Recently I told my children about the "before time", when all the little children, myself included, went to school, sports, etc WITHOUT a single water bottle in tow. Aghast, they asked how on earth we drank water. Oh, the horror on their little faces when I replied, "We lined up at the water fountain for a few sips". Seriously, we have lost the plot on liquid consumption, great article.
Here is one additional thought on the Stanley craze - it is also something that is size neutral. If you are a larger body kid or teen, you can still be on trend by buying one of the cups and there is some value in that (and lord knows I'd rather this be the hot trend for my daughter's crowd than Lululemon leggings again).
There’s definitely some misogyny in judging the Stanley craze and other similar ones. And I think it’s also worth pointing out that in this phase of the climate crisis, we really do need to be purchasing way less. So people with the power to do so, should be bowing out of these trends. Yet a lot of them aren’t, which can understandably inspire some anger toward them. I think it’s the same reason a lot of us feel kind of disgusted when we see “haul” videos, it’s just rampant consumerism. I may be missing something though, I’m curious to know what you think.
This is how much I missed/misunderstood this trend. I was thinking hockey when I heard Stanley cup and was wondering what the heck people were all excited about 😆
Recognizing that this is fully not the point, but it is totally possible for a person to drink a gallon of water in a day without it being a diet thing. I take medications that cause vicious dry mouth so I feel thirsty basically 24/7 and drink a ton of water as a result. Just throwing that out there.
That being said, I totally agree that in many cases this seems to be following on the BS advice we were given in the 90s/early aughts to drink water when you feel hungry "because you're probably just dehydrated." And we absolutely shame women and femmes more for their consumption habits. I doubt most people are thinking of men when they talk about the (very real) ills of fast fashion and trends like this.
"...if you’re drinking 120 ounces or more per day ... it’s hard to see how you even have time to eat other things. "
There are good points here, but I always find suggestions (based on limited evidence) like this, that people aren’t eating, to be quite risky. As a weight lifter I’m surrounded by people who drink tons of water and eat tons of food. #WaterGoals can be a weight loss strategy, sure, but I think we need to be very careful about assuming other people’s level of food restriction. I think it can perpetuate the idea that we can definitively rule someone else’s behavior “disordered” (we can’t).
I totally agree WaterTok is incredibly annoying and spreading misinformation, but there are very real barriers to hydration in every European city I've been to (Berlin, Hamburg, London, Paris, Barcelona, and Prague) compared to the states. I find it so odd and annoying how with all of the public benefits these countries have that we don't, they can't even have public drinking fountains in their cities?? That combined with the fact that you can't really ask for tap water at a restaurant, so there's truly no such thing as free water outside of the home. And a 50 cL water bottle (which is barely more than the volume of a can of soda and usually your only option for water) costs the equivalent of anywhere from $3-$7 depending on where you are. I hate the overhydration culture we have here, but I am glad one of the maybe two public health things we've gotten right as a country (alongside the stigmatization of smoking, an energy every European city could also frankly use) is having free public drinking water in cities.
If anyone is interested in further reading (listening?) on how and when our culture became obsessed with staying hydrated, I'd really recommend the Decoder Ring episode "The Invention of Hydration." I really do believe that the idea you need to be toting around a water bottle all the time is such a scam to sell water bottles and bottled water! If you genuinely enjoy drinking water that much, or need to for medical reasons, then go with God, but I do think that drinking water is validating because it is a little easily controllable "health habit" that makes us feel like we're taking care of our bodies when the effect is probably pretty minimal.
It is majorly funny to me that my parents never thought one day in their whole precious lives about making sure I had a water bottle and now I feel guilty all day if I forget to send my daughter’s with her. I played outside for hours in the heat of summer and came home to guzzle kool aid. I don’t know if I even drank water other than from a water fountain. And I’m still alive!
I don’t remember having a water bottle at all times even being a thing until college and that was mainly about staying hydrated while walking to classes all day, drinking alcohol or working out. Back then it was Nalgene bottles that were trendy. Then it was Tervis, then Yeti and Hydroflask and now Stanley. I have probably had all of them or at least a knock off version. I have a light pink Stanley Quencher now that I’ve had for about a year. I like it, I put stickers all over it, just like I always have, and otherwise it looks and functions exactly as it did the day I was gifted it (which I can’t say for past “trendy” bottles). My nine year old daughter now has a smaller pink Stanley that she immediately covered in stickers. I know she asked for one because I have one and some of her classmates do too. I just see no reason to judge any of it. We humans have lots of little weird things that get us through the day. Sometimes those things are heavily influenced by marketing. I too am very exhausted by women constantly getting criticized for *gasp* liking things. Fine to think about WHY you like it, fine to reflect on overconsumption and obsessive behavior but also fine to keep on liking it. Women are guilted for so many reasons, let’s not let water bottles be one more of them.
