Five women discuss society’s obsession with what women eat, how it affects them, and why it’s so dangerous.
Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed
Many women look to celebrities for a sense of what their body should like look and what their relationship with food should be. However, this doesn't leave room for the different types of bodies, metabolisms, and needs that a "real" lady has. This is an online conversation between five women about how our obsession with other women is affecting us, why it's become such a problem, and what we can do to make it better.
Who are you and what is your current relationship with food and exercise?
Julie Gerstein : I'm Julie, I'm the style editor at BuzzFeed. I'm a vegan, and I WISH I exercised more, but I just don't. I know I feel better when I do, but I just don't really ever want to. Instead, I do what I think a lot of people do, which is constantly obsess about what I'm eating, and how I should be eating better, and how I hate the way I look, or wish I had a different body type. I have had bouts of super-bad body image, super-disordered eating, but I also really love eating and derive a lot of pleasure from food, so that sort of balances out my desire to look differently. Instead I sort of sit in the crux of, like, middling self-loathing all the time.
Anne Helen Petersen : I'm Anne Helen and I'm a features writer here at BuzzFeed. I'm a self-confessed exercise addict: I run or lift six days a week and feel cranky and unsettled if I don't. I'm a type-A person in general, and over the years I've become super mindful of the ways in which that type-A perfectionism has influenced my attitude toward my body. I love exercise in part because it allows me to eat/drink what I like, but I also truly do like the way it makes me feel. I'm currently quasi-training for a marathon, and I've thought a lot about the complex reasons motivating me, both physically and emotionally.
Peggy Wang : I'm Peggy, I'm the DIY editor. I also used to play in a band, which required having to get up in front of actual people and perform in front of them. During that time, I definitely had more issues with dieting and nutrition, just because I felt gross all the time, like touring was sapping all of the youthful verve out of me; all the while, my worst fear was that people would look at me and wonder why I thought I could pull off cutoffs or crop tops. I would get tagged in photos by fans on Facebook and be totally horrified by how I looked. It was also difficult not to compare myself to other women who were playing in bands. I think I've gotten over a lot of those issues since then, but caring about diet and dieting still kind of lingers on.
As far as exercise goes, I've never gotten to the point of enjoying it. It still feels like a chore that I should be doing — not want to be doing. Maybe I've felt "endorphins," like, twice in my life. I love reading about diet and nutrition and trying new healthy food fads. Right now, I'm gluten-free and I have an auto-immune skin disorder and it's actually clearing up? So I am motivated to stick with it.
Mackenzie Kruvant : I'm Mackenzie and I'm a staff writer. I'm a longtime pescatarian who dabbles in gluten-free eating. I exercise five days a week (Pilates, weight lifting, and cardio), sometimes with a trainer and sometimes on my own. I suffer from body dysmorphic disorder. I'm under the care of a nutritionist who has been helping me change my diet, as well as an endocrinologist to help with a hormonal disorder that has made it hard to regulate my weight. It's all been very helpful but I don't think I'll ever get over the fact that I can't eat an entire box of pasta in one sitting. (Sometimes I try anyway, but let's keep that between you and me.)
Arianna Rebolini : I'm Arianna and I'm also a staff writer. I am a recovered bulimic, which I started struggling with 14 years ago. As part of my treatment, I went through a four-month outpatient program that focused on developing healthy eating habits, and for the most part it has stuck. I can get obsessive about what I eat and try to avoid dieting as a result, but I am a regular runner and consider myself healthier now than I've ever been.
Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed
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