I can't say I have much experience with that "eat, eat" stereotype. I vaguely remember my father's mother making a big table of food and serving with pride, but for the most part the focus was on dieting. Particularly for me, as a fat child, withholding food was my common experience. I really can't say whether it had to do with our heritage, Certainly it was important for girls to be pretty, but I think that goes on in most cultures. We were not religious Jews, but we were definitely Jews. Though I never "looked that Jewish." I don't have a big nose, just a big body. I can recall that more of my Jewish friend's mothers were inclined to be dieting, or talk to their girls about dieting. I went to "fat camp" for two summers and there were definitively a lot of Jews relatively speaking. That I think is where I saw the most significant sign that Jews were more concerned with thinness. There were a lot of Jews at fat camp, for sure. Now, as a writer about fat and weight, I have interviewed hundreds of people on the subject of childhood, and fat as an issue seems to cross all cultural, ethnic, and religious lines.
I can't say I have much experience with that "eat, eat" stereotype. I vaguely remember my father's mother making a big table of food and serving with pride, but for the most part the focus was on dieting. Particularly for me, as a fat child, withholding food was my common experience. I really can't say whether it had to do with our heritage, Certainly it was important for girls to be pretty, but I think that goes on in most cultures. We were not religious Jews, but we were definitely Jews. Though I never "looked that Jewish." I don't have a big nose, just a big body. I can recall that more of my Jewish friend's mothers were inclined to be dieting, or talk to their girls about dieting. I went to "fat camp" for two summers and there were definitively a lot of Jews relatively speaking. That I think is where I saw the most significant sign that Jews were more concerned with thinness. There were a lot of Jews at fat camp, for sure. Now, as a writer about fat and weight, I have interviewed hundreds of people on the subject of childhood, and fat as an issue seems to cross all cultural, ethnic, and religious lines.