Apparently there’s this show on TV, hosted by Tyra Banks, which celebrates eating disorders in America. I’d love to watch it sometime, but it’s only on during my designated times when I lock myself in the bathroom and make myself puke into the toilet. It’s this after-dinner ritual I have.
The standard criticism of these shows is that they encourage young women to obsess in unhealthy ways about their physical appearance. But I don’t think that”s what happens anymore because most young women—contestants and viewers alike—understand that appearance is infinitely manipulable in a digital world. More than anything, shows like this encourage young women (and men) to become fame whores in a world that’s engineered on a model of Darwinian politics—survival of the whoriest.