Persuasive Speech - Diet Culture

Why Diet Culture Does Exist

At 11:40 every day, a handful of girls migrates with nervous glances to the school bathroom. They lock themselves in tiny stalls to wait out the worst thirty minutes of their high school lives. The shiny mirrors splattered with soap stains curb the temptation they feel as their classmates carry decadent-smelling food through the halls. Lunch is a battle they struggle to fight. Not too long ago, I sat next to the ratty black Converse of one of these fragile souls. Her stall was silent as I washed my hands, as if she thought I didn't notice her. As if she did not feel like she was worth noticing. I left that bathroom with a spiked awareness. As I walked back to my usual spot in Junior hall, I noticed another girl as she walked laps around the building. The look in her eyes betrayed her inner struggle; she passed me three times that day, as if she thought that strolling past the classrooms was trimming pounds of guilt off her body.

At my high school, there are students who are too afraid to show their faces wherever food is involved, and those who don't flaunt a mask to conceal the pain they feel within.

Still, the world has the nerve to say that diet culture doesn't exist.

I guess there's a reason you can't find a clear definition when you type it in Google.

In our society, diet culture is what makes food an issue of public morality. Instead of a necessity for survival, food becomes the enemy. Instead of the person consuming the food, thoughts of the food consume the person. The person resorts to fad diets to shed pounds quickly, or they go on a show like The Biggest Loser, which bullies them into a smaller skin. Diet culture is what plants numbers into our heads, making us count the calories in everything from an almond to a Starbucks frappucino until we go mad.

Diet culture is a way of life. Once you fall into its web, you cannot climb out. It's a trap! It's a trap, and it's purpose is to keep people from getting fat. And by fat, I mean, a little, tiny bit jiggly. This distorted perception of what qualifies as fat is driven by the same thing that spawns diet culture.

[personal anecdote]: diet culture is what prompted my friend to stat a blog documenting her struggle with anorexia nervosa.

Whether we like it or not, diet culture is all around us.

The hypocritical media likes to pretend it doesn't. They argue that it doesn't, but does that arguing not prove that it's there? There is this mirror, this  mirage that wants to show us only the negative side of dieting. How many times have you seen Dr. Oz on your local news channel preaching about the dangers of eating disorders? How many times have you seen statistics claiming that the rate of eating disorders among adolescents is decreasing?

...how many times have you turned on Entertainment Tonight, only to hear about Kelly Clarkson's dramatic weight loss or Kesha's recent discharge from rehab for her "unstable body image?" How many celebrities have been accused of starving themselves to shine in the public eye?

If you don't believe that this happens, listen to interviews with Jennifer Lawrence. You've probably heard her blabber on about her unrequited love for food. You've probably heard her famous statement: "In Hollywood, I'm considered a fat actress." Lawrence repeatedly states that she will not lose weight for a movie role; if this isn't blatant evidence that diet culture exists, then what is?

Maybe it's the nutrition standards in place in public schools.

Maybe it's the existence of the term "pro Ana" - short for "pro anorexic." Pro mental disorder.

Maybe diet culture can't be pigeonholed to a single piece of evidence. But either way, it exists, and whether they admit it or not, Hollywood helps us promote it.