Caution: Woman Eating
This post is a little different from what I usually offer you. I don't normally tend to get overly political on this blog, although sometimes I can't help myself. However, I also believe that it's impossible to really extricate politics from life, so I don't really try. If you're not in the mood for a rant, you might want to move on and come back a little later when I'll have a tasty little kidney bean number waiting for you. If not, stick around...
Somehow I find myself subscribed to a whole mess of newsletters and mailing lists on the internet. I usually just delete, but lately I've been taking the time to unsubscribe. This morning, when I clicked on the link to unsubscribe from JCrew's mailing list, I was redirected to a website, presumably their last chance to make me change my mind. I could have screamed. Waiting for me at this pivotal moment, when I am supposed to decide if I really want to banish their e-mails from my inbox, was this image:
This emaciated, sickeningly thin model, with sunken eyes and arms so frail they couldn't be trusted to life a Le Creuset from the oven (wait, that sounded sexist. They couldn't be trusted to life, well, just about anything.) is supposed to convince me that I need JCrew in my life. She's also supposed to convince me, I suppose, that the fact that I do not practice self-starvation makes me less desirable. A condition JCrew just might be able to ameliorate, if only I would take them back.
My stomach turns just looking at her razor-sharp collar bones and rubber band-sized wrists. I want to grab her, sit her down at my kitchen table, and, well, feed the crap out of her. I want to tell her that her body, and presumably her spirit, would be better served if she took care of them with an eye toward her own well-being rather than punishing herself for the sake of advanced capitalism's insistence on her own objecthood. I've always had a sneaking suspicion that our society's obsession with the sickly woman as object of desire (as that's how I'd describe her) has a whole lot to do with punishment. With putting a women in her place by depicting all women as something less than human. With forcing the burden of guilt on her if she dares to give in to her own desires, rather than literally starving her body into submission for the desiring gaze of others. I can think of few things more repulsively violent.
And for some strange, inexplicable reason, JCrew is trying to shove this guilt down its unsubscribers' throats. JCrew feels the need to align themselves with this kind of damaging imagery, proving that we just have not come all that far.
So to JCrew and all others of its ilk: yes, I want you out of my inbox. In fact, I want you out of my magazines, off of my television, away from my billboards, extricated from my subway ads. I want to see real women who refuse to punish their own bodies, who are capable of individuality, health, independent thought, and enjoying a nice plate of food.
Comments
Thanks for keeping it real!
Perhaps, chocolate glazed pork rinds with a butter milk tart filling?
Ox kidney's cooked in beef suet.
Or, caramel banana and pecan cream topped pork loin medalions.
Just a thinkin' thought.
JerryNJ
JerryNJ, honestly, I'd be happy if she ate just about anything. I do have a couple of cookie recipes on deck, although I don't know if they'll quite live up to those standards!
I am struggling to overcome an eating disorder. I have been punishing myself for many years, and I'm sick of it all. I'm so tired of the competitive cattiness and brainwashing that have come to define what it is to be a woman, to experience femininity. It's awful. I am 23 but I look like a creepy 13 year old. I want to look my age, to be curvy, but that means undoing years of the brainwashing. Not counting calories. Listening to my body that I have worked for so long to destroy. I don't know, it's just so messed up :( But I think that it needs to be talked about more, and to be addressed like you just did. This actually just made my day.
I love to cook, too, and so that's really hard. Learning to use my intuition to make things, even though my eating disorder says I shouldn't "too much" olive oil in that, or I "can't" ever fry stuff. It's just so exhausting when I know I am craving stuff for a reason, and it's healthy to eat what you want. Eat what you want, in moderation. But I am just always on a diet. Ugh.
Anyways, keep representing the fight. I appreciate it.
From one food-loving woman to another, my kudos to you for this post. As the wife of a former chef, I eat frequently, well, and with relish. I do not deny myself. I need to qualify by saying that I have the benefit of tall, somewhat lanky genes, which makes it easier for me to say this lightly. But I am not the sort of person who doesn't gain a pound no matter what I eat. If I eat more, I weigh more, just like most of us. Nevertheless, I consider good food to be one of the greatest pleasures in life, and I have no intention of denying myself that sensual pleasure. Few of us are 100% happy with our bodies...but I tell you what, I'm much happier enjoying a good meal than I am worrying about whether I'd be more attractive if I were somehow able to drop ten pounds. Bah.
that said, thank you for fighting the good fight. our culture needs to embrace images of healthy women.
(note: i don't appreciate the distinction between "real" women and anorexic women. we are real, too!)
Cheers,
elra
I especially love being pregnant. I'm so at home in this body, even though it's very different I feel more beautiful than ever.
i especially love the connection between body and spirit that you make. it's not something that people realize is there, but it's so powerful.
I usually dump my jcrew email without evening opening it, but I'm going to unsubscribe too. Then I'll come back and read your red kidney and wine post!