I had forgotten the name of those trendy water bottles, and them my 10-year-old comes home from school and starts telling me about how people are obsessed with the Stanley cup because it didn’t melt when a car burned up, and I’m sitting there thinking to myself, what does this story have to to hockey 🤣 I caught up a few minutes later (they were reading a Washington Post article about how the cups went viral) but it was pretty funny in the middle!
This has some very interesting points. I agree that a lot of the criticism of this is because women are buying these, and anything that women are into is somehow lesser than if men were into it. It's hidden misogyny. However, I'm critical of anyone who engages in this kind of buying, no matter what gender they are. Overconsumption is a serious problem in this country. I have no problem with someone buying one of these, because they're obviously high-quality. But why does anyone need multiples of them, in different colors? This also goes for men who buy sneakers, or people who line up for the latest gadget. Why do you need it right then, and in multiples? People should really interrogate their need for the latest "it" thing. Like I said, I have no problem if someone wants to buy one of these. But the companies who engage in these marketing tactics know that they're eventually going to make more of the product, so people can still get one if they wait a bit. So what's the rush to get it right now?
The "replacing water with food" is an entirely different issue, and is actually pretty dangerous. You can get very ill from flooding your system with too much water. Also, those packets of flavor are generally made with sugar replacements, which can wreak havoc on your digestive system (ask me how I know). And that's not even touching on the fact that water isn't going to give you the vitamins and minerals that you need, so if you're replacing entire meals with water you're hurting your body.
Recently I told my children about the "before time", when all the little children, myself included, went to school, sports, etc WITHOUT a single water bottle in tow. Aghast, they asked how on earth we drank water. Oh, the horror on their little faces when I replied, "We lined up at the water fountain for a few sips". Seriously, we have lost the plot on liquid consumption, great article.
Here is one additional thought on the Stanley craze - it is also something that is size neutral. If you are a larger body kid or teen, you can still be on trend by buying one of the cups and there is some value in that (and lord knows I'd rather this be the hot trend for my daughter's crowd than Lululemon leggings again).
There’s definitely some misogyny in judging the Stanley craze and other similar ones. And I think it’s also worth pointing out that in this phase of the climate crisis, we really do need to be purchasing way less. So people with the power to do so, should be bowing out of these trends. Yet a lot of them aren’t, which can understandably inspire some anger toward them. I think it’s the same reason a lot of us feel kind of disgusted when we see “haul” videos, it’s just rampant consumerism. I may be missing something though, I’m curious to know what you think.
This is how much I missed/misunderstood this trend. I was thinking hockey when I heard Stanley cup and was wondering what the heck people were all excited about 😆
Recognizing that this is fully not the point, but it is totally possible for a person to drink a gallon of water in a day without it being a diet thing. I take medications that cause vicious dry mouth so I feel thirsty basically 24/7 and drink a ton of water as a result. Just throwing that out there.
That being said, I totally agree that in many cases this seems to be following on the BS advice we were given in the 90s/early aughts to drink water when you feel hungry "because you're probably just dehydrated." And we absolutely shame women and femmes more for their consumption habits. I doubt most people are thinking of men when they talk about the (very real) ills of fast fashion and trends like this.
"...if you’re drinking 120 ounces or more per day ... it’s hard to see how you even have time to eat other things. "
There are good points here, but I always find suggestions (based on limited evidence) like this, that people aren’t eating, to be quite risky. As a weight lifter I’m surrounded by people who drink tons of water and eat tons of food. #WaterGoals can be a weight loss strategy, sure, but I think we need to be very careful about assuming other people’s level of food restriction. I think it can perpetuate the idea that we can definitively rule someone else’s behavior “disordered” (we can’t).
Anyone remember the little weight watchers logging books that had boxes at the bottom of each days food log to check off every cup of water?
