Read this and tell me if you agree or disagree.
- If you aren’t thin, you aren’t attractive.
- Being thin is more important than being healthy.
- You must buy clothes, cut your hair, take laxatives, starve yourself, do anything to make yourself look thinner.
- Thou shall not eat without feeling guilty.
- Thou shall not eat fattening food without punishing oneself afterwards.
- Thou shall count calories and restrict intake accordingly.
- What the scale says is the most important thing.
- Losing weight is good; gaining weight is bad.
- You can never be too thin.
- Being thin and not eating are signs of true will power and success.
You know what’s scary? These are the ten commandments I found on a proana website. I know, I know, why am I even hanging around a proana website? Well, if you know me well enough, you’ll know that I often develop sudden bouts of fascination with certain topics and I’ll spend days googling them out of morbid curiosity. Recently, it has been anorexia (at one time, it was obesity – yeah, call me crazy). While I can be all horrified and spew righteous indignation at the proana culture, in the spirit of candour, I will now confess that some of these ‘commandments’, I myself hold to: namely number 1, 8 and in a sick and twisted way, number 10. Yes, I am a hypocrite.
I see pictures of anorexic girls and I’m suitably horrified … as all we regular folk are duty-bound to be.
Eeeeww!
Holy hell!!
What the ****?!
Why would anyone do that to herself??!! Well, we all know why – warped minds, the desperate need for self-control, low self-esteem, self-loathing, body dysmorphic disorder, etc – but this, we may not readily admit to: that many of us are not all that different from these girls. Which girl hasn’t complained about her weight? Even the skinny ones? (In fact, especially the skinny ones). Which girl doesn’t think she’ll look better and life will be better if she could just lose a few pounds? Which girl hasn’t mourned about the fat on her thighs / belly / arms / butt / hips / neck / ankles / calves? Which girl hasn’t complained about her face being “too chubby”? Which girl hasn’t envied somebody who’s skinnier?
Recently, I saw a before-after ad in the local paper – the girl was “fat” before (49kg) and “thin” after (44kg). I don’t care what height you are, an adult woman who’s 49kg does NOT need to lose weight. Good grief.
Despite all my righteous indignation however, I am a bit of a hypocrite. I myself am sort of a “skinny” person. I don’t think that I’m skinny but people seem to think so. And what’s worse, they say it with admiration. And what’s even worse, I like hearing it. *Horror*. As an allegedly intelligent person, I’d like to think myself above all these trivialities, too smart to fall for all that inane Hollywood skinny celebrity crap … but I’m not. Just like everyone else, I’ve gotten swept up in the waif wave. With all the skills, talents and passion that I have, does it really matter whether I look skinny? The answer is still a big fat YES.
I am, by no means, anorexic or bulimic. I find resembling a 2,000-year-old corpse a tad unattractive and while I’m still alive, I would still very much like to look human. But like all these sick ana girls, I do want to be (and stay) skinny, and while I may not subsist on a cracker a day, I do avoid rice. So who am I to judge them? Who am I to be repulsed by them? In some ways, I’m just as bad as they are.
12 Comments
July 1, 2009 at 7:44 AM
I disagree with those commandments.
I am a skinny person because I am a picky-eater. I have often been labeled as anorexic or bulimic but that’s not true. I eat things I love but I won’t even taste it if I don’t like it.
Even for stick-thin girls, we have problems like the loose fats around our thighs and arms. I sometime find myself exercising — not starving — to lose a little weight too.
Those girls in the pictures are just too much!!! Sure, they want to be thin but no need to go over the top! Their bones are practically gonna pierce through their skin soon.
July 1, 2009 at 1:20 PM
I know, overly skinny girls – in my opinion – are horribly unattractive. Problem is, where do you draw the line? Standards of skinniness in the media are quite high. Pics are touched-up to thin down and lengthen everything – from faces to arms, tummies, legs, you name it. So how skinny is too skinny? We see models with their pelvic bones jutting out all the time!
July 1, 2009 at 7:58 AM
Let’s be honest; most of us do think no. 1 has some truth to it. How often have you looked at a fat person (especially a girl/woman) and thought ‘Why?! How?!’ But that doesn’t put you in the same category of these poor, sick, delusional girls. And almost everybody avoids rice because it’s the poster grain for bad carbs (true or otherwise).
P/S: And you do know you’re a skinny person!
July 1, 2009 at 1:26 PM
Yeah, I know I’m not in the exact same category but sometimes I think, sure, they’re sick in the head but then again, so are we (and by we, I mean me). While we’re not as extreme as these girls, we’re all possessed by the desire to lose weight. This may sound overly simplistic and a textbook case of scapegoat-ing but I blame it all on the media!
PS: oyy!!!!!!!!! I’m not skinny la! *smugly grins in secret*
July 1, 2009 at 10:00 AM
No matter skinny or fat, people still tend to be judgmental. Staying healthy is still the best!
July 1, 2009 at 1:28 PM
You’re judged more harshly if you’re fat. Thin people tend to have it easier. But I do agree with you – focus on health, not weight. It’s a good mantra
July 1, 2009 at 12:01 PM
hey its a fact that good looking ppl are treated way better than their less-good looking counterpart. sad.. but thts just the sad truth!! no matter wht body shape we may hv, u got to feel good abt urself to send that +ve vibes out! for sure tht person will stand out frm the rest!!! woohoo
July 1, 2009 at 1:31 PM
Yes, confidence is the most important but let’s just put it this way: it’s a lot easier to be confident if you look good! Even if that kind of confidence is only on the surface. If you’re ugly but confident, that’s not confidence … that’s delusion – hahaha
Sorry la, feel like being a bit of bitch tonight!
July 1, 2009 at 1:02 PM
thin/skinny and slim are different.
July 1, 2009 at 1:36 PM
Yes, thin/skinny = fugly … slim = attractive. But semantically speaking (is there such a word?), Skinny Hypocrite has a nicer ring to it than say, Confessions of a Slim Hypocrite!
July 4, 2009 at 2:58 AM
Anyone who cuts out rice or whatever main staple foods for three months will surely have drastic weight loss. Perhaps your definition of ‘fat’ is on the extreme side. Rice has much lower fat content compared to say potatoes, and is a good source of thiamine, riboflavin, niacin and dietary fibre. There’s nothing wrong with this fact – no high … … Read MoreRead Morefidelity research is required to show this. And as always, diet is only one part of the equation – there are other factors like your metabolic rate, exercise, and perhaps other underlying physiological conditions that affect one’s weight. In my view, you are giving rice an unfair rap.
July 4, 2009 at 3:04 AM
Kengwit, ppl can eat all the rice they want – that’s none of my concern. And sure, rice has plenty of nutrients – brown rice, to be more precise. Plenty of literature out there advocate going for more unprocessed carbs as opposed to processed carbs like white rice, white breads, biscuits, etc. Diabetics are advised to cut down – if not totally eliminate – processed carbs (whites) from their diets. And yes, I’m aware that diet is only one part of the equation, but I’m writing a blog, not a thesis. If my writings were to appear in an actual magazine, I will certainly have to substantiate my points and that, I’m certain, I will have no problem doing.