I think that we’ve generally agreed that the recent Marie Claire article about health bloggers got it all wrong, perhaps intentionally so.
And, through this mistake, an opportunity was lost.
To me, as someone who has consumed more of this blog genre* than she has created, I see the loss of an opportunity to sum up the significance of these blogs in a single statement: These bodies aren’t objects.
Community = Power?
Why, in the year 2010, should so many young women (and let’s be real here: based on the material in the blogs with the highest self-reported readership and Marie Claire’s “Big Six”, we’re generally looking at middle- and upper-middle class white women) need community encouragement to eat food that nourishes their bodies? Why should it be so significant that we run and take yoga classes?
But we do, and it is. And through this community, through making these facts so plainly visible, maybe we will perhaps escape the gaze.
Because we’re not eating well to make the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. We’re not running marathons to slim down and “keep his attention”. We are using our bodies for our own intentions, living lives of our own design, taking our health into our own hands.
Triggering?
It’s subversive, it seems, that young women might just want to do what feels good for themselves. I’ve never seen any of the bloggers of this genre* that I read head into dangerous territory, while women’s magazines like Marie Claire itself often delve into disordered suggestions (lose 10 pounds this week! cabbage soup diet revisited! buy these beautiful clothes that only come in sizes 0-4!). If you have a disorder, reading about healthy recipes, working out, and the occasional calorie count might be triggering, but so are plenty of omnipresent ads and fashion spreads that continue to feature tall, gaunt women whose bodies are plainly unrealistic for those with lives beyond a modeling career.
These young women start businesses, get book deals, and oftentimes earn a living from their blog revenue – revenue generated by their very own, original content and dedication. Many of them have quit their day jobs to pursue their health passions, or refactored their careers to become RDs, health counselors, yoga teachers, running coaches, and personal trainers.
Not objects. They did not take these paths to become objects.
Do they blog about fashion and beauty from time to time? Sure – readers request it, and it’s not easy to find a woman in this demographic who doesn’t care at least sometimes about her appearance. But their day-to-day focus is on living healthy, balanced lives with their healthy, balanced bodies. Bodies that sustain them, bodies that accomplish amazing feats. They celebrate their strength. THEY EAT.
Not Objects
When does the public eye care about women in this demographic? Should we all aspire to be actresses, models, and pop stars? Even professional female athletes are so often reduced to nip slip photos, ass commentary, and male fantasies galore. Should we constantly seek male approval by vying for our own places in the scantily clad pantheon or dating our way to fame?
Or could we maybe, just once, en masse, use our (female) bodies publicly according to terms that we have defined for ourselves? Could we be happy with bodies that speak to our own identities and interests rather than the preferences (and/or assumed preferences) of the male gaze?
It’s powerful stuff, when you think about it. It’s empowering.
These bloggers are just regular women. They make healthy choices, but they’re regular women. Healthy role models. Big sisters to the Internet at large. They run races, they sift through superfoods (and get ensnared in health food marketing traps on occasion), they sweat through hours of yoga. They struggle: how do I balance my life? how can I reclaim these “forbidden” foods? why do my friends think it’s a disorder when I base my meals around vegetables? By doing this in the public eye, they most emphatically say: I am doing this.
Many started blogging for that very accountability and approval. They gave what they needed, and now they’re getting what they’ve given. They’ve made a community, and I sincerely hope it thrives long into the future.
Enough Typing Here
While this could easily be a bona fide research topic, all I’ve written here is a blog post. It’s not scientific; I’ve used plenty of cultural shorthand and paraphrasing. This is just a thought that struck me on my lunchtime workout, and it will likely come up again. Possibly even as that bona fide research. There is real power in what these bloggers do.
Also, it might go without saying, I am tired of how f*cked up women are about food/body image/the right to take up space in this world. I would give anything to see a new celeb mom quoted about loving her days-old, healthy baby rather than whining about losing the baby weight.
(On the somewhat-related topic of women who snark on other women’s healthy habits to their faces, today I say only the following:
- It’s an annoying waste of your time, negative commentator. Nothing nice to say = nothing said.
- It always sounds like you’re just jealous that you didn’t think to pack a healthy lunch/value your health/plan ahead/escape the Lean Cuisine non-food for lunch trap.
- I don’t ever know how to respond; “That Snickers ice cream bar you ate for lunch was tempting, commentator, but I couldn’t do that to my arteries,” doesn’t have the right ring to it.)
*The genre being loosely defined as unsponsored blogs authored by American and Canadian women aged 20-35 about their daily food consumption, athletic activity, and health contemplations.
), but so does the new man in my life.
