The girls of St Thinian’s

24 March 2007

I’d like to talk the size-zero girls out of their fixation but, as far as is possible, they’ll keep their hobby to themselves, and none of them would dream of confiding in their parents or their boyfriend. Boys our age seem totally oblivious to female psychology and, anyway, what girl would ever admit to starving themselves for a boy’s benefit? Admitting to dieting is as uncool as admitting to revising for exams, because the whole point is to be effortlessly thin. Actually, I don’t think the size-zero thing is for the boys’ benefit anyway. Girls at my school don’t have posters of boy bands and male heart-throbs plastered on their bedroom walls anymore — they have pictures of their favourite female celebrities and many more of themselves.

The fact that the drive to be thin kicks in at exactly the same time as GCSEs begin does makes me wonder whether obsessive dieting is just one more thing for us to work at and be competitive about — qualities that the culture of a high-performing single-sex school actively promotes. As one recovering size-zero addict in my year put it, ‘I’ve always been really good at things at school but I’ve never found anything that I was best at. I’ve got quite a competitive nature and when I saw all these skinny famous people, a part of me thought, “Maybe this is something I can be best at.”’ I suppose if you think of it the right way, reducing your weight is a bit like completing exam coursework: girls set themselves target weights, measurements or dress sizes, and feel great satisfaction when these goals are achieved, as if they’ve had a good mark.

It’s hard to say whether the school authorities notice and what action they would take in the event of noticing — we already have regular talks from eating-disorder counsellors. And what can they do? Even the most obsessive 20 per cent of us aren’t dangerously underweight, and the teachers are more concerned about the effects of smoking and drinking. But what if the size-zero virus does have a long-term effect on health? What if it is contagious? Should we really be so laid back about it becoming an accepted part of school life?