The Beauty Myth; Naomi Wolf
As an adolescent, she realises with mounting horror that they were not kidding: for her to walk alone will be a fraught activity forever. Anorexia, bulimia & exercise fixations work off & numb the frustration of the claustrophobia that accompanies the girl's grieving realisation that the wide world she had imagined, & just inherited, is shut down to her by the threat of sexual violence.
If she were to eat, she would have energy; but adolescence is arranged for the safe venting of masculine steam. From athletic events to sexual conquests to a moody walk in the woods, boys have outlets for that agitation of waiting to fly. But if a girl has her full measure of wanderlust, libido & curiosity, she is in a bad way. With ample stores of sugar to set off the buzz for intellectual exploration, starch to convert into restlessness in her elongating legs, fat to fuel her sexual curiosity, & the fearlessness born from a lack of concern over where her next meal will come from - she will get into trouble.
What if she doesn't worry about her body & eats enough for all the growing she has to do? She might rip her stockings & slam-dance on a forged ID to the Pogues, & walk home barefoot, holding her shoes, alone at dawn; she might baby-sit in a battered-woman's shelter one night a month; she might skateboard down Lombard Street with its seven hair-pin turns, or fall in love with her best friend & do something about it, or lose herself for hours gazing into test tubes with her hair a mess, or climb a promontory with the girls & get drunk at the top, or sit down when the Pledge of Allegiance says stand, or hop a freight train, or take lovers without telling her last name, or run away to sea. She might revel in all the freedoms that seem so trivial to those who could take them for granted; she might dream seriously the dreams that seem so obvious to those who grew up with them readily available. Who knows what she would do? Who knows what it would feel like?
But if she is not careful she will end up: raped, pregnant, impossible to control, or merely what is now called fat. The teenage girl knows this. Everyone is telling her to be careful. She learns that making her body into her landscape to tame is preferable to any kind of wildness.
Dieting is being careful, & checking into a hunger camp offers the ultimate in care.