Dear Diet Culture Letter: Diet Culture's Connection to the Beauty Industry

Dear Diet Culture,

It’s me, Sunday.

The more that I understand all the things that you are made of, the more I am both simultaneously horrified and also shaking my head thinking, “this makes SO much sense!” And one of those things that leaves me feeling this way is your connection to the beauty industry. Y’all are like two peas in a pod! In fact, I think you must be cousins or relatives because there is just so much that you have in common and seem to do together!

You both love to hate bodies and promote unrealistic, racist beauty standards as a way to gain profit and power. You both love to invest millions of dollars convincing people that their bodies are wrong and that somehow being human means that you need to be constantly working to shrink it, fix it, change it, mold it, or shape it.

You both enjoy propping up thin bodies as the “ideal” despite a VERY small percentage of the population naturally having a body like the one that you say we all “should” have. You both love to profit off of the insecurities that you design and create yourself, and then pretend like you are just trying to “help people.” You are both SO expensive and have people spend many thousands of dollars throughout their lifetime on you.

So while I support people, especially women and femmes, in having body autonomy and taking back the power that was stolen from them, I also want them to know just how insidious you both are. The beauty industry, like you, is manipulative, exploitative and works hard to get people to believe that their body, skin and hair is wrong and that the only way that they can gain love, affection, power, connection and confidence is buy spending lots of money and time.

Simply put, I cannot talk about body image or how someone is in relationship with their body without also talking about the harmful impacts of the beauty industry and how you, Diet Culture, are in cahoots with it. You adhere to the same arbitrary rules (that are made up btw) to govern massive amounts of people into thinking that who they are and what they look like is wrong. And you both do it SO well that you make people think that it’s their own internal voice telling them that they are not pretty enough, thin enough, wrinkle-free enough, etc.

The messaging and indoctrination from both you and the beauty industry impact people’s levels of self-confidence, ability to concentrate, learn, grown, perform athletically, and so much more, not to mention it contributes to them not wanting to pursue things in life that they desire.

You stop people from taking up space and from stepping into their truth which is this:

They are not an ornament or a doll to be admired. They owe no one “pretty,” “strong,” “beautiful,” or “thin.”

Sincerely,

Sunday, aka your most passionate anti-diet Dietitian Katherine who wants you to know that diet culture is inseparable from the oppressive standards of the beauty industry and that body image healing work includes understanding how the beauty industry has harmed you and your body.