A few days ago, one of my friends drew my attention to a sardonic, but ridiculously offensive article that popped up on her Facebook news feed recently, titled, “5 Reasons to Date a Girl with an Eating Disorder.”
Even before reading the article, I had a problem with the title and the very fact that it was making fun of women with psychological disorders, implying these sicknesses are beneficial to men.
However, I read on just to see how far such an article would go to get a laugh. I was appalled at how obscene and ignorant it was. The reasons for dating a girl with an eating disorder can be summed up in the article’s five main points: “Her obsession with her body will improve her overall looks,” “She costs less money,” “She’s fragile and vulnerable,” “Probably has money of her own” and “She’s better in bed.”
To me, these ideas are illustrative of our country’s very superficial tendencies, where there is an increased emphasis on how someone looks, despite what he or she did to achieve that.
The inherent narcissism of modern American society stretches to our dependence on social media, where your worth is determined by how many followers you have on Twitter or how many likes you got on your Instagram selfie.
But I digress. Such an offensive article exemplifies the American media’s attack on women and how there is a very rigid, standard set for our looks. Women are expected to be skinny and fresh-faced, with makeup and hair done because that’s what the women on the covers of Cosmopolitan and Seventeen look like.
Who wouldn’t want to look like the Heidi Klums and Gisele Bündchens of the world, because clearly that’s what men are attracted to based on this horrible article?
What happened to being yourself? What happened to wearing what you wanted, when you wanted (and not to please the boy in your life)? There is nothing wrong with being fit, wearing makeup and doing your hair as long as it is for the right reasons — because it makes you happy, not for the boy you’re texting.
More to the point, such a degrading article is symptomatic of the seriously damaging effect of the media on women today, where they are so desperate to be just as skinny and perfect as the Victoria’s Secret Angels that they will develop these eating disorders to finally attain that perfect body.
This all raises the question: Where do we draw the line? If this serious topic serves as a joke for today’s America, what does that have to say about our country?
Last time I checked, psychological and debilitating diseases, such as bulimia and anorexia, were not funny or for the enjoyment of the boy that girl is dating, such as suggested in the article on ReturnOfKings.com.
The author even went as far as stating that, “It’s a well-known fact that crazy girls are exceptional in the sack. A girl with an eating disorder has just the right cocktail of pent-up insecurity, neuroses, and daddy issues to ensure that your whole building knows every time you’re beating it up.”
How does anyone, especially the “crazy girl” with said “right cocktail,” take that kind of a statement? Even if it is a joke, it’s been said that there’s truth in jest, and it’s very possible that some men out there actually do think like this.
I honestly think these types of articles should be reported on Facebook because of the implications of their crude humor. Girls, of any age, are more than just objects to boys. We do not need to subject ourselves to radical diets or absurd workout regimens to achieve that ultimate “sex kitten” body.
What is saddest about this repulsive article, however, is that it doesn’t even take into account the girls that actually have eating disorders and the effect of such “jokes” on them. They have these diseases because they are truly sick.
I have a friend that has an eating disorder, and it is clear that she has a psychological problem when she considers her 98-pound self disgusting and feels the need to run for hours a night to finally achieve her dream body.
The jest stemming from the overly body-conscious society we live in, such as in this article, is only going to make the conditions of these girls, like my friend, worse. These articles are not only feeding into the problem, they are becoming the problem.
Where do we draw the line? Let’s start by not writing these morally repugnant articles that contribute to the self-obsessed tendencies of this country. At the risk of sounding like a cliché, let’s start focusing on what’s on the inside now, so we can save the next generation from a world dominated by these outrageous articles that consider “a girl with a mild-to-moderate eating disorder — that hasn’t excessively marred her appearance — is today’s best-buy in the West’s rapidly plummeting dating market.”