Self-hatred of the imperfect body drives the quest for bodily perfection

Evidence

The hatred and rage at the imperfect, unfit self can be the flip side of the quest for a perfected, controlled body, achieved through the right combination of workouts, diets, surgeries, and assorted wellness interventions. And it can grow more intense as we engage in another kind of body doubling: aging, that process of witnessing the changing of our face and form via such ravages as pregnancy, sleepless parenting, stress, pollution, and just being alive for enough revolutions around the sun. “Old age isn’t a battle; old age is a massacre,” Philip Roth, my problematic king of doppelgangers, observed. — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 579

Categorization

• XREF: Links to the wellness/optimization theme running through the book; also connects to Machado’s fat-golem just prior. — connects to: Shyness drives a desire to annihilate the body as seen by others; All human achievement depends on a repressed hatred of the mortal body; Girls’ body disgust can escalate into eating disorders and psychosis — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 739 (+2 more)