Who needs terrorism?

17th March 2008

posted in Arts and Music, Eating Disorders, Health/Nutrition, Pop Culture |

This is a follow-up to the call for action on article featured on the Tampax/Procter & Gamble website www.beinggirl.com. Titled “What Does the War Have to Do With Your Weight?,” the article “reassures” young girls that they aren’t alone in their emotional overeating, and provide 9 irresponsible and potentially harmful “tips” on how to curb emotional eating.

I called Tampax’s 800 number (1-800-523-0014) and after a long hold, was told to either use the Contact Us form on the website, or the Ask Iris feature. The rep was really nice and I’m sure she tried to help as much as she could, but was told to tell me that these are basically our only options - apparently, Tampax isn’t too concerned with the dangerous and harmful messages it posts on its sites, even given the potential liability of such postings. Considering the article has been posted since August, we need to begin - and keep - flooding these boxes with requests that the article be taken down.

Even more heartbreaking than the article itself are the comments by the girls beneath the article. Keep in mind, the target age of the site is adolescents, meaning 10- to 11-year old girls. The fact that so many of these girls know their weights - at age 10!! - astounds me. Sure, some girls posted some positive comments about self-esteem and admonitions against eating disorders and dieting, but most of the comments are as follows:

A classic warning sign of an eating disorder - the feeling that a parent is “making” you fat:

Well, My mom ALWAYS tries to feed me! I have like, 6 meals a day! She calls me “skinny.” Well she hasn’t seen me naked so it’s unfair! And she made my brother fat too! It started in the fith grade for him, and now she’s doing it to me! I feel like crying! :

Note that at this weights (and height for one girl) below, the commenters’ BMIs place them at the low end of what the government considers to be an average weight range. And yet both still feel as if they need to lose weight.

alright, I am 15 years old, 5′5″, and I weigh about 118 lbs.

what do you think about this?I always want to lose weight but I have no freaken self control!it’s so hard!

am 13 and weigh somewhere in the range of 108-110..
Is that normal? I don’t really know.
I am scared to step on a scale because i think I will get stressed out over what I weigh.

And nothing like starting dieting before starting high school:

you know that ment alot what you said i always want to go on diet’s cause i just turned 12 today (aug. 15th)

and i weght 119

i have alot of belly fat

Probably encouraged by doctors such as this one:

CAN SOMEBODY HELP ME PLEASE . I WENT TO THE DOCTOR YESTERDAY AND SHE SAD THAT I AM 35 POUNDS OVER WAIT. I WAY 160 NOW, WHAT SHOULD I DO

This comment would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic:

i am 11, 5′4”, and i weigh 92 lbs. actually im 93 but i tell ppl im 92 cuz ppl think im only 85 but im actually 93. i dont have an eating disorder or anything i just have a very high self esteem!!!! ppl with a higher self esteem weigh less cuz they neva stuff themself and they dont eat at parties and they play sports and keep their body movin i swim dance, do gymnastix, ride my bike and swim in the winter in an indoor pool!!! also when it gets colder ill have 2 stop ridin my bike and start runnin

And probably the saddest kinds of comments:

I think that after 9/11 it is true that more people became overweight I was in second grade when it happened I use 2 be a tiny little girl very skinny the boys all ways after me. and became overweight and now no more boys just as friends and that’s about it. nothing more but thankfully nothing less. i rather be anorexic than be overweight i have attempted anorexia and bulimia in the past year but learned its not worth it and i still overweight and i excercise more and i am currently cutting down on the amount of food i eat which i feel so good about and i am looking into getting a bf cause i think he likes me

its worse 2 stuff urself than 2 starve urself

With sites and attitudes like this, who needs terrorism to destroy the promising futures of the next generation?

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Arts and Music, Eating Disorders, Health/Nutrition, Pop Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On March 17th, 2008, Brie

said:

Those comments are all heartbreaking, but those last two are just scary. Saying she’s ‘tried’ anorexia and bulimia problems means she’s tried fasting and making herself throw up, and more likely she’ll just try it again until it works.
That last one, well. Believe it or not, I’ve heard a lot of little girls say things like that, and they believe it wholeheartedly.

posted on March 17th, 2008 at 2:40 pm

2 On March 17th, 2008, Brie

^
Oh, excuse me. I met probably, not problems.

posted on March 17th, 2008 at 2:41 pm

3 On March 17th, 2008, emmy.

i’m so angry right now. i will admit i have a difficult time reading things like this without my pulse rising dramatically. i’m not sure if i’m angrier that it’s happening or that i feel like there’s nothing i can do. i can’t go around to every single one of these teen girls and shake them and tell them all the things i wish someone had told me when i was their age, and i want to. badly. i’m so frustrated by all this. how did this all start???????? how far back in time was weight what determined how worthy we are of being members of society??

i have to do something and i can’t do it fast enough.

posted on March 17th, 2008 at 5:14 pm

4 On March 17th, 2008, littlem

This

“the boys all ways after me”

seems to get connected to this

“i rather be anorexic than be overweight ”

a lot.

