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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Reading Waldman's piece left me anxious. I'm 31 and have a pretty healthy physical self-image; it was hard to read her self-loathing, and to know so many of my friends struggle with those issues as well.
I think any woman raised in America has to grapple with this (and I do think it's a feminist issue); I don't have any easy answers, but I would like to suggest two books that helped me understand myself with compassion and even some humor:
When You Eat In Front Of The Refridgerator, Pull Up A Chair
by Geneen Roth
A Hunger So Wide and So Deep: American Women Speak Out on Eating Problems
by Becky W. Thompson
Happy eating to all,
Tory L. Davis
i think what rankles most salon readers about Ayelet is that she is a liberal feminist turned mother and wife. Two things that seem to be at odds with one another. When she breaches the issues of our day from a very 'my life, my world' perspective; it's almost too close, too real. She brings up the hidden dilemmas in all our every day lives, the ones we fear to see. I look at Nicole Ritchie with disgust, as the rich white girl starving herself to be part of the hollywood 'scene'. Yet, I know what disgust me most about her is that I was there at one point too; when I was in college I had starved and excercised myself of 40 pounds, down to an emaciated 90 pound frame. I wasn't rich, I wasn't suburban, I wasn't white, I wasn't even an out and out anorexic. I didn't need an intervention to come back to real life, it just took time. But there is no denying that for the better part of two or three years it wasn't a prestigious university, or a multitude of extra-curricular activities that ruled my life- it was food, always at the back of my mind as I went about my day to day. So I commend Ayelet a thousand times over for bringing up the food demon in us all, and for having the courage to face him so openly.
This entire article about food is just indictive of the stupid obsession that women today are suppose to believe in. I am a 45 year old woman who believes that the idea of anorexia is a modern day idea of rebellion. Most anorexics come from good families, they are by and large well off, these girls are indulged and babyed throughout their whole lives. You look throughout history, there was no anorexia, hell people just wanted to survive. My mother grew up during World War II in Germany, even today she does not throw away any food period, because there were times when she had nothing to eat. The whole idea of someone starving themself on purpose is just ridiculous. She taught her two daughters to eat when they were hungry. Self hatred is just stupid. My whole family is not overweight, nor do we obsess about what we eat, because we do everything in moderation. I think it would be great if a columinist actually wrote the truth, and stop enabling these entitled people. Sincerely, Stephanie Richmond
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
