on the pics: ‘She is so hot!’ or ‘wooowww!!’ Stuff like that. Seriously, that’s what I want.

“This just makes me want to lose so much weight and then have those guys see me.”

She concluded: “I hate boys, I hate my body. Goodnight.”

This is the problem with valuing women’s looks above all else.

6 thoughts on Anorexia Before Spring Break

  1. ” ‘This just makes me want to lose so much weight and then have those guys see me.’ ”
    Or not, because you’ll disappear. Igh.

    I find it troubling that this is not just a guy imposes on girl sort of issue but that the culture industry, which is run by men and women alike, continues to churn out unatainable and unhealthy standards. However, perhaps more aggravating are the women who don’t seem to notice it.

    When trying to bring up a similar topic with some of my undergrad peers they didn’t even seem to consider women subjecting themselves to gain popularity or what have you to be a problem since it was all voluntary. Apparently there is nothing wrong with the world when people roll over like dogs willingly.

    Perhaps it is that I come from a part of the country that isn’t all that beach conscious. Where I’m from everyone loses weight for the summer, not for year round, and it is more like shedding off the extra pounds because no one wants to be a stick in winter. However, going to a university near the beach where the weather is nice all the time certainly seems to shift perspectives, though admittingly not for me.

    It would be interesting to see the differences between different locations in the U.S. or in the world.

  2. Where I’m from everyone loses weight for the summer, not for year round, and it is more like shedding off the extra pounds because no one wants to be a stick in winter.

    That’s…weird. Why wouldn’t people want to stay the same weight all year?

    I can’t really get irritated with women who want to be thin/thinner. I don’t think it makes sense to condemn people for doing what an entire culture insists that they do. I’m much more upset with the guys who are posting and commenting on the photos.

  3. I’m unsure of the solution in this case. Should men (and women, presumably) be prohibited from saying “She’s so hot,” and stuff like that?

    I also think there is a problem with blaming comments on Facebook or Flickr for “valuing women’s looks above all else.” They’re pictures; what else are people going to comment on?

  4. I’m unsure of the solution in this case. Should men (and women, presumably) be prohibited from saying “She’s so hot,” and stuff like that?

    Uh… no. No one is talking about that, or suggesting that people be prohibited from saying anything.

    I also think there is a problem with blaming comments on Facebook or Flickr for “valuing women’s looks above all else.” They’re pictures; what else are people going to comment on?

    I don’t think anyone did that, either. The problem is with a greater social system that values women’s looks above all other aspects of their existence. Eating disorders are in part a response to that system; commenting on girls in bikinis are symptoms of that system. No one is “blaming” facebook comments for eating disorders or any of that.

  5. Hestia said:
    – That’s…weird. Why wouldn’t people want to stay the same weight all year?

    Well, up here in the frozen north, a person might not mind having a couple of extra pounds on him/her when the windchill hits -30 F. 😉 Goose down only insulates so much, ya’know. And then when spring rolls around, you find that you might not want that extra weight on you when you start wanting to not boil in your own juices come July and August…

    Seriously, most people here (“here” being Minnesota, which closely resembles the original remark that prompted your question) don’t TRY to put weight on for the winter and then take it off for the summer. It just kind of happens, because outdoor exercise gets difficult (and in the case of some coldsnaps, downright dangerous) here in the winter. Cold. Ice. Snow. We walk like penguins for about four months out of the year here so we don’t slip and fall on our asses due to the ice. Makes running or walking or biking difficult to accomplish. Clue: not everyone can afford a membership to a gym or the Y, nor wants one. Most of us get plenty of activity in the summer, but a *great* deal less in the winter. We also have a food culture that relies heavily on heavy, warm things to keep you internally warm in the winter. (I blame our Scandanavian ancestors for that! ) All of this plus the fact that our open water freezes over means that we don’t have the extra added pressure to “look good in a swimsuit” year ’round. It’s simply a factor of geography influencing culture.

    In regards to the actual topic, when a presumably relatively healthy young woman wants to loose “so much weight” just to have male attention, I’d say that’s an issue. There are a LOT of factors that go into that, including some dork posting what amounts to “bikini trophies” in his album, and I confess to having no clue how to address it. Other than to tell every woman I work with (I do custom sewing and alterations work) that they are beautiful the way they are. And point out irritating examples of women apparently only being worth their looks when they occur.

    BTW: medical terminology nitpick here. “Anorexia Nervosa” is the condition that you are alluding to here. “Anorexia” with no modifier simply means “lack of appetite”, and is a symptom of many, many conditions. I know we’ve pared the correct term down for simplicity of useage, but there is still an inacuracy about it. OK — off my linguistic soap box now! 🙂 Keep up the good work, Jill!

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