Cultural Lexicon We Wish Wasn’t: Bodysnarking
Is it apropos that the Oscars are this Sunday, on the heels of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week? Perhaps the largest national stage for bodysnarking, the Oscar red carpet reveals countless critics at-home and on TV who will judge celebrities by what they’re wearing, how much they’re showing, and how thin they are in their Oscar gowns. Lest you assume men are immune to the snark: Ryan Seacrest talked on the radio about dieting to fit into his Oscar tux.
bodysnarking: to rudely talk about a persons body or body parts, whether in private or directly at the person;
the snide, often witty comments, about other women’s bodies, that have become a part of female conversation;
the practice of dissecting other women’s bodies;
to make mean or vicious comments about another persons body(via urbandictionary.com, the term hasn’t made it to webster’s yet)
91% of college women admitted to controlling their weight through dieting in a recent college survey. 91%!! Only one female out of every ten wasn’t trying to control her weight through restricting her food. Click here for 11 more facts about eating disorders. According to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), in the United States, 20 million women uffer from a clinically significant eating disorder at some time in their life, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, or other specified feeding or eating disorder (OSFED).
But women aren’t alone—about half as many men, 10 million men suffer from a clinically significant eating disorder. These figures don’t even include the number of people who suffer from disordered eating that isn’t clinically significant.
Bodysnarking is contributing handily to this problem. If we listen to snide but often hilarious comments about others’ bodies, we can’t help but internalize those learnings about our own figures. Of course we want to lose weight or tone up or become big and muscled, because we never want that so-called humor directed at us.
For more on bodysnarking, check out this recent google hangout with FAQs, commentary, and more.
Four easy ways to Stand up to Snark:
1. Be cognizant of what you say about your own body and others’ bodies.
2. Stop negative thinking and speaking about bodies.
3. Avoid bodysnarking conversations, or speak up about why they make you uncomfortable.
4. Boycott the red carpet arrivals for the Oscars—where much of the bodysnarking takes place.
Image: Some rights reserved by Alan Light