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• Monday, December 12, 2005 02:32 PM

  geez

  I don't understand the rancor towards Waldman for simply admitting to her complicated thoughts and feelings about weight and body image. It's not even up for debate that we live in a culture where we're constantly (women especially though not by any means exclusively) receiving contrarian messages about the pleasures of consuming rich, fatty foods vs. the simultaneous "requirement" that we must be thin in order to be desirable. Talking openly about those messages and how receiving them contiinually, from childhood through old age, affects our mental health is not whining. It's the simple acknowledgement of a reality we live in. There are plenty of people who maintain a fairly average, healthy weight without undue difficulty who are, nonetheless, tormented by the desperate fear of gaining weight or getting fat. There are people who live with body dysmorphia so crippling that they literally punish, mutilate and kill themselves.

  I'm guessing that women who loathe themselves because they're not as thin as they think they should be would LOVE to flip a switch and stop caring that they're constantly being assessed and judged on the basis of their weight. There are doubtless a thousand other places women would prefer to put their energy and time than into obsessing about body image. But it's ignorant to tell these women they should simply shut up about it, or slap them down for daring to discuss their reactions to a culture they actually do live in.

  —Anonymous
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