They have become unwitting collaborators in the oppression of other women. Rather than learning to trust their bodies, women learn that they must choose between physical hunger and the hunger for love and acceptance. By going hungry women prove to society that they have learned the lesson. And they have learned it well. Distorted body image and lower self-esteem are the norm among women in the West.
Few women express satisfaction, let alone appreciation, for their own bodies.
We will never have a true count of the number of women who have died trying to mold themselves into the prison of the beauty ideal. Those who are survivors can tell you that the cost is high. Healing from this abuse will take time and support. And, like other forms of abuse, we must learn to recognize it and get free of it before we can truly heal. We must stop dieting, starving and bingeing.