Episode 186: Anna Rollins- Lent, Self-Control, & Diet Culture

About this episode

Anna Rollins discusses the impact of diet and purity culture on women's relationships with their bodies and food, particularly in the context of Lent.

Anna Rollins is the author of Famished: On Food, Sex, and Growing Up as a Good Girl. Anna’s debut memoir examines the rhyming scripts of diet culture and evangelical purity culture, both of which direct women to fear their own bodies and appetites. Anna is an award-winning instructor who taught English in higher education for nearly 15 years, and her writing has appeared in outlets like The New York Times, Slate, Electric Literature, Salon, Joyland , and more. In today’s episode, Anna shares how societal messages around beauty and body image contributed to her struggles with disordered eating. We also discuss Anna’s research on purity and diet culture’s impacts on women’s relationships with their bodies and food, as well as how the concept of self-control might be helpfully framed as we enter the season of Lent. My hope is that as we name and shed unhelpful theologies related to food and our bodies, we might find more freedom, healing, and wholeness. Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here . Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.

People in this episode

Host: Melissa Louise Johnson

Guest: Anna Rollins

Topics covered

• diet culture
• purity culture
• body image
• disordered eating
• self-control
• Lent
• women's health

Keywords

• diet culture
• purity culture
• disordered eating
• self-control
• Lent
• body image
• women's health

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The New York Times, Slate, Electric Literature, Salon, Joyland

Books & works: Famished: On Food, Sex, and Growing Up as a Good Girl, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless

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