Go, Lisa, Go!

I agree with Vanessa at Feministing--the Lisa-on-the-verge-of-bulemia plot of "he Simpsons" last night was great. The thing that made me happiest about it was the humor of it, because contrary to the made for TV movie stereotype, not all women who struggle with body image issues are humorless automans. I know that they probably got a lot of ideas from the actress who voices Lisa and who suffered from bulemia herself, and that really came across in the not-conclusive ending that Vanessa rightly praised.

It doesn't ever end, and that's the truth. A lot of women give up throwing up or whatever, but it's rare that they give up worrying about it. The writers also seemed to understand that intelligence and sensitivity are not a bulwark against body image issues; in fact, being intelligent and sensitive can make body image issues even worse. Every woman I've ever known who gave into the urge to engage in bulemic-type behaviors was smarter than the average bear.

Worrying about how you look is a sane response to a world that over-emphasizes that. Sometimes I think it's easier to be hostile to women who fuss over their weight than accept that they are responding rationally to a world where staying thin will give them a better shot at everything from getting treated well by strangers to landing job promotions. I think I'm less fussy than average when it comes to my body issues, but my feminist principles lead me to refrain from hiding my fussiness, which I think is an understandable reaction to the world I live in. But not hiding leads to its own set of problems. My friends think I have a huge hang-up, whereas I tend to think that if you aren't taking great pains to hide something than it's probably not a problem.

Okay, the psychological issues are confusing, but I'm trying to get at this--I'm not bulemic, but I understand it. And I understand that the mixed signals of our culture breed it--women are to stay thin but also to seem like they do so without any effort whatsoever. Being overweight is considered shameful, but being caught dieting is shameful, too. It becomes easier to eat what's given to you and then throw it up in secret. Kudos to "The Simpsons" for putting together an episode that didn't patronize women for having completely understandable body issues.