as someone who had anorexia my first year of college and recovered on my own, i'm sure glad i wasn't surrounded by a chorus of cheerleaders, affirming me on my "weight loss journey." i whittled myself down to 79 lbs (5'2") by eating an apple every other day (so i guess i kept the doctor somewhat away) and still thought i was fat. my acute episode lasted a year but the effects lingered on for 5. i was amenorrhic for 5 years and hid my weight gain with sweaters and chains of safety pins to bridge the gap in my waistbands. i was a sneak eater, refusing certain foods in public but gorging them on the sly and doing a bit of puking to keep the calories at bay.
when i started to exercise seriously- mainly interval training- i got to like my body and learned that i could eat a whole range of foods.
after reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, i found myself a farmer and switched to a whole foods, organic Weston Price type diet with massive improvements in my general health. my menstrual cycles ran like clockwork and menopause, when it came, was a complete non-event with no uncomfortable symptoms whatsoever.
today i am a very fit young looking 70 year old with a backyard of home grown vegetables and a freezer full of regeneratively raised meat. i have a strong as an ox 75 year old boyfriend who scampers up his 40 ft ladder to repair our historic metal roof.
i'm very particular about where our food comes from (farmers i know) and i prefer to cook it at home myself. Bill Gates would say that my prohibition of all processed packaged chemical synthetic GMO, etc foods is in itself a kind of eating disorder but he has a gut and boobs and i don't (well, i have breasts but hey, i am a woman).
we choose to spend our food dollars at the farmer's market and keep it all out of Cargill/Monsanto's pockets.
likewise i go only to alternative doctors who don't take insurance; i'm a medicare bargain. i have a personal gym on the 3rd fl and i'm up there everyday lifting weights and riding an HIIT bike. we have a far infared sauna for detoxing.
i was lucky. my friend's sister died in a Karen Carpenter like manner from her eating disorder. another friend's teeth were all rotted out from chronic bulimia. i didn't have teachers or internet support groups egging me on to lose even more weight. no one suggested the amputation of body parts as a way to trick the scale.
i didn't live in a time when a person could actually make a living posting tik tok videos of their derangement or when the culture celebrated these terrible problems as "body positivity." i think i dodged a bullet. i was left alone to outgrow an insecure phase and blossom into a strong accomplished woman
Once upon a time, the traveling carnival was where freaks were showcased. Now, they are massively promoted and lauded and followed on social media, in blue state streets, in schools all across the land, in most entertainment, and government and yes, even churches. We have advanced beyond Clown World. Humans now live in Nightmare World. Ugly. Sickening. Repulsive. Frightening. Dangerous.
Although the trans problem is a rapidly growing abuse being perpetrated on young people, I don't think you needed to go that far. An equally apt comparison is the 'fat is beautiful' movement. Obesity is destroying many more lives than either trans or anorexia and is driving all of the major causes of hospitalization, death and healthcare costs other than cancer. To paraphrase Stalin: Anorexia/bulimia is tragic, mutilation of children to satisfy the virtue signaling of adults is even more tragic, millions of people killing themselves with their forks has become just another statistic. And another marketing opportunity.
i had a massively obese "friend" in NYC who was the personal assistant to a famous comedienne. she had bariatric surgery and later gave him the same surgery as a gift. he lost a lot of weight and ended up with all that loose skin that mostly could have been avoided had he lost the weight through intermittent fasting. he lived on crystal light and those canned tuna lunch packs, as per his idiot doctor's recommendation. horrible!
he has since gained back every ounce and then some, filled out all his loose skin and now has a stomach wall so thin that he is predisposed to a life threatening rupture.
and yet, this guy openly posted on facebook, wishing that all the unvaccinated would hurry up and die already so that the world could be populated with just the "smart" compliant people. he also advocated for charging the unvaccinated more for their healthcare or even denying them healthcare entirely (like jimmy kimmel) because they'd obviously get so sick from covid that they would swamp the healthcare system.
i am willing to bet that in my entire life thus far, i have relied on the medical system far less than he has and racked up less charges. i should get credits for all the routine mammograms and colonoscopies i didn't get that my insurance would have paid for, all the flu shots i didn't take that would have been covered, all the yearly physicals i didn't schedule, choosing instead to see doctors who don't take insurance and paying them directly out of pocket. finally i'm owed a refund for the entire covid debacle- i didn't collect a penny of the inflated unemployment handouts and didn't take a single one of the "free" covid shots for which i paid dearly with the loss of my job of 40 years. as a forced medicare patient, i go out of my way not to burden the taxpayers of which i am one.
