To satiate the demands of the thin ideal, many find themselves desperate in search of anything to relieve these pressures. Unfortunately, the medical industry is a significant contributor to this issue. With the promotion of pharmaceuticals and weight loss surgeries, it is an active endorser of conformity to society’s ill-informed standards.  Recently, the world has witnessed an increasing attraction toward semaglutide. Semaglutide, commercially known as Ozempic, was approved as a treatment for diabetes in 2017 and causes weight loss. The drug works by mimicking the action of a naturally ..read more

My Chinese culture shapes me in many ways, even though I’ve grown up in the U.S. Growing up in a Chinese family, many beauty standards are implicitly expected of me. My culture deems slender figures as worthy of praise, while larger bodies symbolize shame, laziness, and a lack of self-care. Thinness receives compliments and greater respect, and such beauty is portrayed as effortless and the norm. Ever since I was a toddler, I was naturally thin and received bodily praise from parents of close friends that are also Asian. Their comments on how I was naturally born ingrained an expectation and p ..read more

The pharmaceutical industry is largely unregulated, allowing for a dangerous and uncontrolled market. In 1944, former Utah senator Orin Hatch established legislation excluding dietary supplements from Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversight. Instead, consumers must rely on the claims of companies about the safety and efficacy of their products.   The lack of regulation is detrimental. Researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the FDA recorded 23,000 emergency room visits due to supplement use, and over half were due to supplements involving f ..read more

Content warning: This blog contains language that pertains to eating disorders. I always needed to be in control. At 14 years old, I intensely desired both academic and personal perfection. I laid out meticulous schedules, to-do lists, and obsessed over perfecting school work. The COVID-19 pandemic magnified my desire for control amidst an ever-changing world. I aspired to become a “better” version of myself, and this time at home was the perfect opportunity for me to achieve this goal. Quarantine trapped me with thoughts of the desire to transform myself physically. It started with a “healthi ..read more

As a senior in the APEX Capstone Project at Walter Johnson High School, I was prompted to create a product on anything I was passionate about with an academic stretch. I knew I wanted to work with the brain to challenge beliefs about weight in our society from the start. I bounced from idea to idea, not feeling satisfied with any of them. I quickly realized that there is no quick fix to our implicit biases, and my product had to reflect that. To actively challenge the reader, I decided to use the format of a guide. I learned a lot from this project about the science behind implicit bias and th ..read more

I grew up reading fantastical stories that swept me away to far away places, from post-apocalyptic worlds to medieval kingdoms. Books are commonly used to escape from one’s reality. Readers lose themselves in the pages of a compelling story to explore the human experience in various circumstances. A compelling novel intertwines fiction and reality by alluring its readers with endearing characters.  The characters of a book are symbolically created to be the chess pieces that move the plot forward. Authors tend to reuse the same “stock characters,” or stereotypical figures recurrently used ..read more

Many marginalized individuals, such as those who are fat, disabled, and people of color have fought against society’s exclusive standard of health and physical beauty for centuries. By creating socio-political movements that endorse inclusivity, liberation, and positive self-image, these folks created safe spaces to advocate against their mistreatment. The fight for body justice expanded and diverged into more specific advocacy initiatives over time. Presently, each movement within this realm deconstructs negative self-image and prejudice against bodies that society deems inferior.  Body ..read more

Many clothing stores offer a variety of sizes, typically starting at extra-small and stopping at extra-large. This size range — while somewhat diverse — is not accessible for a large portion of the American population, many of whom fall above those sizes. Clothing is one of the many ways people express themselves and promote self-confidence. This opportunity should not be taken away by a lack of appropriate sizes. Clothing brands that only sell a limited amount of sizes are a problem, and those that sell only one size of clothing are egregious.  Only offering one sized clothing size shoul ..read more

Sources’ names have been changed for anonymity. Since I was a little girl, I have been acutely conscious of how men perceive me. Until recently, I didn’t know where this awareness originated or why I wanted to be noticed. But, as I got older and began to feel attracted to men, I focused on looking desirable to them. I often wondered if I measured up to what they wanted to see.  I now attribute this mindset to the male gaze, a concept introduced in 1975 by Laura Mulvey in an essay titled “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” The male gaze, by definition, is the objectification of women f ..read more

Dress codes are supposed to create a practical learning environment in which students’ primary concern is learning, rather than their physical appearance. By design, however, dress codes reinforce the patriarchy.  Rules that prohibit displaying cleavage, one’s midriff, and shoulders explicitly target women’s bodies. Likewise, regulations that prevent students from dying their hair or wearing gender non-conforming clothing may make it difficult for Queer students to express their identity. Furthermore, restrictions preventing the display of naturally curly hair, braids, head wraps, and hea ..read more