Rachel Said:
I am a feminist and I still struggled with an eating disorder. An eating disorder isn’t about food or weight or how one looks; it’s a psychiatric illness, a way of coping with other unresolved issues in life.
On another note: I’m conducting an anonymous survey of bloggers who blog about eating disorders or eating disorder recovery in partnership with a clinical psychologist for joint research and publication purposes. I’m hoping our survey generates lots of responses so that our findings are well-rounded, inclusive and convincing. If the scope of the study pertains to your own experiences, I invite you to participate by taking it.
More information and a survey link can be found here.
Thank you!
Rachel Richardson
Hey Rachel,
Thanks for dropping by and commenting by your comment made me squirm, to be frank.
Yes, it is good to know that there are other feminists, besides me, out there that struggle with eating disorders. I can think of quite a few that i know who bike everywhere they go cos its “cool”and secretly they know it keeps them “fit”, who like being vegan/vegetarian for other reasons that saving the planet, less fat apparently, who are obsessed with walking, exercising and other fitness stuff for these reasons as well. But who also will not eat or eat and through up or who will over use diuretics/laxatives. But we never talk about that at dinner parties or while training young women at self esteem/body image lifeskills workshops.
My point is i thought of the following questions?
- Given that the medical and psychiatric/psychological/medical industry has a history and managed to succesfully construct a field of expertise based on the pathology and othering of human characteristics without dealing with the socio-political factors involved while maintaining an objective and superior stance, how is your surve/research going to be “inclusive” and address this reality while refraining from further contributing to the “objective” marginalization, othering and pathologizing of women/people?
- Since when did feminism start to embrace the psychiatric medical industry, what went wrong? Self help books and other random psycho lingo and counselling/therapy that is not neccessarily from the women are thier own experts anto establishment, mad pride stance have become a staple of some the people that are activists that i knew, myself included (it all started with the courage to heal). As we continue to pathologize and call our selves and willingly label ourselves as ill..blaming ourselves and letting the social, economic,political system of domination and oppression of the hook so that it becomes “a psychiatric illness?”
- My intention was the highlight the places where in choosing not to eat because i wanted to look cute, look powerful, i was failing to address and resist oppressive images and lookism against fat women like myself, when i should be concentrating on feeling sexy and attractive regardless of my size. That is my understanding of my choices not to eat sometimes or to overeat at other times. PLUS i really resent the term disorder especially when all these anorexic bitches who are accessing skiny priviledge get to claim “disorder” and then if you are fat then it just helps and maintains the fatphobic thinking that you have a disorder.
- I prefer to find a way to centre my own experiences with language that comes from my own experiences and not download constructed psychiatric mumbo jumbo and the authority that comes with that as i attempt to comprehend my “issues”
