Author page: Taysha Silva

In Japan (and now worldwide), a dangerous new trend has emerged, encouraging young women to pursue drastic weight loss to emulate Cinderella. As little girls, many of us embraced Disney princesses as role models.

With storylines that featured action, romance, animal friends, and magic — along with occasional wardrobe changes and dope soundtracks — Disney princesses were beautiful, compelling, and admirable.

My mother for one was hard-pressed to pry my Cinderella dress away from her toddler’s cold, hard fingers. Then, some of us hit our not-like-other-girls phase, rejecting anything pink, sparkly, and princess-y.

It was only after maturing, coming to terms with our own unique femininity, and learning about various feminist perspectives that many of us were able to revisit Disney princesses and see the good (these animated movies centered on female protagonists pursuing their journeys and promoted values of kindness), the bad (that many of these plots centered on finding love), and the ugly (that the princesses encouraged a narrow, hyper-stylized version of beauty which didn’t promote self-confidence and body acceptance).

The “Cinderella weight” draws on the troubling beauty expectations for princesses, offering a mathematical formula for women to calculate their desired goal. Cinderella weight can be calculated by measuring one’s height in meters, squaring that number, and then multiplying by 18 to achieve the kilogram amount.

For example, if you are 5’ 4” (1.63 m), then your Cinderella weight would be about 105.4 lbs (47.82 kg). These proportions would put the participant at a body mass index of 18. In comparison, the American Dietetic Association defines the healthy, ideal BMI from 20-25, making the Cinderella weight considered underweight.

While BMI alone may be a misleading, imperfect assessment of one’s health (it fails to consider factors such as body fat/muscle mass and tends to differ between racial demographics), it serves as a useful tool in illustrating the extremity and arbitrariness of the Cinderella weight.

Many shocked netizens took to social media to speak out against the new craze.

https://twitter.com/laurenpage/status/969693866998689792

“The ‘Cinderella Weight’ is basically 18 in terms of BMI, which is the lowest line in regard to standard weight. It is incredibly thin. People with the ‘Cinderella weight’ don’t have their foot in a glass slipper but have a foot into malnutrition.” — @demisefgo

the. cinderella weight thing going on jp twitter. if that's a thing ppl aim for, if i understand it right. it's rly rly scary. We rly don't need to put more pressure on girls here to lose weight. if anything we should push for more strenght, even if you end up heavier!

— Bunzies ✨🍂🍁limited pumpkin spice edition 🍂🍁✨ (@vanilla_buns) February 19, 2018

Others disagree with the condemnation of “Cinderella weight.”

https://twitter.com/fayannboo/status/973316552828379136

“I weigh less than the ‘Cinderella weight’ but my doctors tell me that I’m healthy. I’m not dieting or morbidly ill. I think it’s just because I naturally don’t gain weight. I’m normal.” — @opabunmi1344

Japan's New Extra Slim "Cinderella Weight" Diet Is Highly Controversialhttps://t.co/VZJSq6RMIu

— Koreaboo (@Koreaboo) February 22, 2018

The health risks associated with being underweight are not exactly “happily ever after”. According to Today’s Dietitian, the leading news source for dietitians and nutritionists:

“Those who are underweight are prone to infection due to weak and easily compromised immune systems and tend to have low muscle mass, hair loss, and in some cases disrupted hormone regulation… Being underweight can also derail intake and absorption of vital nutrients, including amino acids, vitamins, and minerals, leading to increased risk of osteoporosis and anemia. In addition, underweight women are prone to amenorrhea and possible pregnancy complications.”

Despite the hazardous repercussions, many women conflate skinny to being attractive/healthier and are therefore willing to take radical, unhealthy measures. Mari Suzuzi from the Japan Association for Eating Disorders (JAED) acknowledges the rising percentage of underweight women in Japan.

“They [Japanese women] see being thin as a desirable goal. Women are feeling pressure both from the media and from their peers to maintain a weight that may not be healthy,” she told the Japan Times.

The pressure is evident, even in government mandated law. Instated in 2008, the Metabo law required annual company health checks for adults age 45-74 and penalized companies for employees who exceeded the designated health checks (33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women).

In Japan, which has a homogeneous society that typically emphasizes conformity and slimness, women are also impacted by glossy magazines which boast thin models and the latest diet methods and retailers offer a narrow range of choice for clothing size and different body types.

This has even produced bizarre trends like the long breath diet. It is no surprise that various studies, including a 2008 study by the University of Sydney, suggest that an alarming amount of Japanese adolescents suffer from body image and eating disorders because of social factors.

