Disordered Eating
The ballet world, for the entirety of its existence, has been fraught with impossible body standards. Whether it be in height, weight, or dimensions, ballerinas, specifically female, have been unable to go a day without being critiqued. From ages as young as five or six, ballerinas have been told “suck in” or “I can see your lunch,” young children are even put on diets before they reach their teenage years. In the ballet world, there is a fetishization of stick thin girls; girls with the body of a prepubescent child. Most body shaming stems from girls’ bodies changing in their teenage years when they are typically not as petite as they may have been previously.
These comments, some of which verbal abuse, lead to detrimental mental issues later in life. In a detailed study done by BMC Journals, it was shown that unhealthy eating behavior in the ballet dancers and artistic gymnasts was significantly associated with rigorous self-perception. Students from this group were more often exposed to a higher risk of anorexic behavior. It was found that eating behaviors, such as fasting, limiting the consumption of fats and carbohydrates, and avoiding eating under stress, were associated with feelings of dissatisfaction with oneself, the belief that appearance is extremely important in achieving life success and the need to improve appearance.
It has become trendy in recent years to “eat like a ballerina.” Below is a “ballerina diet” in which the reader is asked to eat essentially one full meal in the day.
Dietplaninfo.com “The Ballerina Diet” on Pinterest
The public has had obsession with being unrealistically thin like a ballerina. This has only worsened the stereotype that dancers need to be stick thin. Ballet’s standards are a result of society’s obsession with child-like innocence, demeanor, and body – a concept that is not new. Women have always been deemed and _ by their weight and size.
Ballet is all about how the ballerina looks on stage. Because of this, she is critiqued and criticized constantly. Ballerinas are actually assigned roles to “make up” for their shortcomings. Women with long limbs tend to do grande allegro and adagio variations – variations that are based on showing off longer proportions. Women with shorter limbs are more often assigned petite allegro combinations – ones that involve many little jumps to hind the short proportions. These decisions based off of appearance are detrimental especially to younger girls. This is no different from the real world, where women’s worth is determined from their appearance and their life follows as such.