Hello!
As I write this, it’s still October, and I’ve already read a dozen pieces online that set out to explain how I should “manage Christmas”. And believe me, they aren’t talking about how they can help me with festive admin. These features have something far more sinister under the surface: ‘This is how you can manage Christmas’ is bumbling shorthand for: ‘this is how you can be thin’. Eat this breakfast, they say. Do this strength training, avoid those canapés, turn down that champagne. So, what message are women being told here? We’re being told that thinness is our goal, and that these other things – food, drink, enjoying ourselves – are bad, to be reduced or avoided. This isn’t just wrong, it’s dangerous. It makes us regard Christmas as an…