By Kelsey McMillen

I feel like it can never be said enough: women in our society have an extreme focus on physical appearance. We constantly scrutinize ourselves, and when we determine that we are “flawed,” we often respond in negative and harmful ways, doing anything from exercising excessively to starving ourselves. In this day and age, when women can be anything we want to be, how can we still be focusing on appearance?

While we have come to a stage in history where women can become doctors, lawyers, etc., we are still often valued more for appearance than intellect. Society has come quite far since the days of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, but a pretty woman is still statistically more likely to be hired over her plainer looking but more qualified counterpart. It is sad that we still live in a world that values a person’s looks over his or her qualifications. Our focus on the physical insults how far women have come in this world, yet we buy into it, perpetuating the misguided value placed on the superficial.

Popular culture is no help, either. Our celebrity fixation forces us to become so focused on what we are told is “pretty” that we lose our sense of true beauty.

What is even more disturbing to me is how this obsession with image can become an obsession with food. Disordered eating can easily become a consuming problem at a school like Bryn Mawr, with its stressed and intense student body. When we employ the same intensity that helps us to strive academically to hurt ourselves, we inevitably end up in a dangerous situation.

Today in America, more than ten million women have some form of eating disorder, while one in three women who diet end up with a pathological eating problem, according to the National Eating Disorder Association. This number isn’t just a statistic. Every day, I watch young women at Bryn Mawr virtually starve themselves, eating just lettuce, tomato, and a piece of fruit washed down with a glass of water.

Admittedly, I am guilty of trying to fit into skinny jeans a size too small or a sexy sundress that was clearly meant for a skeleton on occasion, but I also love food. I can’t imagine starving myself for fashion.

So, to those girls out there who insist on restricting their food intake, I say “Eat as much as you want!” In the long run, those who deny themselves food can be left both mentally and physically scarred, and if food becomes your main obsession, it can hinder your ability to live life to its fullest and participate in enjoyable activities. With all of the energy we focus on school, there is truly no reason to waste more of our energy by channeling it into hurting our bodies. After all, we only get one of those.

McMillen, a junior Russian major, can be reached at kmcmillen@brynmawr.edu.

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