Why does every harmful social media trend snag young women?
By Carmel Richardson, The American Conservative, Sept. 16, 2022
Carmel Richardson is a contributing editor at The American Conservative. She received her B.A. from Hillsdale College in political philosophy with a minor in journalism, and is a native of the greatest state in the union, Tennessee.
Anorexia was something I learned about at a fairly young age. Brightly colored books on puberty always had a section on eating disorders, and why they are harmful, in the hope that this would convince image-conscious teens to avoid developing a harmful relationship with their bodies and with food. Whether such discussions helped or hurt teens is another question, since some likely would not have considered starvation without it being suggested, but the fact remains that these discussions were, and are, a routine part of entering womanhood in the modern era.
It makes intuitive sense that such conversations accompany a girl’s coming of age. …