Dr Aya Nishizono-Maher, a founding member of JAED, elaborated to the Tokyo Weekender, criticized the lack of ED treatment facilities in Japan and elaborated:

The prevalence rate of eating disorders is difficult to assess because in both anorexic and bulimic cases, the percentage of people that actually visit doctors is very low. Also, the prevalence rate depends on whether to include the increasing grey zone of people with lighter symptoms. If we only include patients that meet all the diagnostic criteria, the prevalence rate of anorexia nervosa in young females in Japan is considered to be slightly less than 1%, and 2% for bulimia nervosa, as in other developed countries…It might seem like a small number, but this means Tokyo alone has 600 to 800 new anorexic patients every year. And this does not count potentially anorexic people who do not see doctors.

Meanwhile, although some overweight TV personalities may be ridiculed and caricatured as lazy, Japanese celebrities like Naomi Watanabe are making moves to spread body positivity.

Watanabe, a popular comedian, a quirky style icon/designer, and the most followed person in Japan on Instagram, told Vogue,

“My message is never to tell other people that they should get fat or put on weight, but I truly believe that I should be happy, and everybody should be happy in their own skin. You shouldn’t reject the way you are.”

Curvier, pocchari models (“marshmallow girls” as termed by La Farfa magazine in 2013) shift the sizeist culture and carve their way into the fashion/beauty world, despite comments such as “stop trying to rationalize fatsos!”

In a world plagued by unrealistic beauty expectations and fad dieting, many continue to echo the harmful weight loss methods of the past.

We may have stepped away from tapeworms and arsenic, but weird trends like “Cinderella weight” are a reminder of the dark side of weight loss.

As Cinderella said, “a dream is a wish your heart makes,” and that dream should be for health, not for a certain measurement.

After being dragged by his community, his police department, and even the president, the armed school deputy assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who failed to enter the building to confront the shooter and interrupt the killing spree is now attempting to justify why.

After the horrific massacre on February 14th, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel condemned the inaction of the school’s only armed school resource officer, Scot Peterson, after viewing footage of how he handled the incident.

Scot Peterson, a veteran deputy who was hired in July 1985 and had served at the school since 2009, remained outside the building as shooter Nikolas Cruz fired his semi-automatic rifle inside, killing 14 students and 3 school staff members.

During the six-minute rampage, Peterson, 54, instead took a defensive position outside. Sheriff Israel said that:

“What I saw was a deputy arrive at the west side of building 12, take up a position, and he never went in…[He should have] went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer.”

In a CNN interview with Jake Tapper, he also declared that he was “disgusted” with Peterson’s “dereliction of duty.”

After being placed under investigation and on suspension without pay, Peterson resigned from the force. Two other officers are also being investigated for their involvement with the incident.

Peterson has faced nationwide disgust and criticism for letting the shooter go unimpeded. “Shame on him…I know him. He was there my four years of high school,” student Ariana Gonzalez remarked to the Washington Post.

“And the fact that an officer couldn’t do their job and that Coax Feis and Coax Hixon had to sacrifice themselves for something that a police officer should have been in charge of, it’s inexplicable…we could have had a chance! This was never supposed to happen if he had just done his job!”

President Trump also blasted Peterson during a gathering of US governors at the White House. He called the performance of the Florida deputies “frankly disgusting,” adding that,

“I really believe I’d run in there, even if I didn’t have a weapon, and I think most of the people in this room would have done that too…but the way they performed was really a disgrace.”

Trump voiced his support for arming teachers after the shooting in Parkland, Florida during a White House press conference, using Peterson’s behavior as proof that more educators should concealed carry for “offensive capability.”

He stated,

“We need people who can take care of our children…people that love the children. See, a security guard doesn’t know the children, doesn’t love the children. This man standing outside of the school the other day doesn’t love the children, probably doesn’t know the children. The teachers love their children, they love their pupils, they love their students.”

However, Peterson’s lawyer, Joseph DiRuzzo, defended the former deputy, rejecting claims that his client “did nothing” or that Peterson’s behavior was based in incompetence and fear; instead, he asserts in his statement that Peterson reacted based on his assessment of the situation, in compliance with his training.

“Let there be no mistake, Mr. Peterson wishes that he could have prevented the untimely passing of the seventeen victims on that day, and his heart goes out to the families of the victims in their time of need,” DiRuzzo said.

“However, the allegations that Peterson was a coward and that his performance, under the circumstances, failed to meet the standards of police officers are patently untrue.”

