"The diet industry is a virus, and viruses are smart. It has survived all these decades by adapting..."

"...but it’s as dangerous as ever. In 2019, dieting presents itself as wellness and clean eating, duping modern feminists to participate under the guise of health.... The wellness industry is the diet industry, and the diet industry is a function of the patriarchal beauty standard under which women either punish themselves to become smaller or are punished for failing to comply, and the stress of this hurts our health too. I am a thin white woman, and the shame and derision I have experienced for failing to be even thinner is nothing compared with what women in less compliant bodies bear. Wellness is a largely white, privileged enterprise catering to largely white, privileged, already thin and able-bodied women, promoting exercise only they have the time to do and Tuscan kale only they have the resources to buy. Finally, wellness also contributes to the insulting cultural subtext that women cannot be trusted to make decisions when it comes to our own bodies, even when it comes to nourishing them. We must adhere to some sort of 'program' or we will go off the rails. We cannot push to eradicate the harassment, abuse and oppression of women while continuing to serve a system that demands we hurt ourselves to be more attractive and less threatening to men."

From "Smash the Wellness Industry/Why are so many smart women falling for its harmful, pseudoscientific claims?" by Jessica Knoll (NYT).

In the part of the column that I didn't quote, Knoll complains about the way the women she knows are always talking about their bodies and their diet. She wishes they'd talk about something else — something (my words) more delicious and nourishing. I don't know why it's the fault of an "industry" or of men if women are boring conversationalists. Do men blame women when they are boring each other?