As always, Victoria Smith says almost everything I've wanted to say about anorexia and gender identity — except that she said it better: I decided this wasn’t for me and stopped eating. I didn’t bleed or need a bra again until 1996. In the changing rooms for PE, I’d look down on the other girls, the ones allowing themselves to become woman-shaped. Hips, breasts, blood, surrender; I was better than that. These girls, I’d tell myself, had made a choice. If they weren’t exactly what they looked like — female, normative, inferior — they’d have been like me and said no.
How do we teach girls to relate to their bodies? How is this relationship to be healthy when females are so objectified? When our bodies are so violated or on display. So many girls and women experience a push and pull with invisibility -- we want to be seen but as more than bodies. Perhaps, if we starve ourselves so people will see US, beyond the flesh. Conversely, our bodies can become fortresses of protection so we're never seen.
My nearly 18 yo daughter reached out to me today and said all she thinks about is food and her weight. Her cousin, my sisters daughter, has an ED and is making everyone’s life unbearable with lies, stealing, staying out late - advice?
How do we teach girls to relate to their bodies? How is this relationship to be healthy when females are so objectified? When our bodies are so violated or on display. So many girls and women experience a push and pull with invisibility -- we want to be seen but as more than bodies. Perhaps, if we starve ourselves so people will see US, beyond the flesh. Conversely, our bodies can become fortresses of protection so we're never seen.
My nearly 18 yo daughter reached out to me today and said all she thinks about is food and her weight. Her cousin, my sisters daughter, has an ED and is making everyone’s life unbearable with lies, stealing, staying out late - advice?