Stardate 20010722.1143 (On Screen): This story bemoans the fact that more girls seem to be worried about their weight, with the suggestion that this is some sort of cultural ill. It's not obvious that there is a rigorous definition of "body image obsession" which would permit a reasonable quantitive evaluation of whether there's more of it than ten or twenty years ago, and indeed the article doesn't try. Rather, it relies on the always unreliable anecdotal evidence. (There has been a gradual quantitative rise in diagnoses of eating disorders, but that's not what this article is about.)
It ends with the interesting statistic that kids now really are more overweight than in recent years, something which really can be quantitatively determined. So we have kids who really are overweight and who are worried about the fact of being overweight. Sounds like realism to me.
What's really going on here is that the kids are revolting against their parent's cultures. The article itself comes right out and says it: "It's not really what you're wearing or what you look like," Danielle says when asked how she chooses her own friends. "It's the person - it's what's inside." The quoted Danielle is a girl but it's her mother speaking through her mouth, and what's going on here is the revolt against the "everyone should be who they are" touchy-feelie concept. There's actually a lot of validity in that, but like anything else if it's taken to an extreme it's harmful. Personal change can only happen if you're dissatisified with what you are now. Being completely comfortable with yourself leads to complacence and stagnation. Anyway, the real trend here is that one way or another, the kids aren't buying it. (discuss)
