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dieting = connecting?
Sep. 13th, 2007 02:07 pmThis piece on Shapely Prose about some dude who honestly believes diet talk can forge peace in the Middle East is fascinating. The feminist implications! The propaganda! Just, wow. Seriously.
A guy visits Weight Watchers and recognizes the way dieting connects women, that the groups automatically create social networks among otherwise different people. Where he goes wrong is in thinking that dieters likely have the political clout to bring about world peace by connecting with their enemies. Because dedicated dieters? Are totally absorbed in dieting. And dieting in groups is a "womanish" sort of activity, so I suspect dieters are assumed to not have that much political power to begin with - if a group of Israeli and Palestinian Weight Watchers folk started proselytising about how the other people really aren't that different, I imagine they would not be taken seriously.
There is a serious side to this, which is that I think it's true - people do connect over dieting. If you work in an office where women are present, you likely know this; it's a more intimate connection than what happens between two random dog lovers, for instance. It is extremely common for women to network around their diets, so much so that you can feel shut out if you're in a small office and you don't diet.
A guy visits Weight Watchers and recognizes the way dieting connects women, that the groups automatically create social networks among otherwise different people. Where he goes wrong is in thinking that dieters likely have the political clout to bring about world peace by connecting with their enemies. Because dedicated dieters? Are totally absorbed in dieting. And dieting in groups is a "womanish" sort of activity, so I suspect dieters are assumed to not have that much political power to begin with - if a group of Israeli and Palestinian Weight Watchers folk started proselytising about how the other people really aren't that different, I imagine they would not be taken seriously.
There is a serious side to this, which is that I think it's true - people do connect over dieting. If you work in an office where women are present, you likely know this; it's a more intimate connection than what happens between two random dog lovers, for instance. It is extremely common for women to network around their diets, so much so that you can feel shut out if you're in a small office and you don't diet.