I suppose my favourite point, one I had never really thought about, is this:
Each successive feminist wave was followed by a powerful and destructive backlash that put women in ever tighter situations. First we were trapped in society at large, then in our homes and now we are trapped in our bodies. Our focus has become more intense. It now rests sharply on us, on ourselves and on our faults.That is absolutely true and a wonderful point.
The article also points out that women are supposed to be fatter than men due to the greater number of functions our body does that needs a balance of fat. Therefore, excess fat can be linked to femininity (let's not forget that's basically what breasts are), and the purging of this in eating disorders is purging a big part of womanhood. I'm not saying you have to be fat - or curvy at all - to be a woman, because of course that's ridiculous, but most women have curves and all women are encouraged to lose them.
Maybe by ridding ourselves of fat, we are becoming more like men and therefore more in control. We lose our feminine shapes, our breasts, even our period! I'm lucky enough to never have suffered from a major eating disorder (beyond the teenage freak-out hating of my suddenly curvy body that lead me to wear badly fitting bras for years in denial of my 32FF bra size) but I've seen it in practically every other female in my family. Perhaps eating disorders, as a part of the backlash against feminism, are practically encouraged just as a distraction and a fake way for women to become 'empowered' (I hate that word). I have noticed in the past that a lot of people perceive feminism almost as a denial of femininity; this is a false view, of course, but maybe it makes women feel better to be shapeless and indistinguishable from the background. Nothingness is better than femininity.
I don't think it's much of a coincidence, after all, that I've only started to accept my shape around the same time I've become increasingly interested in feminism.
