Hey, want to be bummed out for the rest of the day? Oh come on, you know you do. Here it is: By age 10, 80% of American girls have been on a diet. Think you're in the clear because you only have sons? Allow me, aka The Ruiner, to pop your little bubble of relief. While women and girls are disproportionately affected by media and societal pressure to conform to ridiculous, basically impossible beauty standards, our sons are not somehow sitting on the sidelines immune. From anorexia nervosa to binge eating and bulimia, eating disorders affect approximately 10 million men and boys, or about 1/3 of all sufferers.
So what are we going to do? In my more fed-up, desperate, and reactionary moments, I'm like, "That movie The Village sounds like a really awesome idea right now. Do you think there's a YouTube tutorial on building your own village and convincing your children it's the 1800s? Could I Google how to do that?" (I'd say "spoilers," but it's been almost 12 years: if you haven't seen it yet that's just not my fault. Keep up, guys.) Look, it's easy to feel completely overwhelmed and preemptively defeated by all the body image crap out there; truly, it is a mighty foe. But listen, let's take a minute to feel our feelings of rage, sadness, dejection, and madness on this one for a bit, and then turn all that angry lamentation for a world gone insane to a righteous anger. Let this fuel a renewed commitment to raising body positive children.
How? So glad you asked.