On Rape Culture and Diet Culture (and believing Christine Blasey Ford)
We don’t talk enough about the link between diet culture and rape culture.
I wrote about campus rape a few years ago, and one survivor, the incredible Loretta Ross, told me that in the decades following the three rapes she experienced as a teenager, she quite deliberately binged and used drugs to cope with her trauma. “I visited my trauma on my body,” she said. “It was suicide through cigarettes and food.” It was also protection. Being young and thin had made her body vulnerable, a target. She needed to feel safe. Read the rest of this post here.
Episode 9 might be my favorite so far of our Comfort Food Podcast. (Are you listening? All the info you need to subscribe and download is right here — and don't forget to give us a rating or review!) We talk about the new efforts of the diet industry to rebrand their programs as "wellness plans" and oh look, Weight Watchers just did that very thing.
Also new on the podcast:
I finally read Sarai Walker's brilliant and subversive Dietland. It's funny, moving, and connects all the dots between rape culture and diet culture and let's just say it's been a week where I think Jennifer, the novel's secretive feminist terrorist organization could be recruiting.
(A smaller but still important transgression is how the AMC show made from this novel just got cancelled, presumably because Hollywood wasn't ready to try that hard to give fat women complicated plotlines. Fingers crossed for a Netflix reboot...)
Other Good Food Reads
Everyone is talking about Everything You Know About Obesity Is Wrong, by Michael Hobbes. There is so much great about this piece (particularly the art), but I was disappointed when he took a weird left turn into food shaming. This is an important companion read.
Brian Wansink is for real done now. (Here's what I wrote about him when this scandal first broke last year.)
How and why weight stigma drives the obesity epidemic.
Obesity discrimination is as common as racism.
Book Report
We're still in the planning stages on my book tour (eek!), but I have a few save the dates to share. All of these events are free and open to the public, so mark your calendars!
Sunday, November 4 — Keynote Speech at the Sheppard-Pratt Center for Eating Disorders' Community Day in Towson, MD
Saturday, November 10 — Launch Party at Split Rock Books in Cold Spring, NY
Friday, November 16 — Reading at Northshire Books in Saratoga Springs, NY
Saturday, November 17 — Food as Culture Discussion at the Miami Book Fair
And if you've got a school, bookstore, conference, or other place/event where you'd like a speaker, get in touch. I talk to audiences of all ages about what parents and kids need to know about combating diet culture, as well as why the rise of the "obesity epidemic" and the alternative food movement have made eating scarier and harder than ever.
PS. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who emailed me to join Team VA (aka "people who don't mind getting a lot of promotional emails and sharing things on social during book launch time"). If you meant to email but haven't yet, obviously, this is a standing offer. Just hit reply and say "put me on Team VA!" I promise I'll make it easy, fun, and not too spam-y.
PPS. Still feeling furious about everything? Here's a tweet to share:
Men can move past the bad decisions their teenage bodies made, while women are supposed to freeze time. @v_solesmith says we need to talk more about the link between diet culture and rape culture: https://bit.ly/2OgLiG8 #believesurvivors #istandwithchristine