The Focus on BMI
Rules for Dressing
Vertical stripes are slimming, shapewear gets the curves where you want them, a statement necklace draws the eyes up and away from your flaws. These rules for getting dressed reinforce the idea that you should want to be slim, even when you are not. Or that your curves are anywhere other than where they should be.
Targeted Exercises
Flatter abs, skinnier thighs, leaner arms in 30 days! Targeted exercises have a way of convincing us that we can—and should!—change characteristics of the bodies that we were born with. Sure, exercising and strengthening muscles are great for health, well-being and flexibility. But just under the surface of a fit trainer's video is the message that, if you just tried, you could change how you are.
Clean Eating
The clean-eating trend is great for getting us to eat more fresh vegetables and fruits. But the name alone is sneaky: If you're not putting "clean" food in your body, you're putting "dirty" food in it. The message is that, therefore, your body is yucky.
Detoxing
As with clean eating, going on a detox assumes that your body is filled with toxins that it is incapable of clearing out. (A job that your kidneys and liver know how to do.) Detoxing tells us that foods we enjoy are mucking up the works. Juice-cleanse detoxes send the message that food—real food—is nothing in comparison to spare juices and feeling like you're starving.
Separate Sizing
Women who don't fit the 00-14 sizing are, of course, glad to have options in the form of "plus" sizes. But the term, the separate section in stores and the hint of shame around these clothes send a message of exclusion, separateness and difference.
Aggressive Dieting
Being pushed to eat salads for lunch when what you really want is a burger, or being told to eliminate carbs or meat or fats or gluten—without any health indications for doing so—are subtle messages that women frequently get about their choices if they want to have the "ideal" body. And there's rarely a question about whether they want that ideal body.
