this was a wonderful conversation, and I will definitely be checking out Min's books. I wanted to gently push on an offhand comment you made: you called your doctor "certainly not at all someone with disordered eating" by virtue of her being "a very thin, health-conscious person." I've come to conclude that we all experience some form of disordered eating under late-stage capitalism, if not clinically diagnosed EDs per se. The myriad ways we are encouraged to consume while divesting and dissociating from our physical beings would (and do) horrify us if we paused to ponder them for two minutes. And I think our outward appearances ultimately say only too little about how we as individuals are really faring within that system.
That said, I heartily concur with your and Min's points about (women) recognizing our wants, and consuming according to those wants, being a radical act. I hope you're finding means of doing that. I'm trying to as well.
Dear Bethanne,
this was a wonderful conversation, and I will definitely be checking out Min's books. I wanted to gently push on an offhand comment you made: you called your doctor "certainly not at all someone with disordered eating" by virtue of her being "a very thin, health-conscious person." I've come to conclude that we all experience some form of disordered eating under late-stage capitalism, if not clinically diagnosed EDs per se. The myriad ways we are encouraged to consume while divesting and dissociating from our physical beings would (and do) horrify us if we paused to ponder them for two minutes. And I think our outward appearances ultimately say only too little about how we as individuals are really faring within that system.
That said, I heartily concur with your and Min's points about (women) recognizing our wants, and consuming according to those wants, being a radical act. I hope you're finding means of doing that. I'm trying to as well.
Keep up the great and necessary work!
Cheers,
Cecilia