Slave to skinny

The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 was put in place by parliament to abolish slavery throughout the british empire. I don't know much about slavery in this way, but I know that slavery itself still exists.

slave

sleɪv/

noun

1. 1.

   (especially in the past) a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them.

   "he killed the natives or turned them into slaves"

   
   

verb

1. 1.

   work excessively hard.

   "after slaving away for fourteen years all he gets is two thousand"

I was a slave to anorexia. You could argue that doesn't count because Anorexia is not a person and I was not forced to obey it, you could argue that you don't have to work excessively hard to be anorexic, all you do is not eat.. right?

Yes, anorexia isnt a person but it's a voice. At least for me it was, it was like a voice that wasn't my own. It controlled my every move my every thought I had no choice but to obey it or it would make things worse. It would force me to stand up while watching tv because it burns more calories than sitting. It would force me to open my windows on cold winter nights because 'being cold burns calories'. It wouldn't let me have friends "They'll make you eat, they want you to get fat to make them look skinnier" it would whisper.

And as for not having to work hard... I'd spend hours a day thinking about food and would have to spend hours distracting myself, putting myself off. I'd work hard at pretending i'm okay, hiding the weightloss, making it look like I ate. Hiding food was a challenge and I'd work hard at making sure that I wasn't going to pass out despite not having eaten for days. It was physically and mentally draining. It wasn't a case of just not eating.

I was a Slave. I am a slave. We are a slave to society. A slave to skinny. A slave to the scales.

We want to be skinny because it's more socially acceptable than being 'Fat'. We want to be skinny because we're told 'nothing tastes as good as skinny feels' we want to be skinny because it's portrayed to be the best thing we can be and fat is the worst.

In an american survey 80% of ten year olds had been on a diet. (10. Year. Olds. Think about a ten year old you know, if you knew they were dieting you'd be shocked they are just children!). And the most wished for thing among 11-17 year olds was to be thinner. 53% of 13 year olds are unhappy with their body. Only 22% of 17 year olds are happy with theirs. There is over 1.2million members at slimming world and 1 million at weight watchers.  Those 2.2million people step on and off a scale every single week and are either happy because the scale show's a smaller number than last week or disappointed because it's bigger, they are slaves to the scale.

While I was in Africa my access to a scale was limited. I was so much happier not having to worry about what the number would show. I didn't care. Yes I gained weight, yes some of my clothes didn't fit but it didn't matter. It shouldn't matter now either. It shouldn't matter to you. Your worth is not determined by the number on the scale or the size of your jeans.