Well stated. The other side to this issue is that catering to mental illness will have a price to pay in human carnage and misery. The lies being sold to many afflicted with gender dysmorphia that they will be made 'whole' if only they mutilate themselves is the cruelty of false hope.
indeed. when you encourage or reward bad behavior, you get increased bad behavior. who wants to be "ordinary" when you can just dye your hair green, get some hideous tattoos, pierce a few body parts and call yourself a "they?"
that way you can insist that the entirety of the english language and the age old rules of grammar bend to your will. that's power!
"They" has existed as a singular pronoun since the 14th century. The "age old rules" are using it to describe a person who's gender you can't pin down as male or female. But if you're uneducated, who cares what's actually true! Just claim whatever fits your narrative! That's power! Seriously though, take like 10 seconds to Google something before you post about it online. Educate yourself, it's embarrassing.
i'm very educated honey. yes, "they" is commonly used in the singular when you don't know the gender. obviously i was talking about mentally disturbed people or just people seeking attention without actually doing anything worthy of attention by disfiguring their singular body and declaring themselves non-binary which is not a real thing but just the mark of immaturity.
you can refrain from further commenting. people who have no real arguments rely on insults. i've read your other comments and i won't play your game.
I was talking about the part of your comment which talks about grammar, which you seem to have forgotten about? Just explain to me what you meant when you referred to the "entirety of the english language and the age old rules of grammar". Secondly, it wasn't my intention to insult you, so I apologise if my comment at all offended you, I just genuinely felt a little embarrassed for you reading your comment. Also, did you just try to win an argument by.. asking me not to reply?? I've never seen that before.
Good thoughts. The parallels between the online anorexia community and the trans community, as well as the social contagion aspect from both (I believe that was a bigger issue with anorexia in the 90s) draws additional parallels.
Anorexia got somewhat more recognition upon the death of Karen Carpenter of The Carpenters fame in 1983. Much of what we know about eating disorders came from subsequent research.
This is a joke. I say this with every ounce of sincerity: did you think for more than a minute before writing this? I have suffered with anorexia for around 6 years and also believed I was trans for 4 years of my life, so probably have a little more authority on this subject, despite your strange (dare I say fetishy) rant about about how many women you've met that may possibly be anorexic.
I spent 4 years of my life living as a male would. I was known by a different name and changed my appearance completely to live as a boy. I now understand that I was wrong and I am a female, but I am so glad I did. Those years were some of the happiest of my life and I'm so glad I was given the opportunity to explore who I was. It gave me the chance to experiment and discover myself. I wholeheartedly believe that if I had been forced to continue as a girl and not allowed the freedom to express myself in that way, I would still to this day believe I am a man deep down, and feel trapped that I'm not able to be who I am. I know that hiding the feeling of being trans and forced to keep dysphoria to yourself is an unimaginably difficult and depressing situation. One that I'm sure if I had been forced to live in, I would have spiralled into a dark place and possibly taken my own life.
My anorexia was a completely different situation. Being trans made me happy. Being anorexic made me depressed. Anorexia is a dark place. Freedom of expression is not. It was (and is) a battle to recover from anorexia. It is something you will be trapped in for a long time and fight to escape for the rest of your life. That's not the same as saying "actually I'm not trans" and being able to still live happily, appreciating the years I spent being who I believed I was at the time.
