One of the more infuriating elements of modern body culture: Women writing pieces about how wrong it is to critique women’s bodies (and how women’s bodies are critiqued no matter what they do) while also writing in these same pieces how “fragile; frail; breakable” and “unwell” they look. I cannot understand how people do not see this for the cruelty it is.

We would not make a point to call out how weak and sick someone looks if we know they had cancer or some other disease. But if people assume these women are “unwell” with eating disorders, presumably, why is it acceptable in that instance to insult their appearance? It’s almost as if people think of eating disorders — potentially deadly mental illnesses — as something women “bring upon themselves” or that are solely about vanity and beauty standards, and so don’t deserve the same grace.

I’ll keep saying it: Publicly criticizing thin bodies under the guise of “concern” is not the anti-diet culture activism you think it is. It’s just misogyny and projection.