Why Is Anemia Trendy?

You heard that right, folks. A lack of red blood cells floating through your circulatory system is now a trend. Girls across the internet are diagnosing themselves with anemia, to align with an image of pale, thin, generally ill body types. If you’ve seen people glorifying deep set eye bags and drowsiness, you have entered forbidden territory, and I recommend you pack up your things and turn around. 

Unfortunately, the internet is not a series of open and closed doors. You can’t shut out harmful trends and ideologies just because you disagree with them. Rather than ignore and repress a dangerous trend, I think it is important to address its underlying causes. 

Our society inextricably links femininity with frailty and weakness. Thus, the anemic, gaunt image reflects an idealized fragile female. By fetishizing anemic appearances, we correlate a woman's beauty to her dainty, fracturable qualities. This sentiment is extremely damaging for feminism and female empowerment. 

Moreover, the relegation of anemia as a physical beauty trend dismisses the struggles of people truly suffering from this illness. This condition deprives your body of adequate oxygen, resulting in weakness, lethargy, chest pain, and inflammation. It is a serious health problem; not something to be romanticized and glorified. So the next time you happen to spot a ~trendy~ anemia post, please recall the consequences of such rhetoric. Femininity can be strong, powerful, and determined. You don’t need to be fragile to be beautiful. Anemia is not a fad, style, or trend; It is a health condition.