Eating Disorder and Society
Today in my accounting class, my friend who takes Psychology class with me as well, whispered next to me during the lecture to ask if I could read his research paper about ‘Eating Disorders’ and see what I think of it. So, he slipped his 7 page paper to me and I began reading it, y’know? I also happened to take a writing class with him two semesters ago and I know he clearly does not pay attention to that class. I don’t know how in the world he passed.
And how do I know he does not pay attention in class? Well, I have known him since my first year in college and we have been taking several classes together and I damn know that he’s the type that do not care about school. He rarely comes to class and when he does, he would be playing app games on his latest iPhone. As I was reading his paper, also, you could really tell he knows nothing about the APA format– mind you, knowing the correct format for APA was a huge percent of our grades.
Anyways, besides my friend’s grammatical errors and an irritating unknown format he has invented, I’ve noticed that he’s one of the people that thinks all girls have some sort of problem with their weight. He talks about what is an ‘Eating disorder’ and only points out the signs and symptoms of ‘anorexia nervosa.’ I wanted to tell him there’s also bulimia and binge-eating, but he was the type that wouldn’t even bother to add anything to his paper. Just as long as he turns in a 7-page paper, he’s good.
Eating disorder is the cause of genetic, environmental, psychological, and cultural influences, but I will only be talking about the latter three and set genetics aside.
The problem with girls who are bulimic or anorexic is that they tend to eat according to what people around them tell them to. They eat less because they want to be thin like everyone else. Girls think being thin and slim is the way to live a happy life because apparently that’s what society sees as beautiful. Girls want to be beautiful and the only way to be what everyone wants them to be, they turn to purging and starving themselves.
I’m not sure if this is still the problem for everyone but from where I’m currently living, ‘thick’ is the new beauty standard. “Thin is out; thick is in.” Apparently, curvy ladies are more attractive. So now, in my environment and perhaps some other places in the world, skinny/thin people are considered ‘ugly’ and ‘unattractive.’
And why is that? Because society said so. So, what happens to the thin girls who are naturally thin? They get body shamed just like how thick girls then were body shamed. Is this society’s way of making it fair for everyone? Thick girls body shaming thin girls just because society back then body shamed them? Is this society’s way of solving eating disorders for girls?
Well, surely, they’ve done a poor evaluation into this alternative. Because now, it’s the thin girls who are having problems with eating and weight gain. Because society said so, natural thin girls are over-eating in able to reach the beauty standard.
I will honestly admit that I’m one of the thin girls who have turned to over-eating so that I can get a little thick. Back then, all I did was eat, eat, eat. But see, the problem, with people like me, is that we have a high basal metabolic rate and our bodies can’t help it. No matter how much we eat, we can’t seem to gain weight. When we do, that’s only about 5 pounds added but once we stop over eating, we drop 10 pounds less. A walk up-and-down the stairs 3 times is like losing 5 pounds. But after four months of trying to get thick, I’ve given up. I don’t like being controlled and condoning to society’s wants is like being controlled.
I was never a fan of society and I haven’t been since my senior year in high school– that was two years ago. I didn’t realize last year in October 2017 that trying to eat as much as I can in able to gain was basically society pulling the strings on me all over again. So there’s that.
Here’s my rant #1. Society is everyone and that’s including you and myself. If you’re also not a fan of society, then be its enemy. Be one of the people that appreciates all kinds of beauty in this world. Thick, thin. Tall, short. Stick, round. Chubby, skinny. And these are just physical features. There’s more beauty within people. You just have to look deeper and see pass society’s eyes.
If we don’t, problems like eating disorder and body shaming of different body types will continue to occur– a never ending shiz.