Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body
Courtney E. Martin (2007)
In decades past, chauvinist traditions suppressed the
advancement of young women. In the 1980s, conservative, mostly older women
helped defeat the Equal Rights Amendment. None of these barriers prevented
Suddenly in the 2000s, as young women are pushing into unheard-of education, economic and political territories, several feminists have joined conservatives and mainstream commentators in creating fear of young women. A troubling example is Huffington Post and Alternet journalist Courtney Martin, who relentlessly magnifies her own and her acquaintances’ middle-class anxieties to fabricate an unprecedented generation-wide pathology she links to their very success.
“Don't get me wrong,” Martin writes, “there is a whole nation of young women doing incredible work:”
We outnumber men on college
campuses by two million and rising every year. We hold more offices in
student government and are more likely to have taken AP biology and
chemistry than our male peers. I recently interviewed over 100 women between
the ages of 9 and 30, for my book Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters, and was
consistently amazed at the work ethic and good works of the women I spoke
with.
But underneath the
Pollyanna story of our high achievement is an ugly underbelly. We are more
diseased and more addicted than any generation of young women that has come
before. Perhaps in the face of all of this pressure and perfectionism, we
are succumbing to dangerous emotional numbs—eating disorders, binge
drinking, and even harder drugs (Huffington
Post,
June 7, 2007).
Martin depicts girls’ lives as a joyless hell of perpetual misery, self-loathing, danger, and self-destruction—“a bubbling, acid pit of guilt and shame and jealousy and restlessness and anxiety,” as she puts it (Perfect Girls, page 4).
Whose horrible lives is she talking about? “My friends and my friends’ friends, and sometimes even my friends’ friends’ friends” (page 10). Martin, like other youthphobes, appropriate the voices of all girls and young women (based in her case on interviews with “100 women between the ages of 9 and 30” she selected out of a young female generation of 30 million) to their own particular agenda. What are her interviewees like? “At the age of twenty-five, I can honestly say that the majority of the young women I know have either full-blown eating disorders or screwed-up attitudes toward food and fitness,” she declares. “… My generation is expending its energy on the wrong things” (page 2).
Martin morphs “my friends” etc. into “my generation” and normal angst into mass trauma. In an era in which feminists should be celebrating the strengths of young women, Martin’s image of them resembles that of 19th century anti-suffrage preachers who warned that women’s fragile psyches would collapse if exposed to the pressures of men’s cruel, crude outside world.
Martin’s negative stereotype (shared by culture-war conservatives such as the Manhattan Institute’s Kay Hymowitz and backwards-thinking traditionalists) is that today’s girls and young women are uniquely weak, masochistic, and shallow. In her depiction, young females perversely seek the most damaging aspects of popular culture to facilitate their self-destructive obsessions. Martin and others ignore the rich diversity of popular culture and girls’ affirmative expressions through online forums, zines, and similar new media. Instead, these commentators typify the most offensive popular culture messages they can find and declare, in Puritan tones, that girls will be drawn to them by some kind of self-destructive imperative.
Having ferreted out the worst of cultural imagery, Martin and similar girl-fearing commentators then proceed to ferret out the worst young-female expressions they can find, supplemented by the worst media stories, advocacy groups’ claims, and anecdotes; that is, the usual materials for books about youth. Youthphobe commentators’ search for 12-year-olds wearing “slut” t-shirts to misportray as The Everygirl is poisonous. They ignore—in fact, seem to resent—the vast array of more solid measures that show girls today are happier, healthier, and safer than those of the past, a time today’s commentators bizarrely nostalgize as one of tranquil, girl-affirming community.
In Martin’s unhappy world, crushing anxiety about body image is what the large majority of girls and young women “wake up in the morning to… walk around all day resisting… go to bed sad and hopeless about” (page 3, emphasis hers). If Martin and interviewees really spend the whole day miserable that they can’t all be buxom gamines, that is shallow. How is self-hatred, fixation on celebrities, and endless negativism about young women feminist? Writes Martin:
The sheer volume of celebrity illegality, and the specifically female faces behind the mug shots, is indicative of the new normalcy of addiction for young women--of all classes, cultures, and locales--in this country. It is time that the dwindling state of young women's mental health stop being treated as outrageous titillation, and start being seen as grounds for serious outrage (column, June 7, 2007).
This, simply, is idiocy. That a tiny minority of female celebrities get in the news for drinking or drugs proves all young women everywhere are addicts? What “dwindling state of young women’s mental health”? By what right does Martin use the term ‘we” to appropriate her own troubles to 30 million young women?
