Thursday, September 4, 2008
I was pushing my way through Aristotle’s Politics and waiting for Western Civ class to begin one morning when a girl blew into the classroom and sat down two rows ahead of me, a bundle of messy hair and big, clacky jewelry.
She began babbling to a rather bored-looking male friend about a phone conversation she’d had, who she’d seen at the Underground that morning, her big Thursday night plans. Then, nonchalantly, as if asking the time, she inquired, “So, did you see Skeletor on campus yesterday?”
At first I wondered how she could have possibly expected that this guy would have seen the exact person she was referring to out of the thousands of people swarming campus. But, as I listened, I realized she was ridiculing an extremely thin girl she’d seen the day before. With loud gestures and an even louder voice, she described just what the girl looked like—her sunken eyes and the sharp tips of her shoulder bones—and how absolutely grossed out she was by her.
Then, as if on cue, an overweight girl came into the classroom and took the seat right in front of the jabbering girl, who then stopped jabbering about the thin girl, gawked at the overweight girl, and turned to her friend and made a face of disgust and contempt.
And I just sat back in awe, amazed that this obnoxious, oblivious girl had just illustrated the cultural cacophony of body expectations that has always baffled me.
Talk of weight, bodies and diet is a constant presence in our lives. It hangs in the air, at the back of our conversations, ready to serve as a point of connection, even with people we barely know.
As I sit on campus writing this, I overhear girls yammering about how much they hate their bodies as they wait for class to begin. I see a guy wearing a Hawk Football shirt that boasts “Our Coach Beat Anorexia” on the back.
Navigating such confusion is difficult for anyone, but as college students, we face increased pressure regarding our appearance and feel perhaps a greater need to impress those around us.
Read Asher’s story on page 9 about the challenges of staying healthy in college and the services the University has in place to help you out.
Striking a balance is easier said than done, but many wise philosophers have hailed moderation as the key to true contentment.
That’s the other thing I’ll always remember from Western Civ: Aristotle’s credence that virtue lies between the extremes of excess and deficiency.
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