New Year, Same Body

Happy New Year! 2021! Time to lose weight, right?

Wrong.

One of the most common New Year’s resolutions is losing weight, but at what cost? There is an abundance of ways to improve our day-to-day lives without changing our appearance. However, it seems that body shaming and a focus on weight loss and appearance can be found even in the most surprising of places.

Besides the annual diet culture propaganda, I was disappointed to find so many restrictions and unhealthy idealisms within my religious community. Recently, struggles with disordered eating have become a rising concern among Jewish women. Certain holiday traditions surrounding food can exacerbate temptations and behaviors. For example, fasting on Yom Kippur is based on the idea that we have to starve ourselves as repentance for our sins. This can emphasize the idea that food is “earned” and that restriction is an appropriate response to guilt and shame. A majority of my own eating disorder started when I observed Kashrut, which refers to a set of dietary restrictions including a commitment to refraining from eating certain meats, and serving dairy and meat products separately. In addition, our religious book, the Torah shares the view of showing modesty towards bodies and treating bodies in the “image of God” so there is pressure to diet or maintain a certain image within the community, and so society within religion shares the same influence of diet culture that regular society has.

Why do we see shrinking our bodies as a beneficial change? What are we giving up in order to assimilate to a society that sexualizes and objectifies all genders and sexualities within a certain body type? How is this going to affect our health? Both physically and mentally? What are we really gaining from joining cult-like dieting groups, or a juice cleanse? Fatigue? Dehydration? Infertility? How much are you willing to disregard for a “more appealing” appearance? These are all questions we must ask ourselves when we come across ads for weight loss training, certain aspects of our sports communities, and apps for tracking calorie intake. It’s much easier than you may think to develop an unhealthy obsession with food, therefore initiating a damaged relationship with your body and food.

Diet culture has always existed. We see hints of it within religious texts and all sorts of historical media. It is irritating when I hear people say “We need to start talking about the negative effects of diet culture!” because it has always existed, and people have been speaking out against it for centuries.

Now it’s not all bad, in fact at a young age while reading the Percy Jackson series, the image of the goddess of beauty, Aphrodite, in her earlier-era depictions, was in contrast much more realistic. She had stomach rolls, which are constantly pointed out and criticized in celebrity media, which creates a harmful standard of a flat stomach. However, her body has been manipulated to look many different ways, which raises the question: what is beautiful? The many ways people have depicted her body over time and the amount of body representation is ultimately a good thing because there are more people who can point to manipulations of Aphrodite’s body and see their body.

The fact is that if we all shared the same lifestyle, diet, and fitness routine, we would all have different bodies, so the best thing we can do for ourselves and our health is to develop a healthy relationship with food and our bodies. The truth is that as long as there are standards for appearance and attractiveness, there will be people that don’t fit society’s expectations. So this year, let’s stop commenting on people’s bodies. This year, let’s nourish our bodies, minds, and spirits. This year, do yourself a favor and give yourself grace going into every month, every week, and every day. Learn self-compassion, practice time management, and stay hydrated! I guarantee this is a goal worth striving for.