This isn’t to say that Martin is wrong that body image, eating, pill popping, and related anxieties are a “social problem” for some girls and women—around 10% to 15% seem seriously affected, which merits attention. But why does Martin insist on conscripting an entire generation into her walking wounded regiment while refusing to acknowledge the obvious: that for the large majority of girls and young women, negative issues are managed along with life’s other difficulties?
Fortunately, it’s clear that the vast majority of girls today do not succumb to Martin’s style of misery and do not appear to require sequestering from harsh realities. They do not obliterate themselves with pills, booze, hopeless sex, and suicidal depression to cope with the inevitable discovery of personal imperfections. True, the vast majority of females can never achieve the anorectic glamour certain fashion models display or the troubled celebrity of a few divas. But realizing you can’t be the best at everything is part of handling growing up and everyday life.
What, then. constitutes an authentic voice of girls? Certainly not authors, psychologists, interest groups, and pundits whose narrow agendas impel them to cruelly misrepresent girls. Nor would writers like me, who would write sunny (and low-selling) books by generalizing from the girls and young women I’ve encountered as students, coworkers, and in programs, ones who overwhelmingly appeared happy, optimistic, and handling their lives well. But whether grim or optimistic in their personal outlooks, authors who select girls to interview, media stories to quote, and rare anecdotes to illustrate their points wind up suppressing the genuine voices of the young female generation they claim to represent.
None of us can know what millions of girls really think, but we can look at measures designed to probe representative samples. There are two places we can turn to find the girl generation’s voice: long term, non-ideological surveys, and public health, crime, and other referential statistics against which to check girls’ self reports.
I’m no fan of surveys, but Monitoring the Future’s annual surveys of thousands of teenage girls at least objectively queried a larger, representative population—not the girls Martin and others select. Monitoring the Future found that girls, allowed to respond anonymously to questions themselves rather than having misery-projecting adults appropriate their voices, presented a much happier image.
For example, we would never expect from Martin’s “acid pit of guilt and shame and jealousy and restlessness and anxiety” that 70% of high school senior girls today report being happy with themselves, 86% are happy with their friends, 66% are having fun, and 77% are happy with their lives (Table 1).
|
Table 1. But don’t girls admit
they’re more depressed, scared, peer-tortured, alienated,
and selfish today? NO! |
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|
Percentages of high school senior females telling Monitoring the
Future: |
||||||
|
Question: |
1975/76 |
1980 |
1990 |
2000 |
2005 |
|
|
Happiness |
||||||
|
I’m “very
happy” |
21% |
18% |
18% |
23% |
23% |
|
|
Satisfied
with life as a whole |
63% |
66% |
65% |
64% |
66% |
|
|
Having fun |
64% |
67% |
68% |
65% |
66% |
|
|
Enjoys fast
pace and changes of today’s world |
45% |
42% |
58% |
56% |
50% |
|
|
Daily
participation in active sports/exercising |
36% |
38% |
34% |
35% |
36% |
|
|
Are you satisfied with (percent agreeing)… |
||||||
|
Yourself? |
66% |
71% |
69% |
71% |
70% |
|
|
Your
friends? |
85% |
85% |
87% |
83% |
86% |
|
|
Your
parents? |
65% |
69% |
65% |
68% |
67% |
|
|
Your
material possessions? |
75% |
75% |
71% |
73% |
75% |
|
|
Your
personal safety? |
68% |
67% |
66% |
69% |
71% |
|
|
Your
education? |
56% |
64% |
64% |
64% |
70% |
|
|
Your job? |
56% |
54% |
60% |
56% |
60% |
|
|
Values (percent agreeing) |
||||||
|
Important
to be a leader in my community |
19% |
20% |
33% |
40% |
46% |
|
|
Important
to make a contribution to society |
55% |
52% |
62% |
65% |
70% |
|
|
Important
to have latest music, etc. fashions |
77% |
78% |
70% |
59% |
51% |
|
|
Important
to have latest-style clothes |