Trans people on the Internet are a non-issue and you're wasting your time whining about them. Maybe get a hobby instead, it's a much more positive way to spend your time!
as someone who had anorexia my first year of college and recovered on my own, i'm sure glad i wasn't surrounded by a chorus of cheerleaders, affirming me on my "weight loss journey." i whittled myself down to 79 lbs (5'2") by eating an apple every other day (so i guess i kept the doctor somewhat away) and still thought i was fat. my acute episode lasted a year but the effects lingered on for 5. i was amenorrhic for 5 years and hid my weight gain with sweaters and chains of safety pins to bridge the gap in my waistbands. i was a sneak eater, refusing certain foods in public but gorging them on the sly and doing a bit of puking to keep the calories at bay.
when i started to exercise seriously- mainly interval training- i got to like my body and learned that i could eat a whole range of foods.
after reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, i found myself a farmer and switched to a whole foods, organic Weston Price type diet with massive improvements in my general health. my menstrual cycles ran like clockwork and menopause, when it came, was a complete non-event with no uncomfortable symptoms whatsoever.
today i am a very fit young looking 70 year old with a backyard of home grown vegetables and a freezer full of regeneratively raised meat. i have a strong as an ox 75 year old boyfriend who scampers up his 40 ft ladder to repair our historic metal roof.
i'm very particular about where our food comes from (farmers i know) and i prefer to cook it at home myself. Bill Gates would say that my prohibition of all processed packaged chemical synthetic GMO, etc foods is in itself a kind of eating disorder but he has a gut and boobs and i don't (well, i have breasts but hey, i am a woman).
we choose to spend our food dollars at the farmer's market and keep it all out of Cargill/Monsanto's pockets.
likewise i go only to alternative doctors who don't take insurance; i'm a medicare bargain. i have a personal gym on the 3rd fl and i'm up there everyday lifting weights and riding an HIIT bike. we have a far infared sauna for detoxing.
i was lucky. my friend's sister died in a Karen Carpenter like manner from her eating disorder. another friend's teeth were all rotted out from chronic bulimia. i didn't have teachers or internet support groups egging me on to lose even more weight. no one suggested the amputation of body parts as a way to trick the scale.
i didn't live in a time when a person could actually make a living posting tik tok videos of their derangement or when the culture celebrated these terrible problems as "body positivity." i think i dodged a bullet. i was left alone to outgrow an insecure phase and blossom into a strong accomplished woman
Once upon a time, the traveling carnival was where freaks were showcased. Now, they are massively promoted and lauded and followed on social media, in blue state streets, in schools all across the land, in most entertainment, and government and yes, even churches. We have advanced beyond Clown World. Humans now live in Nightmare World. Ugly. Sickening. Repulsive. Frightening. Dangerous.
Although the trans problem is a rapidly growing abuse being perpetrated on young people, I don't think you needed to go that far. An equally apt comparison is the 'fat is beautiful' movement. Obesity is destroying many more lives than either trans or anorexia and is driving all of the major causes of hospitalization, death and healthcare costs other than cancer. To paraphrase Stalin: Anorexia/bulimia is tragic, mutilation of children to satisfy the virtue signaling of adults is even more tragic, millions of people killing themselves with their forks has become just another statistic. And another marketing opportunity.
i had a massively obese "friend" in NYC who was the personal assistant to a famous comedienne. she had bariatric surgery and later gave him the same surgery as a gift. he lost a lot of weight and ended up with all that loose skin that mostly could have been avoided had he lost the weight through intermittent fasting. he lived on crystal light and those canned tuna lunch packs, as per his idiot doctor's recommendation. horrible!
he has since gained back every ounce and then some, filled out all his loose skin and now has a stomach wall so thin that he is predisposed to a life threatening rupture.
and yet, this guy openly posted on facebook, wishing that all the unvaccinated would hurry up and die already so that the world could be populated with just the "smart" compliant people. he also advocated for charging the unvaccinated more for their healthcare or even denying them healthcare entirely (like jimmy kimmel) because they'd obviously get so sick from covid that they would swamp the healthcare system.
i am willing to bet that in my entire life thus far, i have relied on the medical system far less than he has and racked up less charges. i should get credits for all the routine mammograms and colonoscopies i didn't get that my insurance would have paid for, all the flu shots i didn't take that would have been covered, all the yearly physicals i didn't schedule, choosing instead to see doctors who don't take insurance and paying them directly out of pocket. finally i'm owed a refund for the entire covid debacle- i didn't collect a penny of the inflated unemployment handouts and didn't take a single one of the "free" covid shots for which i paid dearly with the loss of my job of 40 years. as a forced medicare patient, i go out of my way not to burden the taxpayers of which i am one.
