In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Dear New York Times,

Jill

Articles about eating disorders and alcoholism are about health. Therefore, they should probably be filed in your “Health” section — not in Fashion & Style. According to your own article:

Dr. Bunnell, the past president of the National Eating Disorders Association, said the obsession with being skinny and the social acceptance of drinking and using drugs — along with the sense, lately, that among celebrities, checking into rehab is almost a given, if not downright chic — are partly to blame.

“Both disorders are behaviors that are glorified and reinforced,” Dr. Bunnell said. “Binge drinking is almost cool and hip, and losing weight and being thin is a cultural imperative for young women in America. Mixing both is not surprising, and it has reached a tipping point in terms of public awareness.”

When you put important health pieces in Fashion & Style just because they’re about girly-diseases, you are part of the problem.

Yrs,
Jill

17 thoughts on Dear New York Times,

  1. wow…

    eating disorders hit a little close to home w/ me…putting it in the “fashion & style” sections is irresponsible…

    i totally feel like people don’t take eating disorders seriously…

  2. The Fashion & Style department is the spinoff of the old Women’s Page, which used to be the only place female writers (and readers) could go to discuss their own issues. And it still serves the same damn purpose, even though these newspapers have supposedly worked women into the newsroom and worked women’s issues into the whole paper.

    Kind of like their idea of women columnists.

    Every day I wonder why the hell I’m getting a master’s in journalism.

  3. I was just imagining that they have some sort of auto-sorting proggie in place and every time an article includes the word “fashionable” it goes straight to fashion & style. But then, I sometimes feel like this would be way more appropriate most of the time than the way websites sort their articles now -.-

  4. Amen Jill!

    Sarah- I hope you use your education to change the world . A similar reason why the African-American woman moved to a perverse, white town, “to bring culture”.

  6. that is completely irresponsible journalism, isn’t it

    That seems to the entire goal of american journalism, full stop.

  7. Well, where is the target audience most likely to see it? I go to school with these girls – putting the article in a fashion section makes it more likely to be read by those who need it.

  8. Well, where is the target audience most likely to see it? I go to school with these girls – putting the article in a fashion section makes it more likely to be read by those who need it.

    but what kind of message is that sending to these girls, who “need it”? why not throw it in the “fasion & style” section to show them just trendy trendy they are being?

    this shit scares me…you only have to look around you to see how “fashionable” it is to be hurting yourself…

  10. while this certainly is a “health” article. i, like DD above, think it’s more effective in the fashion section. it seems to me to be putting “counter-programming” where it can do the most good.

    the “fashion” pages are full of unhealthily skinny models. how better to counter this than an article on the inherent danger of this – not in some far away section the fashion readers might never see – but right on the page along with the skinny-porn?

  11. might it not make sense to put it in fashion because this will reach people that wouldn’t be going through the health section? of course that’s probably not the reason it was placed there but it should be in both i think

  12. I say enough with “trendy” names like “brideorexia” and “drunkorexia.” They’re just snappy nicknames that trivialize a serious issue.

  13. I have to disagree with the notion of “counterprogramming”. If such a column were to appear in every issue, then maybe. Even then, how could it possibly offset the images of skinny models in glamourous, sexy situations? These images are so much more powerful than we like to think they are. Therefore, any article about the dangers of eating disorders and alcoholism are merely empty words – how can we possibly believe this guy when we see commercials and fashion pages depicting these things as the very essence of high-class lifestyle, i.e. the true sign of success in a capitalist society – in other words, encouraging such things?
    Because the message that thin and rich are the ultimate goals for women is so predominant, because it has essentially saturated our culture, it’s going to take more than a few little articles in the fashion section, where the message will only be contradicted out of its existence. If they really want to make an impact, they need to change the whole section, images and all.
    I’m saying this based on my personal experiences of reading teen magazines, with “love yourself no matter what shape” rhetoric juxtaposed with images of flawless, ultra-skinny girls getting the cute guys and being otherwise successful in every aspect of life. At least that’s how it worked in my teenage mind. Just shows how images can be so much more powerful than words.

  14. I identify as someone who probably “needed to read the article”.
    I actively avoid media similar to the fashion and style section. I can (and do) read up and engage in feminist theory, health, size acceptance, critical media viewing, etc.
    That is not enough.
    I resent the assumption that overcoming ED and substance abuse simply requires deprogramming.
    Fashionable, trendy, dumb, thin-worshiping young women may behave like this. If that’s the only section they read, then that’s a good place to reach em’.

    Remember this-all kinds of people behave in destructive ways.
    As a feminist, I feel guilt and shame about having an ED. Women like me tend to think we should be better/smarter/wiser than this.
    I’m really trying to shake that.

    So please people, watch the assumptions.

    Also: it’s in the fashion and style section because it effects women.

  15. I resent the assumption that overcoming ED and substance abuse simply requires deprogramming.
    Fashionable, trendy, dumb, thin-worshiping young women may behave like this. If that’s the only section they read, then that’s a good place to reach em’.

    Well, of course, I wouldn’t suggest that an eating disorder or alcoholism can be cured simply by “reprogramming” the mind. It’s a much more complex and personal issue than that.
    What I think can be countered in such a manner is the general mindset among the female population where thinness and substance abuse are glorified. And slapping an article about eating disorders in the middle of the fashion section would be akin to putting a band-aid on a bullet-wound. It does nothing. Any words will be drowned out by the constant images that encourage the exact opposite. If we want to discourage this general mindset, then we must do a lot more to change the messages that are being presented to women and girls. Because, while not every girl who reads fashion magazines has turned into an ultra-skinny alcoholic, we cannot deny that these messages have contributed to an overall unhealthy attitude towards our bodies and our ideas of success.

  16. putting the article in a fashion section makes it more likely to be read by those who need it.

    From personal experience I highly doubt that just stumbling over an article in fashion & style will reach any girl or woman and convince her to get into therapy.

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