I read Lucy Mangan's post, in which she advocated "forcing celebs to look like normal people", with disbelief at the sheer irresponsibility of what was being promoted.
Why advocate an unhealthy diet? Why is the middle ground always ignored in the haste to make one party seem like the "bad gals" and the other as being oppressed by images of skinny women? Time and again, skinny women are criticised for starving themselves, even though we do not know whether that is actually what is happening.
If they really are obsessed with their eating, though, then that is awful, and I fully empathise with them, because I've been there myself.
The medical effects were less depressing than the fact that I was invaded by thoughts of food at all times during the day. In no way is it pleasant to have food constantly on your mind, with thoughts of fat quantities creeping around your head. In fact it is horrid to have any recurring thoughts insistently (unless they improve you spiritually).
But not all skinny women have eating disorders: some simply prefer to eat less because it is healthier to do so, and cheaper. While this nation is eating itself to its death, other nations are starving to death. Surely a part of what is wasted on food we simply do not need to buy, food bought to "comfort" us could in fact be spent on comforting people who have only a handful of flour to eat.
And if every woman one knows is obsessed with eating, and one is not helping them overcome that but in fact joining them, then surely it is time to make a collective effort and be grateful for the fact that one has limbs, whatever size they may be, and food with which to sustain oneself.
Millions across the world see famine in their communities on at least an annual basis and obsess about food because they have nowhere to get it from and no money to pay for it. And even in our own country, there are many who cannot afford the staples, let alone daily fruits and vegetables.
The solution is not to change celebrities, who should be ignored and certainly not revered, but to change one's own mindset, one's own habits. The problem with celebrities is neither their size nor their habits but that they are there at all, giving disturbing examples of the new morality.
Stop buying magazines, watching TV programmes or entering into conversations full of gossip. Is looking at each woman you pass in the street and judging her size helping you in any way, or is gnawing away at who you are?
Not judging other women's bodies is extremely difficult in a society where showing off your body is key. It is particularly tough in the face of current fashion, which propagates very skimpy clothing (for women only, off course).
Living in Syria, where most women were covered, had the most refreshing effect-I realised that for seven whole months I had not criticised another woman's body as being the wrong shape or the wrong size. It was delightful to walk down the street and not be thinking trivial thoughts about bodies but to instead fill one's head with mindfulness of God or with what I was planning on doing that day; on what I would write, and so on.
And then I came back to the UK. The subconscious, unintentional criticisms of other women crept in, and I've been trying ever since to rid myself of them.
According to Islam, the stomach should only be a third full of food at the end of a meal: one eats to sustain oneself, not to indulge. This does not always work in practice - particularly when one is faced with a Waitrose fudge cake - but it is worth keeping in mind.
So why anybody would advocate eating unhealthily and dressing shabbily is beyond me. The ideals of society and its norms have been twisted out of recognisable shape. Should we really now add to that the normalisation of being "slightly overweight, slightly wobbly, slightly ungroomed"?
That's not to say that I think that these three states should be hidden from society's view. I do, however, object to the idea that we should want to see people aspire to those states at all times. When we step out ungroomed, we instinctively feel that twinge of embarrassment, that "Oops, I didn't have time to iron my skirt," just as when we overeat we naturally feel guilty over losing control.
In the same sense in which it is natural to feel devastated when your partner is flirting with another person or that they have cheated on you, or to feel deeply uncomfortable that they have been to a strip club, I think it is also natural to feel self-conscious about your body.
Yesterday in York city centre, a young woman exclaimed to her friend: "Oh, I feel so self-conscious." She was wearing a very skimpy top and skirt. The fact that she was obese has nothing to do with whether she should be expected to suppress her self-consciousness or to heed it.
When we feel highly self-conscious, there is usually a very good reason for it; only on some occasions, such as when we are speaking in public, is it necessary to overcome that feeling. When you are uncomfortable at the prospect of being expected to walk around half naked in the evening or to eat a large amount, your instinct should be cherished and encouraged.
Very young children feel deeply embarrassed seeing people kissing, yet we are taught to suppress this and to enjoy watching people doing all sorts of act together without the slightest privacy or shame.
But what if we were to raise once more some of our childlike barriers, so that we did not constantly have to suppress our feelings of guilt and embarrassments or veil these with inordinate amounts of alcohol, our purer instincts nullified by the latest norm-twisting craze? What if we listened to our feelings and considered what they meant before discarding them?
It seems only the basest instincts are encouraged, those that encourage loss of control and the release of people's worst characteristics.
If some women eat less than the current norm, then perhaps it is the norm that is wrong; we should not aim to change the women - especially not through bitchy backbiting or making them feel artificially guilty for not eating enough: unless there are signs of medical side-effects such as liver malfunction, excessive hair loss, stopped periods and so forth, their eating is unlikely to be dangerously minimal.
And since celebrities continue to be skinny while society becomes increasingly obese, where on earth is the evidence that celebrities are to blame for more and more people suffering from eating problems? And for the women who do stop eating for this reason, changing the celebrity is not the issue. Freeing ourselves from external fashions and crazes is what will, in the end, keep us healthy and sane.