DiRuzzo presented his client’s perspective on the situation. He says that the initial call Peterson received was about firecrackers, not gunfire, in the area of the 1200 building. Peterson ran toward the 1200 building and heard gunshots, but thought they were coming from outside one of the buildings.

He says that,

“BSO trains its officers that in the event of outdoor gunfire one is to seek cover and assess the situation in order to communicate what one observes to other law enforcement. His client says that he “took up a tactical position between the 700-800 buildings corridor/corner.”

As the first police officer arrived, Mr. Peterson told the officer that he “thought the shots were coming from outside,” which was confirmed by “radio transmissions [that] indicated that there was a gunshot victim in the area of the football field.” The officer then took up a position behind a tree.

DiRuzzo says that Peterson acted decisively and “initiated a ‘Code Red’ lockdown on the entire campus,” and DiRuzzo praised his “presence of mind to have the school administrators go to the school’s video room” to use the camera footage to locate and describe the shooter to law enforcement.

Peterson also provided his keys to the Coral Springs SWAT team and gave the BSO SWAT Command diagrams of the campus for student evacuation.

In addition, Peterson’s lawyer mentioned his client’s “decorated career…including receiving glowing annual performance reviews and being named the school resource officer of the year in 2014 for Parkland.”

Indeed, in 2015, Sheriff Israel wrote in a review of Peterson that “Your dedication and allegiance are the best illustration of service [the sheriff’s office] provides to the people of Broward County.”

In his statement, DiRuzzo criticized Sheriff Israel for “jump[ing] to a conclusion” and throwing his client under the bus while “the investigation remains on-going.”

Ellen Kirschman, a clinical psychologist who has worked with police departments for more than 3 decades, expressed to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel,

“I would not want to be in that man’s shoes. The guilt and self-blame he must be feeling, let alone what’s being heaped on him from the outside.

“After something like this happens, I’ve seen officers torment themselves sometimes to the point of suicide… The funny thing about police departments is that when you’re recruited, police are told, ‘We have your back.’ ‘The family in blue’ and all that. But in high-attention situations like this, you see departments quickly turn against their own officers when they need support most.”

Sheriff Israel himself is under fire for fumbling leadership and inability to prevent the shooting. Among the swirling conflict, Republican House Speaker Richard Corcoran sent a letter to Florida Governor Rick Scott, asking for Israel’s removal, with the supporting co-signatures of 73 other House Republicans.

However, Sheriff Israel maintains that he served properly and will not step down. In his CNN Interview with Jake Tapper, he said,

“I’ve exercised my due diligence, I’ve led this county proudly as I always have…I can only take responsibility for what I knew about…I’ve given amazing leadership to this agency…there’s a lot of things we’ve done throughout.”

The ongoing investigation of Scot Peterson is just the tip of the iceberg of the missed red flags and mishandling, which includes at least 18 calls about Nikolas Cruz’s threatening tendencies and the FBI’s failure to react according to a tip “about Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting.”

On-scene of the shooting, an anonymous EMS responder told WSVN,

“Everything I was trained on mass casualty events says they did the wrong thing. You don’t wait for the scene to be cleared. You go in immediately armed. Retrieve the victims…We were asking to go in…The response every time was law enforcement did not clear the scene and would not allow the medical personnel in.”

The surveillance footage, which may incriminate or acquit Peterson, has yet to be made public. Meanwhile, as the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School returned on February 28th, the nation struggles to make sense of the massacre.

As new information emerges, America is embroiled in a fierce debate on gun control, mental illness, and other factors to prevent similar tragedies.

Hoda Katebi, a 23-year-old Irani-American fashion blogger was disturbed, but not completely surprised, when she was called “un-American” on live television.

Katebi runs a blog named Joo Joo Azad, which means “Free Bird” in Farsi. She regularly writes about ethical consumption, feminism, human rights violations and waste in fast fashion, and Islamophobia.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYqx_QnBW_W/

She was roused to start her blog in 2013 after an Anti-Muslim hate crime caused a woman in France to miscarry. Katebi grew up in Oklahoma with the pressure of assimilation and the post-9/11 judgement about the hijab and modest apparel.

Katebi created a platform as a call to action for social change and “a site of unapologetic identity reclamation…[to] challeng[e]…mainstream representation of Muslim women.”

She speaks at universities and to publications and is currently working on her own fashion line, which will employ a refugee cooperative in Chicago to sew the pieces.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BdDisCQB8jr/

Katebi made a guest appearance on Chicago’s WGN News morning show to discuss her new book, Tehran Streetstyle, which depicts the city’s vibrant and diverse fashion and how it departs from Western expectations and clothing regulations.