I totally agree WaterTok is incredibly annoying and spreading misinformation, but there are very real barriers to hydration in every European city I've been to (Berlin, Hamburg, London, Paris, Barcelona, and Prague) compared to the states. I find it so odd and annoying how with all of the public benefits these countries have that we don't, they can't even have public drinking fountains in their cities?? That combined with the fact that you can't really ask for tap water at a restaurant, so there's truly no such thing as free water outside of the home. And a 50 cL water bottle (which is barely more than the volume of a can of soda and usually your only option for water) costs the equivalent of anywhere from $3-$7 depending on where you are. I hate the overhydration culture we have here, but I am glad one of the maybe two public health things we've gotten right as a country (alongside the stigmatization of smoking, an energy every European city could also frankly use) is having free public drinking water in cities.
So interesting! And every time I read one of these something Toks I give myself a pat on the back for not being on TikTok.
Random aside that's hopefully relevant to Burnt Toast readers- this piece on how to complain better online (particularly about fashion, but seems broadly applicable imo) was great: https://www.wardrobeoxygen.com/turning-a-rant-into-a-resource/
If anyone is interested in further reading (listening?) on how and when our culture became obsessed with staying hydrated, I'd really recommend the Decoder Ring episode "The Invention of Hydration." I really do believe that the idea you need to be toting around a water bottle all the time is such a scam to sell water bottles and bottled water! If you genuinely enjoy drinking water that much, or need to for medical reasons, then go with God, but I do think that drinking water is validating because it is a little easily controllable "health habit" that makes us feel like we're taking care of our bodies when the effect is probably pretty minimal.
It is majorly funny to me that my parents never thought one day in their whole precious lives about making sure I had a water bottle and now I feel guilty all day if I forget to send my daughter’s with her. I played outside for hours in the heat of summer and came home to guzzle kool aid. I don’t know if I even drank water other than from a water fountain. And I’m still alive!
I don’t remember having a water bottle at all times even being a thing until college and that was mainly about staying hydrated while walking to classes all day, drinking alcohol or working out. Back then it was Nalgene bottles that were trendy. Then it was Tervis, then Yeti and Hydroflask and now Stanley. I have probably had all of them or at least a knock off version. I have a light pink Stanley Quencher now that I’ve had for about a year. I like it, I put stickers all over it, just like I always have, and otherwise it looks and functions exactly as it did the day I was gifted it (which I can’t say for past “trendy” bottles). My nine year old daughter now has a smaller pink Stanley that she immediately covered in stickers. I know she asked for one because I have one and some of her classmates do too. I just see no reason to judge any of it. We humans have lots of little weird things that get us through the day. Sometimes those things are heavily influenced by marketing. I too am very exhausted by women constantly getting criticized for *gasp* liking things. Fine to think about WHY you like it, fine to reflect on overconsumption and obsessive behavior but also fine to keep on liking it. Women are guilted for so many reasons, let’s not let water bottles be one more of them.
I had forgotten the name of those trendy water bottles, and them my 10-year-old comes home from school and starts telling me about how people are obsessed with the Stanley cup because it didn’t melt when a car burned up, and I’m sitting there thinking to myself, what does this story have to to hockey 🤣 I caught up a few minutes later (they were reading a Washington Post article about how the cups went viral) but it was pretty funny in the middle!
Thank you so much for sharing Ashley's piece. Always love reading your thoughts and insights. xo
This has some very interesting points. I agree that a lot of the criticism of this is because women are buying these, and anything that women are into is somehow lesser than if men were into it. It's hidden misogyny. However, I'm critical of anyone who engages in this kind of buying, no matter what gender they are. Overconsumption is a serious problem in this country. I have no problem with someone buying one of these, because they're obviously high-quality. But why does anyone need multiples of them, in different colors? This also goes for men who buy sneakers, or people who line up for the latest gadget. Why do you need it right then, and in multiples? People should really interrogate their need for the latest "it" thing. Like I said, I have no problem if someone wants to buy one of these. But the companies who engage in these marketing tactics know that they're eventually going to make more of the product, so people can still get one if they wait a bit. So what's the rush to get it right now?
The "replacing water with food" is an entirely different issue, and is actually pretty dangerous. You can get very ill from flooding your system with too much water. Also, those packets of flavor are generally made with sugar replacements, which can wreak havoc on your digestive system (ask me how I know). And that's not even touching on the fact that water isn't going to give you the vitamins and minerals that you need, so if you're replacing entire meals with water you're hurting your body.
there's gotta be a way to make something feel like a treat without spending money on it!