Earlier this week I was scrolling through my usual feminist
blogs and I came across a piece about a concept I have encountered TONS of
times as a feminist, eating disorders, but this time it was one I am less
familiar with. They call it “Drunkorexia” This is the practice of restricting
food intake in order to feel justified in drinking alcohol. There are 2 ways
this can go, either you trade food calories for booze calories because you are
restricting your diet, or you just want to be drunk faster with minimal calorie
intake.
Before
reading this post I had never really sat down and thought about drinking this
way, and it really made me think about my own friends. I know that I know girls
who do things like this and I very seldom have thought about it, unless I
notice it in conjunction with other food restriction practices.
But the
real question is, does “drunkorexia” deserve its own category, or should we
just call it what it is, anorexia? Does giving this practices it’s own sort of
silly sounding title taking some of the edge off what could turn into a serious
problem? Or does it address a different area of eating and restriction? Do you
think this is serious?
Here is a quick link to the original post that I read on
Jezebel
In some
respects I agree with this author and say “meh”. I think it is a real issue,
and that people just need to live healthier lives and that restricting calories
is just another form of anorexia that needs to be addressed, but if it has yet
to reach a point of alarm, it is ok to use a word like “drunkorexia”. It just blows my mind that our society is in
a place where we need to come up with words like that.
