For the last few years I’ve started, abandoned, and restarted the project of writing a zine about activist/radical womyn and disordered eating. Though there seem to be countless zines out there addressing a variety of topics this one is markedly absent.
I assume this might be due to popular assumptions that disordered eating equates to being a dupe of larger patriarchal structures. But the identity of an activist/radical womyn and that of disordered eating are not mutually exclusive. A recent survey showed that young womyn experience cognitive dissonance between knowing representations of beauty in our culture are unrealistic and valuing them as a reference for comparison. We are socialized into fearing and conquering our bodies, fighting what is often the source of our self- identity.
Outside of a simplistic aesthetic analysis we often lack control over many aspects of our lives and disordered eating becomes a way to gain some semblance of power. As activist/radical womyn we are not immune. We can see the power dynamics of our bodies and control within interpersonal relationships, our (activist) communities, and larger society.
The more I have raised this topic within safe feminist circles the more I find I am not the only one. So I want to open this zine to the multitude of our experiences, be it our theories, our stories, our practical tips for combatting self-destructive patterns, or more.
Submissions/questions/anything else should be sent to megan.brenda.fulton@gmail.com by December 10, 2010.
More information here.
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