The Rhetoric of the 100 Calorie Pack

Dear “100 Calorie Pack,”

Your emphasis on an even and simple number implies that I don’t know how to take care of myself and thus need to be told in “simple terms” how to feed myself. You scream “eat me!” but at the same time you scream “never eat anything (especially if its over 100 calories!) you fat ass.” You tell me that it is ok to indulge in things like nutter butters and oreos…. but not really. Not the real thing. Instead of teaching us that things are OK in moderation, you teach us that we should opt for a bland, gross, and not surprisingly unsatisfying version of our favorites…but feel good about it because it is only 100 calories. Well you know what? I don’t feel good about it. 100 Calorie Pack, you make me feel skinny and fat all at the same time. YOU are the type of thing that creates the skinny/fat binary and dichotomy. Skinny girls eat the 100 calorie packs. Fat girls eat the “real thing.” What happened to the normal girls that eat healthy… but also have their cake and eat it too? And no… not your bullshit “100 calorie” mini cake “bites.”

Furthermore, you aren’t even real food. Your ingredients cannot even be pronounced.

After ravishing our bodies with unhealthy fake food masquerading as healthy food, your packaging will end up in some landfill, all because we wanted to fit some bullshit ideal of being thin; and somehow we were convinced along the way that only eating 100 calories at a time is the way to do so.

You market your product on the insecurity of women. So screw you.

Love, Shelby