Join the weighty conversation over at Crisis Magazine following my interview with Zoe Romanowsky. (Just don’t mind the embarrassingly large photo of me.)
An excerpt:
“I truly believe that women, in particular, suffer from poor body image as a result of a spiritual attack. It all started in the Garden of Eden, when Satan tempted Eve with the apple. The Evil One knew whom to tempt — the one who had great power to transform the world with her beauty and love. Every day, women are still being handed apples: Wear this revealing clothing if you want to get noticed. Become more like a man if you want to be powerful and successful. Get thinner if you want to have a better life.
Women are meant to portray God’s design for beauty. We are created to attract others — not just men, but society as a whole, with our nurturing, empathy, and our beauty. Yet society has perverted the way we define beauty and what it means to be a woman. Some of us feel like we have nothing to offer the world; we tell ourselves we’ll never be what society defines as beautiful, so we stop trying — we might wear unflattering clothing, overeat, stop exercising, or even masculinize ourselves, thinking this will make us stronger and more powerful (while ignoring our innate feminine strength).
Then there’s the other extreme: Women who relentlessly pursue thinness or physical beauty and make their appearance the cornerstone of their identity. Both women are at war with their true selves.
When I was in the throes of my eating disorder, I was mired in self-hate and spending way too much time looking inward rather than outward. We have to consider that another reason we’re at war with our bodies is because we’ve forgotten a fundamental truth of our Christian faith: That our bodies are gifts from God, and that we’re made in His image.”
In attempting to understand my own struggle, and women’s seemingly eternal struggle with body image, a thought came to me…could this distortion of the true purpose of a women’s body (as you describe so beautifully) be the companion-sin to the man’s struggle with the desires to use women for his own pleasure. It seems that women’s struggle with body image permeates society just as much as a man’s struggle with lust. I would agree that a woman’s poor body image, just as much as a man’s temptation to use women’s bodies, is likely a result of a spiritual attack beginning in the Garden of Eden.