So many women and young girls I know are on diets. I’m no stranger to the battle of the bulge, and certainly getting older has made keeping the pounds off more of a challenge. However, I question why there seems to be such extreme dieting among women in the orthodox world – eating disordered dieting and body dysmorphia.
One theory I have is that when women are super skinny, all of the worrisome physical attributes that frum females must take pains to publicly hide are no longer an issue. When you are underweight, womanly curves aren’t a problem – after all, natural breasts and derrieres are made up of fat.
Having the figure of a young girl makes tznius clothing shopping so much easier. Maybe that’s why so many frum clothing shops carry mostly small sizes? I’m not sure where the plus sized frum lady even buys clothing, unless they shop at secular stores for larger sizes and get them altered for modesty purposes at a tailor.
I kind of liken the prevalence of disordered eating among many frum females to my penchant for mainly eating pareve and milchig foods for breakfast and lunch. I absolutely hate being fleishig for six hours during the day. Even if I have no plan to have milchig drinks or food until dinnertime, just the idea that I’m limited in what I can eat or drink is annoying. I’d rather be able to keep my options open.
Perhaps starving themselves skinny is a way for women to be able to have more tznius clothing options. Being a curvy girl and wearing modest clothing don’t go very well together – particularly when trying to adhere to the prohibition against wearing tight clothing. If you have an ample butt or a generous bust, the only way for clothing not to be tight is to wear something a size or two larger than necessary – making you look larger all around. A form fitting item of clothing that looks perfectly modest on a skinny woman might looks way too provocative on a voluptuous woman.
Maybe disordered eating has nothing to do with having more clothing options at all. Maybe restricting calories or excessive exercise has more to do with the negative message given to adolescent girls and women about the temptations our post-pubescent bodies have upon men? Perhaps along with developing breasts we also develop a guilt complex over the dangerous attention our bodies might receive? Perhaps attempting to halt puberty is an attempt to do our part to protect the men in our society who are vulnerable to female parts that can’t be completely hidden?
In this age where it’s all about the booty, has it become more tznius to be skinny?