42% |
47% |
57% |
42% |
39% |
|
|
Wants to
have lots of money |
35% |
41% |
63% |
57% |
59% |
|
|
Wants job
with status and prestige |
52% |
60% |
69% |
65% |
67% |
|
|
Wants job
that provides lots of money |
84% |
89% |
86% |
86% |
86% |
|
|
Wants job
with opportunity to help others |
92% |
91% |
92% |
88% |
90% |
|
|
Women
should have equal job opportunity |
82% |
88% |
96% |
97% |
95% |
|
|
Wants to
correct social/economic inequality |
37% |
35% |
44% |
39% |
39% |
|
|
Happier to
accept things than create change |
37% |
39% |
36% |
39% |
35% |
|
|
Depression/pessimism |
||||||
|
Dissatisfied with self |
12% |
10% |
13% |
10% |
12% |
|
|
Sometimes
thinks “I am no good at all” |
28% |
27% |
28% |
25% |
24% |
|
|
I’m “not
too happy” |
13% |
17% |
12% |
14% |
13% |
|
|
Feels I am
“not a person of worth” |
5% |
5% |
6% |
7% |
8% |
|
|
Often feels
“left out of things” |
33% |
34% |
36% |
34% |
29% |
|
|
Feels
there’s usually no one I can talk to |
6% |
5% |
6% |
6% |
5% |
|
|
Feels “I can’t
do anything right” |
10% |
11% |
12% |
14% |
14% |
|
|
Wishes “I
had more good friends” |
50% |
46% |
50% |
52% |
44% |
|
|
Not having
fun |
19% |
13% |
16% |
20% |
17% |
|
|
Can’t get
ahead because others stop me |
22% |
21% |
26% |
26% |
20% |
|
|
Thinks
“things change too quickly” today |
54% |
56% |
44% |
44% |
46% |
|
|
Thinks
“times ahead of me will be tougher” |
47% |
54% |
45% |
42% |
41% |
|
|
Don’t
participate in sports/exercise (<1/month) |
22% |
20% |
25% |
22% |
22% |
|
|
Feels
“people like me don’t have a chance” |
6% |
5% |
5% |
5% |
5% |
|
|
*Source:
Monitoring the Future, 1975-2005. |
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|
Table 2. But aren’t
today’s girls smoking, drinking, and using dangerous
drugs at younger ages? NO! |
|||||
|
Percentages of high
school senior females telling Monitoring the Future: |
|||||
|
Drug use (began
with 1977 survey) |
1977 |
1980 |
1990 |
2000 |
2005 |
|
Smoked
cigarettes daily |
45% |
41% |
30% |
32% |
20% |
|
Smoked daily before 9th grade |
12% |
17% |
10% |
13% |
4% |
|
Drank
alcohol (more than a few sips) |
91% |
92% |
89% |
78% |
74% |
|
Drank alcohol before 9th grade |
21% |
24% |
32% |
28% |
19% |
|
Used
amphetamines |
16% |
17% |
9% |
8% |
5% |
|
By physician’s prescription |
15% |
11% |
5% |
6% |
5% |
|
Without a prescription |
22% |
25% |
13% |
11% |
9% |
|
Used amphetamines before 9th grade |
1.0% |
1.0% |
2.6% |
1.2% |
0.6% |
|
Used
marijuana/LSD/other psychedelics* |
60% |
64% |
44% |
58% |
45% |
|
Used
sedatives/barbiturates/tranquilizers* |
26% |
19% |
8% |
10% |
10% |
|
Used
heroin/other narcotics/cocaine* |
11% |
14% |
8% |
13% |
11% |
|
*Treats those who used more than one drug as a single user of each
drug. Source:
Monitoring the Future, 1975-2005. |
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|
Table 3. Percent of
first-year college women saying they feel: |
||
|
Years |
Frequently
depressed |
Overwhelmed by all
I have to do |
|
1985-89 |
11.4% |
25.8% |
|
1990-94 |
11.0% |
30.9% |
|
1995-99 |
10.4% |
37.7% |
|
2000-04 |
9.3% |
35.9% |
|
2005-06 |
8.7% |
36.8% |
|
Change |
-24% |
+43% |
|
Source:
The American Freshman, annual survey, 1985-2006. UCLA: Higher
Education Research Institute. |
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|
Table 4.
Percentages of college first-years students who say they… |
|||
|
|
1970 |
1990 |
2006 |
|
Drank beer in the
last year |
56% |
57% |
42% |
|
Female |
43% |
51% |
37% |
|
Male |
67% |
63% |
49% |
|
Smoked cigarettes
in the last year |
12% |
8% |
5% |
|
Female |
11% |
8% |
5% |
|
Male |
14% |
7% |
6% |
|
Table 5. Young
women getting safer, middle-aged women now most at risk |
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|
Female violent
deaths/100,000 population |
||||
|
Age group |
1980 |
2004 |
|
Change, 2004 vs.
1980 |
|
10-14 |
10.9 |
7.2 |
|
- 34% |
|
15-19 |
36.4 |
27.5 |
|
- 25% |
|
20-24 |
39.3 |
27.5 |
|
- 30% |
|
25-29 |
34.2 |
25.3 |
|
- 26% |
|
30-39 |
30.8 |
28.7 |
|
-
7% |
|
40-49 |
33.5 |
38.7 |
|
+16% |
|
50-59 |
34.9 |
31.5 |
|
- 10% |
|
60-69 |
39.8 |
30.6 |
|
- 23% |
|
Sources:
WISQARS,
|
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