Please Bring a Photo of Your Inner Beauty for the Shadchan.
In 1996, Sacker studied ultra-Orthodox and Syrian Jewish communities in Brooklyn and found that 1 out of 19 girls was diagnosed with an eating disorder - a rate about 50 percent higher than the general U.S. population.
From here.
That whole article is so incredibly ironic in light of the kiruv machine's continuous insistence that following the laws ( Read more... )
Orthodoxy certainly prescribes fixed roles for women. Is it unreasonable to think, then, that women will, perhaps in pathological ways, seek to optimize performance of those roles at the expense of facilities that are considered less important?
Ironically, I tend to think (I've lived on both sides so I can be pretty fair here) that tznius rules do the exact opposite of emphasizing inner beauty. Inner beauty is not what is being kept away from men all our lives, hence is not what we become obsessed with. Outer beauty is.
As far as the outside world peeking in, I think this has an effect mostly through men. Men can go out and OTD, and women need to worry about attractiveness more as a result. Also, even without going OTD, men internalize secular views that call for being happy, and might leave their wives (or refuse to marry due to looks), behavior that didn't happen in the shtetl.
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Frum men my own age are rarely willing to date me seriously(I'm in my mid thirties), non frum and non jewish men are much more likely.
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