She Says That The Societal Pressure For Women To Be Thin Comes Down To Obedience, Not Beauty
I’m a ’90s kid, and I grew up back when there was serious pressure to be thin. You weren’t just hit with magazines that fed that to you; you watched the media tear down female celebrities for how much they weighed, and the reality TV shows from the 90s through the beginning of the 2000s pushed the thin agenda, too.
It was inescapable, obsessing about your weight before you even hit adulthood. And, as Kate Moss famously said, which sums up that era, “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.”
A physician bioethicist named Samia Hurst, who goes by @samiahurstmanjo on TikTok, recently offered up her own perspective on why exactly there is that societal pressure for women to be thin, and her words are about to haunt you.
She shared her take as part of a series she’s doing regarding 24 things she’s learned in 2024, and she kicked off her video by boldly declaring that “obsession with thin women is not an obsession with beauty, it is an obsession with obedience.”
Samia says that health is also never behind the pressure to be a stick figure, either.
“Since when would we collectively prioritize the health of women over the health of men to the degree of having such an obsession with thinness in women only if it was truly about health?” Samia wondered.
Samia insists that it is more difficult for women to mold themselves to fit the expectations of society when it comes down to appearance because it’s designed like that.
“The idea is to keep us occupied,” Samia continues. “And to the degree to which we accept to be kept occupied by it shows the degree to which we are willing to obey.”
She sagely adds in her description of her video that this isn’t exclusive to thinness – makeup, clothing, and hairstyles are also all centered on obedience.
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As I said, her perspective is haunting as well as thought-provoking. I’m also going to leave you with some of the most insightful comments on her video, too.
“I was my thinnest when I was dying. I received so many compliments,” one woman commented.
“It also keeps us hating ourselves and looking for the next beauty product to buy,” another woman added.
“Indeed! A couple yrs. ago, I told my doc I would lose weight if he could show me which diagnosis I have that thin people don’t also have. That was the last time he mentioned losing weight to me,” a third said.
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