Licking the Razor's Edge (2015)

*According to another study of women between the ages of 25-45 in the United States,
67% of American women (excluding those with actual eating disorders) are actively
trying to lose weight, even though 53% of those dieters are already at a weight that is
healthy for them.
*According to a third study, 13% of women smoke cigarettes either to lose weight or to
keep from gaining weight — and this despite the fact that lung cancer has surpassed
breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer deaths among women in the United States.
*Anti-aging skin products are a 3.5 billion dollar per year industry, and a recent report
showed that young shoppers spend 170 billion dollars each year on fashion in order to
“look better”, and that American citizens spend over 7 billion dollars each year on
cosmetic supplies.
*A 2002 study revealed that 22 percent of 8th graders, 33.2 percent of 10th graders, and
46.1 percent of 12th graders said that it is “fairly easy” for them to obtain steroids, and
that over 500,000 students worldwide (almost 3% of the total student population) have
used steroids at least once by their last year of high school.
*Over 80% of women interviewed in a recent study said that they have competed with
other women over physical appearance, and it is no surprise that the drastic rise of
aggressive bullying between girls has coincided with the drastic rise in the sexualization
of women that now pervades virtually every form of the American media – a
sexualization that not only inspires aggression among girls, but also the sexual
harassment of women by young men, as well as a chronic spike in the superficialization
of relationships between men & women (and men & men, and women & women) of all
ages.
HOW TO KNOW WHERE YOU ARE ADDICTED
Regardless of where in the world you were raised, the chances quite high are that this
addiction has a hold on your subconscious mind (and therefore your conscious life) to
one degree or another.
Remember that this does not make you “bad” or “weak”. It merely means that you are
maintaining a set of values that are not serving your best interests – indeed, that your
delusions of “beauty” are shackling your ability to be truly Happy, and are denying your
ability to know real LOVE.
83