You Don’t Have to Have an Eating Disorder to be Image Obsessed

Claire Gould, The Review

The signs on the mirrors in the bathroom said “You are Beautiful.” Even so, girls stood in front of them, applying makeup, fixing their hair and adjusting their clothes to make themselves look different than their natural appearance.

Feb. 21 to Feb. 27 was National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, but it should have been called “National Body Image Week.” Although NEDA focuses on preventing eating disorders and finding help for girls who suffer from them, a big part of this mission is helping women of all ages and sizes be happy in their own skin. But one week in February didn’t seem to do much towards this cause.

In the dining halls, advertisements for the week were inside the napkin dispensers, yet listening to people comment on them, the predominant sound bites were “people with eating disorders wouldn’t come to the dining halls anyway” or “prevent an eating disorder: take that burger away from that fat kid.”

Read More: The Review

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