Well stated. The other side to this issue is that catering to mental illness will have a price to pay in human carnage and misery. The lies being sold to many afflicted with gender dysmorphia that they will be made 'whole' if only they mutilate themselves is the cruelty of false hope.
https://open.substack.com/pub/arthurincali/p/this-doesnt-have-a-happy-ending-for?r=1a1alz&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
indeed. when you encourage or reward bad behavior, you get increased bad behavior. who wants to be "ordinary" when you can just dye your hair green, get some hideous tattoos, pierce a few body parts and call yourself a "they?"
that way you can insist that the entirety of the english language and the age old rules of grammar bend to your will. that's power!
Please learn grammar before making comments like this. Please. I'm begging. Did you pass GCSE English?
feel free to use your school marm's red pen to circle whatever "mistakes" you feel i've made.
"They" has existed as a singular pronoun since the 14th century. The "age old rules" are using it to describe a person who's gender you can't pin down as male or female. But if you're uneducated, who cares what's actually true! Just claim whatever fits your narrative! That's power! Seriously though, take like 10 seconds to Google something before you post about it online. Educate yourself, it's embarrassing.
i'm very educated honey. yes, "they" is commonly used in the singular when you don't know the gender. obviously i was talking about mentally disturbed people or just people seeking attention without actually doing anything worthy of attention by disfiguring their singular body and declaring themselves non-binary which is not a real thing but just the mark of immaturity.
you can refrain from further commenting. people who have no real arguments rely on insults. i've read your other comments and i won't play your game.
I was talking about the part of your comment which talks about grammar, which you seem to have forgotten about? Just explain to me what you meant when you referred to the "entirety of the english language and the age old rules of grammar". Secondly, it wasn't my intention to insult you, so I apologise if my comment at all offended you, I just genuinely felt a little embarrassed for you reading your comment. Also, did you just try to win an argument by.. asking me not to reply?? I've never seen that before.
Good thoughts. The parallels between the online anorexia community and the trans community, as well as the social contagion aspect from both (I believe that was a bigger issue with anorexia in the 90s) draws additional parallels.
Anorexia got somewhat more recognition upon the death of Karen Carpenter of The Carpenters fame in 1983. Much of what we know about eating disorders came from subsequent research.
This is a joke. I say this with every ounce of sincerity: did you think for more than a minute before writing this? I have suffered with anorexia for around 6 years and also believed I was trans for 4 years of my life, so probably have a little more authority on this subject, despite your strange (dare I say fetishy) rant about about how many women you've met that may possibly be anorexic.
I spent 4 years of my life living as a male would. I was known by a different name and changed my appearance completely to live as a boy. I now understand that I was wrong and I am a female, but I am so glad I did. Those years were some of the happiest of my life and I'm so glad I was given the opportunity to explore who I was. It gave me the chance to experiment and discover myself. I wholeheartedly believe that if I had been forced to continue as a girl and not allowed the freedom to express myself in that way, I would still to this day believe I am a man deep down, and feel trapped that I'm not able to be who I am. I know that hiding the feeling of being trans and forced to keep dysphoria to yourself is an unimaginably difficult and depressing situation. One that I'm sure if I had been forced to live in, I would have spiralled into a dark place and possibly taken my own life.
My anorexia was a completely different situation. Being trans made me happy. Being anorexic made me depressed. Anorexia is a dark place. Freedom of expression is not. It was (and is) a battle to recover from anorexia. It is something you will be trapped in for a long time and fight to escape for the rest of your life. That's not the same as saying "actually I'm not trans" and being able to still live happily, appreciating the years I spent being who I believed I was at the time.
Trans people on the Internet are a non-issue and you're wasting your time whining about them. Maybe get a hobby instead, it's a much more positive way to spend your time!