Why would intelligent, educated women buy into the false promise of unnatural thinness as the epitome of beauty?
I know so many intelligent, beautiful college students who have been taught to believe that being thinner will make them happy or that losing weight will make their problems go away. They know such beliefs are not logical. And many of them recognize the extent to which our culture conditions us to believe this lie. But, sadly this knowledge isn’t enough to protect them from the pull of The Religion of Thinness. I think this is because the belief that being thinner will make us happier taps into something deeper than our intellects—it appeals to us on a spiritual level. It addresses the part of us that wants to feel that our lives are meaningful and that we are connected to a larger purpose. 4. What is your personal story regarding suffering from bulimia at an early age? One night when I was 14 years old, the cheerleading squad I was part of gathered in a bathroom to experiment with this new method for losing weight that involved sticking our fingers down our throats to make ourselves v
