Body image and women's oppression

"What if she doesn't worry about her body and eats enough for all the growing she has to do? She might rip her stockings and slam dance on a forged ID to the Pogues, and walk home barefoot, holding her shoes, alone at dawn; she might baby-sit in a battered-women's shelter one night a month ... or fall in love with her best friend and do something about it, or lose herself for hours gazing into …

…guise of "health" to legitimise and entrench the centuries-old commodification of women under capitalism. Aside from the profits generated by this con, the beauty myth has the added advantage for the powerful in this sexist society of keeping women focused on the extra bit of flab on their thighs and the wrinkles on their face rather than realising that a society that makes women feel bad about such meaningless things has to be changed fundamentally.