I’m not trying to make a particular point, because there are a lot of issues tangled up in there — although if the boys-to-boys shouts of “if you don’t like the same shape girl all the rest of us like, then you’re just GAY” stopped soon, I certainly would not file a complaint — I think I’m just pointing it out because it does seem to get glossed over in the spate of issues we try to detangle (fear of the “man-basher” label?).

Also, because I vividly remember it helping to twist my thinking on the way to my own eating disorder, and clearly the phenomenon is not exactly on the wane.

posted on March 17th, 2008 at 6:16 pm

5 On March 17th, 2008, AnnieMcPhee

I’ve fired off an angry letter to them about this. Don’t know if it will help; I guess we all need to send some to Dr. Iris too.

The comment on there that kills me, really kills me, is by the girl who is 5′4″ and weighs 125 pounds…and holds herself up as an example of how you can be fat and happy and healthy. Uh. Her BMI is 21. So…whuh? Another is 105 pounds and wants to diet? Like you say, Rachel - who needs terrorism when you’ve got such great pro-ana advice that can and will kill little girls? (I pointed that out to them - that little/teenaged girls are not dying of being fat but they ARE dying of anorexia and bulimia.)

Sigh.

posted on March 17th, 2008 at 6:37 pm

6 On March 17th, 2008, vesta44

The following is the response I got from P&G after sending them my amended version of the letter suggested on BFB:

Thanks for contacting us.

I’m glad you took the time to give us your feedback about our website.
I’m sharing your comments with the webmaster for this site.

Thanks again for getting in touch.

P&G Team

So maybe they’re getting enough messages from the fat-osphere that they may be rethinking the messages they’re putting out there for girls. We can only hope.

posted on March 17th, 2008 at 6:51 pm

7 On March 17th, 2008, Rachel

I’m afraid not, Vesta. I got the same automated letter.

posted on March 17th, 2008 at 6:55 pm

8 On March 17th, 2008, vesta44

Crap, too good to be true, I should know better

posted on March 17th, 2008 at 7:44 pm

9 On March 17th, 2008, Jackie

Those automated letters, sound more like this:

“We really don’t give a crap about what our customers think, as long as they keep sending their money to us. We’re sorry if you thought we had a ounce of compassion or sensitivity over here at x company. We really are nothing more than money-hungry monsters, and if getting girls to starve themselves help acheive our goal of getting more money, so be it.”

posted on March 17th, 2008 at 10:38 pm

10 On March 18th, 2008, Evelyn

i hate how everytime i go to the doctors and they tell me to lose weight but they dont understand how hard it is. One of my doctors said do you exercise amd i ran a half of mile everyday but he told you i need to run a mile without stopping and hes alway bragging how he can. How is that suppose to make me feel better when he is like 45 and runs in marathons. Another doctor said what do you do for exercise and i said run, trampoline and she just said oh well thats not good enough. When i do diet and do well i get now suport from my family and my friends just make fun of me and say you dont need to but i thind its just they dont want me to succeed.

posted on March 18th, 2008 at 9:26 am

11 On March 18th, 2008, ann

this makes me so sad because i remember being in 10 in fifth grade and so self-conscious already about the fact that i was starting to develop breasts that i was so afraid to eat. field trips, i always just kept the money they gave us to buy food instead.

i can’t imagine how hard it must be now–i didn’t even have access to any sites like this (not sixteen years ago) or even women’s magazines, because my mother didn’t approve of them. i just wanted my body to be like ariel’s in the little mermaid, which strikes me as funny now, but i just can’t imagine what it must be like to grow up now. for me it started in third grade and it has never really stopped, which just makes me sad–being skinny is a stupid obsession and a stupid way to live your life, but there it is.

posted on March 18th, 2008 at 11:31 am

12 On March 18th, 2008, Heather

This one from the actual article (under point number 2) really bummed me out:

“Write down everything you eat. Icky, we know, but we also know there’s no better substitute (except looking at yourself in the mirror naked), that’s better than tracking what goes into your mouth to get you into the habit of thinking before you eat.”

It makes me so sad that this site is basically saying, “Looking at yourself naked should really deter you from eating since you’re so fat.” For adolescents. Like they don’t have enough insecurity.

Ugh.

posted on March 18th, 2008 at 4:40 pm

13 On March 18th, 2008, AnnieMcPhee

You know, since anorexia only *stops* you from getting your period, you’d think they’d want to sort of, you know, avoid trying to get girls to have anorexia. They’ll only end up selling less product that way. And dead girls don’t menstruate at all.

This loathsome abomination seems worse every time I see it.

posted on March 18th, 2008 at 8:37 pm

14 On March 19th, 2008, CarrieP

Maybe we should be responding by adding our own comments to the page..if nothing else, we can provide an opposing viewpoint. I mean, the girls who read the article are the ones we’re really concerned about getting the message, right?

Granted, there are already 6 pages of comments so maybe nobody will read that far….but maybe some girl who is unsure about her body will take the time to read all of the comments and will then get some good information instead of the crap on the website.

posted on March 19th, 2008 at 9:06 pm