The now-viral interview, hosted by Robin Baumgarten and Larry Potash, began with smooth sailing. Katebi shared her childhood experiences and the continuing bias against Muslim garments.

Suddenly, Potash threw a jarring curveball. “Let’s talk about nuclear weapons. Some of our viewers say we cannot trust Iran,” he said. “What are your thoughts?”

A brief pause and a nervous laugh later, Katebi gave a composed and nuanced reply. “I mean, I don’t think we can trust this country. What has this country done to the majority of the countries in the Middle East?”

She spoke out against Iran having nuclear weapons, continuing

“I’m a pacifist; I don’t believe in violence. But also when we look at the legacy of imperialism and colonization in the Middle East and we see the legacy of this country and all of the violence that it has not only created but created the capacity for, a lot of these weapons are completely brought in by the United States.”

This led Baumgarten to remark that “A lot of Americans might take offense to that…you don’t sound like an American when you say that.”

Katebi, who studied international relations and Middle Eastern politics at the University of Chicago, responded that it’s “because I’ve read.”

She added that Americans have a lot to be proud of but need to look beyond “simple narratives” of nationalism and recognize “this country was literally built on the backs of Black slaves and after the genocide of indigenous people.”

After this civil but tense exchange, the hosts ended the interview abruptly; Katebi briefly spoke about her fashion collection. Viewers, followers, and netizens reacted strongly to the interview, some applauding and others criticizing.

https://twitter.com/ghazalairshad/status/962799581137424384

Being able to criticize the government goes to the heart of being American… respect to you @hodakatebi

— M. G. (@Gharaybeh_M) February 16, 2018

https://twitter.com/IAMSPACEY/status/963826038852726785

Katebi posted her reflections on the interview on social media.

Although she believes the interviewers weren’t purposefully malicious, she explored in a blog post the absurdity and Islamophobic implications of the interview.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfEi18NhfIi/

In an interview with RT, she stated that the sudden subject change and the hostility she received for questioning foreign policy astonished her. She said,

“It definitely took me off-guard. After the fact, I wasn’t too surprised because Muslims and people of color in this country and across the West are constantly put in positions where we are kind of seen as both the token but then also supposed to talk about everything relating to our identity, even if it’s not exactly related to the work we are doing at hand…respond for our policies abroad, but then having to blindly pray allegiance to this country.”

She also said that the interview-gone-wrong was a symptom of “underlying microaggresions” that occur so frequently toward Muslims that they are normalized.

She spoke out against the idea that Muslims have to “prove we’re American enough to deserve respect, not being bombed or banned…[or] criminalized.”

https://www.facebook.com/hodakatebi/posts/10215903534003699

Robin Baumgarten, Larry Potash, and WGN Morning News have since extended apologies on-air, through social media, and personally to Katebi.

We have learned a lot from this and our goal, as always, is to do better serving all communities of Chicago. – Robin & Larry pic.twitter.com/CJ38nH4CM0

— WGN Morning News (@WGNMorningNews) February 15, 2018

Katebi accepted the apology, expressing in a serious tweets that “[t]he apology was important, but it’s also important to be able to use this moment as a teaching tool, and prevent it from happening again. Let’s raise the bar.”

However, it seems that the tension hasn’t completely dissipated. In a Facebook post on February 16, Hoda Katebi wrote that she had attempted to schedule a redeeming interview with WGN but that it fell through.

She wrote,

“After a bit of hesitation, the producer accepted in part, and we went back and forth on the details. The morning of when the interview was set to go live (yesterday morning), the producer called me, furious (not sure if she just got off a call with advertisers/owners)…saying that they are no longer going to do this, and that instead I should come back to the station to do a pre-recorded interview that they would edit before airing…I refused to allow them control over my narrative and words, and said I would not come in on these terms. Larry called later and gave what seemed to be a forced apology, and hung up quickly. I don’t want this to be Hoda vs WGN…it’s about a larger context of anti-Muslim racism globally.”

Certainly, Hoda Katebi’s WGN interview is a byproduct of the times, as well as part of an overarching narrative. The label “un-American” has spanned many eras.

The term has applied to suspected communists in the Cold War and was the grounds for placing Japanese-Americans into internment camps during World War II.

Under a Donald Trump presidency, which instated the Muslim ban on January 27 in the name of national security, these labels and fears persist, so much so that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has removed “nation of immigrants” from its mission statement.

Despite this, Hoda Katebi offers a challenge to the everyday prejudices that Muslims encounter and a radical rejection to the idea that they must apologetically endure.