I was surprised to learn that the most common search terms that are bringing people to my site are "chewing and spitting" -- or variants of the two words. I'm astonished because I didn't realize how many individuals are trying this tactic in order to ward off fat. I also thought --mistakenly-- that chewing and spitting out food was new, something about which girls are swapping tips, just as we, back in the 1980s, whispered secrets about bingeing and vomiting.
Apparently not. My friend Joe, 61, told me the following story:
My dad was doing this in his fifties, when I occasionally visited home from college. In retrospect, I think he'd just moved from the public to the private sector, and was frantically trying to lose weight so he could get into his suits without a corset.
I especially remember lunchtime, on weekends, as a total gross-out (from the point of view of an 18-year-old). Dad would be famished and have Mother make him a big sandwich or two. He would chew them completely and then spit the mouthfuls out into a paper towel. A kind of proactive bulimia.
As Joe's dad illustrates, eating disorders are all about hiding, hoarding, and hush-hush.
The Net, however, has added a new dimension. Susceptible people are only now “discovering” variations on the bulimic theme, like chewing and spitting, because the “Truth-or-Dare” talk of teen sleepovers and college dorm parties has moved to the Internet.
Websites, bulletin boards, blogs, instant messaging, and especially Web 2.0 offerings like blogs and social networking sites make it easier than ever to spread dangerous strategies for evading caloric intake. All under the cover of anonymity.
It's the worst of all worlds; you can still keep your own problem "hush hush," but you also get to "share" by tapping into the psychopathologies and harmful eating practices of others.
And if your new virtual “friends” are doing it, the cultural pressure to join in mounts. Especially for those who'd rather die than be fat.
It’s not that we are just now inventing eating disorders and their twisted offshoots, such as chewing and spitting. Web 1.0 and now 2.0 have merely made them easier to text and trade.
Comments (1)
Have you heard of or written about the various websites that anonymously promote extreme dieting tactics for anorexics and bulimics? I think I've seen articles about this, as well as at least one TV episode (along the lines of "Law and Order").
Posted by anonymous | July 30, 2007 9:55 PM
Posted on July 30, 2007 21:55