Words: Martha Wright (she/her)
CW: Eating Disorders
‘Please raise your hands if you would trade five years of your life for the so-called perfect body’..
In the pilot episode of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag, the hands of the main character and her sister shoot into the air in response. Although the show is a satirical comedy, Waller-Bridge exposes society’s macabre obsession with female beauty. The pair’s eagerness to exchange years of their lives shows the sacrifices that women are expected to make in order to achieve such a thing as “the perfect body”.
Inherently unattainable and biologically impossible, the idea of “the perfect body” is elusive and ever-changing. The shapeshifting nature of the concept is imperative as it ensures women are never able to truly achieve it. Different decades have seen different forms of women’s bodies become trends as if they were pieces of clothing. In the 1960s, one had to be boyish and androgynous; the 1990s was characterised as the decade of “heroin-chic”; and the 2010s saw “slim-thicc” becoming the “it” look. Although there has been fluctuation in the idea of “the perfect body” over time, these trends show that the concept is underpinned by one key characteristic: thinness. A woman’s quest to be beautiful cannot be extricated from the quest for thinness as, in the eyes of society, beauty and thinness are the bread and butter of perfection.
Society makes it seem that achieving “the perfect body” would lead to a great sense of satiation for women. As Kate Moss infamously stated in a 2009 interview, ‘nothing tastes as good as skinny feels’. However, it is this desire to be perfect, to be thin, that is leaving women starved rather than satisfied. A fixation on achieving the thinness that the patriarchy so values can quickly spiral into an eating disorder. These illnesses are not a “necessary evil”, unavoidable on the path to satiation, but rather a global epidemic that is affecting millions of women across the world. In Fat is A Feminist Issue, Susie Orbach highlights the consequences of eating disorders – insomnia, constipation, inability to menstruate, and a slowed pulse rate are merely a few. According to the NHS, eating disorders can lead to headaches, dizziness, and problems sleeping. While these physical consequences are deeply distressing, addressing them is essential. Women are sold the idea of “the perfect body” on the premise of fulfilment, while the harrowing consequences of this pursuit remain hidden.
It is also important to highlight the often-overlooked social effects of eating disorders. The obsessive desire for “the perfect body” quickly removes the joy of food. A celebratory birthday meal with friends becomes a miserable evening; an ice cream on a hot day turns into weeks of guilt; and the end-of-the-night cheesy chips you once loved transform into a thing of nightmares. A desire for thinness can create a tunnel vision effect in the minds of women, inhibiting them from thinking about anything else. In The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf argues that the starved woman ‘has no energy to get angry or get organised, to chase sex, to yell through a bullhorn’. Eating disorders rob women of emotional and intellectual endeavours by making them solely fixated on food. What if, rather than teaching women to put their energy into achieving “the perfect body”, society taught them to invest in their education? What kind of a society would we have then?
Unfortunately, the patriarchy has a vested interest in continuing to push women towards a fixation on their appearance. Women with eating disorders often experience chronic loss of physical energy. In addition, the space in their mind that once may have questioned this compulsion, is now occupied by calories, weighing scales, and waist measurements. This leaves women in a subordinated position where they are unable to challenge the status quo. The concept of “the perfect body” also benefits capitalism. In 2023, the global weight loss industry was valued at $142.58 billion. Industry-leading companies like Slim Fast and Slimming World can only exist if the quest for “the perfect body” continues.
The quest to squeeze into the mould carved out by a patriarchal society may be branded as an act of fulfilment, but in reality, it is an illness. True satiation is a radical act. Tear up the mould. Chew up and spit out society’s expectations of thinness. Enjoy the food you eat and relish the energy it provides you with. By spending your time playing sports, further educating yourself, and protesting, you will soon realise that your weight is the least interesting thing about you. We will never be satiated by repression and restriction.
Remember: love and experience taste far better than skinny feels.
