PWhen I was young, I often went to lunch with one of my childhood friends who we will call Lara. At the table with his parents and his little sister, I was like a second family. Until her mother, Sophie, started making everyone uncomfortable (especially me!). “Lara, you should stop eating so much, take your example from your girlfriend”, blurted out the authoritarian mother. We were only 8 years old. At the McDonald’s near our house, while we were eating with our two families together, her mother once again threw a rather humiliating barb at her to tell her that it would have been better if she had taken a more light, like mine – a Caesar salad –, instead of the brand’s timeless Big Mac menu.
Embarrassed, I witnessed several scenes like this throughout our childhood as we grew up. Still sad for my friend and quite angry with her mother, who thought that by comparing us it would trigger a slimming trend in Lara, although far from being overweight.
Suffering herself from the relationship with her body shape since her early childhood, Sophie went through restrictive diets and the yo-yo effect. In its own way, it fits into a very particular archetype: the“almond mom” (the “almond mom”). Or this woman having, often without knowing it, toxic behavior with regard to the physical appearance, diet and weight of her children, and especially her daughters.
“Hunger is in the head”
We owe this rather funny name to an episode of the reality TV show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (2013), featuring housewives from wealthy American suburbs raising their offspring. At one point, former Dutch-American model Yolanda Hadid has a rather surprising conversation with her daughter, the now famous Gigi Hadid, who we know for the “it girl” duo she forms with her sister Bella. At the time, Gigi was 18 years old and trying to build a career like her mother’s, by going through castings. Feeling very physically weak, the pretty, baby-faced blonde, destitute, seeks help from Yolanda, telling her that she has not eaten anything all day except “half an almond”. The answer ? “Eat two almonds and chew them well!” »
Once Gigi’s career explodes, other rather problematic passages emerge. Like the one where, on her birthday, Gigi is only allowed to enjoy an insignificant slice of cake. In front of the camera, his matriarch justifies this decision as follows: “If she wants to be the ideal weight, she must make the right choices. »
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