Self Love VS. Diet Culture
Written by Remika Sirikulthada | Edited by Yam Pothikamjorn, Amy Jain | Designed by Jasmine Shek (Jas), Yanisa Likhitapisit (Palm)
I remember vividly scrolling through my twitter feed one day in the early stages of quarantine, when I came across a tweet stating something along the lines of “after quarantine, there will be two types of people, the ones who lose weight while in lockdown and the ones that gain weight.” At that moment I thought nothing of it, gave the tweet a like and continued to aimlessly scroll through my feed. Looking back on that moment now though, I see how toxic and harmful that mindset can be, I don’t know who needs to hear this today, but losing or gaining weight in the middle of a global pandemic is okay. Your body is fighting every single day to keep you alive, and on top of that you’re literally living through a global pandemic.
What is diet culture?
For several years now, diet culture has taken over the media. And in short, it’s a system of beliefs that promotes weight loss while worshipping certain weights, body shapes, and sizes over your wellbeing. Variations of diet culture include certain eating patterns and restriction of specific foods simply because they are ‘bad for you’. In reality though, these restrictions are all about your weight and physical appearance - a lot of these ‘restricted’ food groups are actually needed in a healthy and balanced diet. Diet culture oppresses people who don’t match with this supposed image of ‘health’ - thus unintentionally harming all groups of people, especially young girls and those with larger bodies, damaging both their mental and physical health. The aspects of diet culture you may see every day while scrolling through your forms of social media put a strong emphasis on achieving a certain level of skinniness with the promise of the self-love, confidence, acceptance and health that will follow. I hate to break it to you, but that is all false; one only needs to look at the symptoms like slowed metabolism, risk of heart disease and languishment that it often leads to instead.
What role does the media play in the way you love yourself?
Growing up as a teenager with full access to numerous social media platforms, I’ve seen both the positives and negatives of social media especially when it comes to diet culture. Of course, the internet is great at connecting people and ideas when it comes to making positive changes that are in favour of your health, for example the online communities and chat rooms can be a great form of motivation for improving your health. However, just like all the other things in the world, there is a fine line between viewing helpful content versus putting yourself in an environment that directly harms your well being. When it comes to online diet culture, it can be said that social media only expands your anxiety and lowers your confidence instead of helping you live a better life. Even A-list celebrities, influencers, and athletes can get caught up in diet culture and disordered eating; it is for this very reason that it is important to remind yourself not to compare yourself to those whom you see on your feed. Social media can easily make you more self-conscious and have a lower self-esteem (trust me, I know). It’s important to remind yourself that the version you see of people online is the version they choose to show - not everyone will show all the lows they’re going through, thus you should never compare your health and physical appearance to anyone else. Remember, you can always admire someone else’s beauty without having to question your own.
The importance of unlearning diet culture.
Diet culture is killing all of us, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. No one, no matter how small or large, should feel ashamed or judged for the size of their body. As both a community and the next growing generation, we need to eradicate diet culture from our everyday lives. Diet culture promises you this glorious and romanticized solution when in reality, it’s the problem. You shouldn’t be putting yourself down just because the body you see on social media is not the body you’re living in. Dismantling this form of oppression is essential - crucial even - to creating a peaceful environment for all people living in all bodies. If you’re ever feeling insecure or uncomfortable in your own body, remind yourself: Your body is made to protect your organs, the very organs that are keeping you alive every single day (even in this pandemic)! Cherish them and provide them with love.
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