I love food.
Let me say that again: I. Love. Food.
I've always been so confused when people would use the phrase, "teenage boys will eat you out of house and home," because I've only met a handful of people in my life who I couldn't out-eat. I was inspired to write this post by the guilty pleasure, "buying two McDonald's meals and eating them both myself," because...ME. Food is my guilty pleasure, but what's more interesting to me than the fact that I used "food" and "guilt" in the same phrase is who I've felt guilty eating around.
I've always preferred eating with guys over girls because no one drew attention to the amount of food I was eating because they were eating equal amounts. The only push back I've ever received from guys has been, "you can't eat all of that" or "you gonna eat all that?" which are both nothing but challenges to me. Just last week I finished two huge plates of food when this dude had commented that I couldn't finish the first one. I just smiled as I took the last bite and said, "you're new around here."
And we all laughed.
Sadly, most of my discomfort and guilt around food has come from women.
When I saw the weird looks I got while ordering extra fries.
When I was silent during diet discussions.
And the discomfort I (used to) feel while looking down at my cheeseburger beside their dainty salads.
But I don't mean to shame women for participating in a culture that's been forced onto them. We've already had a few discussions in this class about diet culture, eating disorders, and the expectations society shoves onto women...so it would be a miracle for all of us to successfully escape this trap.
It's so frustrating and confusing to me that in order for this system to work, women have to willingly participate in it. So why do we? Because of the perfectly sculpted Instagram models that flood our feed? Because of diet after diet after diet commercial? Can we really escape it?
If you feel led, please share your own experience with American diet culture and your thoughts on if you think it's possible to eradicate it. Ready...go!
First I want to say, you're one of my favorite people to eat with. I agree diet culture sucks as if we're expected to eat certain amounts/things but like, I'm just hungry. Don't ever stop eating for ANYONE. I really don't know how we'd go about stopping it, but I think it leads back to striving not to care about what other people think.
ReplyDeleteGosh, I love this post. Funny and insightful and provocative. Well done.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all NO WAY! I wrote the first half of mine about my love for food. Maybe we should talk... I relate heavily to the what people say to you because anyone who sees me eating that isn’t on the team says the same things to me but after I say yes there’s normally a “but you’re so small” out after it.
ReplyDeleteI feel like it's an expectation partly based in health reasons (which relates to other expectations like the need to smell good I guess or to have good breath because it all shows you're hygienic), but it's also grown into a twisty beauty standard. Girls are expected to hit that size 2 waist, but now are also expected to simultaneously pull off lustrous curves? For me, I've been trying to be better about what I eat (not how much I eat, for better or for worse I guess), but I try to keep a healthy MENTAL perspective through it all because I definitely don't want to be driven by sick societal standards - only purely health-related reasons.
ReplyDeleteOkay, my least favorite thing about Shepherd, specifically living at Shepherd, is that my diet is very limited. I prefer to eat at the Dining Hall because it has the most variety, but it is all the way across campus from my dorm. I also feel awkward about eating there without a partner. So I tend to eat the same thing almost everyday from Riverside, or sadly, nothing at all. At home I am called "the vacuum" for my relentless devouring of dinner as well as the leftovers the next day. I've embraced this to the point of, when preparing for dinner, announcing to my family that, "The vacuum is about to go ham on some chili" (my home-cooked meal of choice). My mom comments on how I look visibly healthier after being home for a few weeks in comparison to how I look after coming home from school. And she's absolutely right. I gain about 15 pounds every time I go home.
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