161 pounds is not FAT!I've spent an entire afternoon looking at naked women. Ok, I spent the afternoon looking at paintings and sculptures of naked women at Musee D'Orsay here in Paris. Beautiful works of beautiful women, loved by the men who created them, or painted them from models or from images in their mind of the ideal woman. And you know what...there was not one 'skinny' woman in these paintings or sculptures.
So I'm in the museum looking at all this different works by all these different men, and I think that it was such a different time back then. When it was a woman's curves, her hips, her breasts that we admired, the more curvy the better. And I think that I hope we go back to this. Like fashion I hope it comes back into style.A 360 from the size two models we now worship.
So then I come home and find an article on Tyra Banks, and all those people who are calling her fat. Ok I saw the picture of her on the beach in that horrible one piece bathing suit...but c'mon there's no one in this world who could rock that suit. It was definitely a poor fashion choice, but I certainly did not think she was fat. There's so much pressure these days, there's
too much pressure these days. When we are at a point where society thinks that 161 pounds for her height is fat, we're in trouble.
Too many times I've stood in a mirror with a critical eye and cursed my body. Cursed my butt, my stomach, my breasts. And I'm ashamed of that. I am not fat. I am average, maybe even a little below average. (In 2005, the average Canadian woman was 5'3" and 153 pounds.) I am a size 8 or 10. And by 'Hollywood' standards I am fat. Well screw you guys. You are the minority...the rest of us who eat are the majority. It makes me so angry to think of people who think they aren't beautiful because they don't measure up to what the standard that is forced upon us. Personally I get way too excited when I see a 'real woman' in movies. I think, look at her thighs...they are like the same size as mine. Really I shouldn't be thinking this. But woman are so worried about meeting standards that we are happy when someone in the media that looks like us.
I am happy for Tyra, it's unfortunate that she had to retire to be able to gain 30 pounds. I'm happy for stars like Catherine Zeta Jones, and Mandy Moore, who are healthy sized actresses. I'm happy for Jennifer Hudson and Beyonce Knowles and their curves. I just wish I didn't have to be happy for a few successful people in the media who are normal sized. I wish I didn't live in a world where we create standards of beauty. Standards of beauty that the majority of people can't meet.
I know a very impressionable young girl, who I think is absolutely beautiful but I have already witnessed on a few occasions her worrying about her weight and looks. And it makes me so angry. How do I explain to her, that what we see in movies and on TV is not what you should trying to be. You should focus on simply being healthy. Keep playing soccer and eating the right things...and don't feel bad when you eat sweets, or occasionally splurge and eat junk food. This young girl is tall and lanky and will probably remain this way most of her life just like her mom...but if at the young age of 12 she's already worried about her weight, I'm worried about what's to come in the next few years.
I can hear the criticism...I'm just jealous cause I don't look like them. No I'm not. Even though I've stood in that dreadful mirror way too many times, I like my body. I try to be healthy and maintain a healthy weight, but I don't care if I eat three cookies and don't eat near enough vegetables. I try not to think about those parts of me that I simply can not change. We don't get to decide our body type, we don't get to decide how long our legs are, how wide our hips are, how big our breasts are (well you can in fact alter that...but that's a whole other can of worms) If one focuses so much energy on things we can not change, we burn out long before we learn to focus on the beautiful aspects of ourselves.
Anyways, I could go on forever about this. But you know, I just wanted to say I'm beautiful, and I can't think of one woman in my life that isn't. So let's go have some cake and complain about our thighs. I know, I'm a hypocrite!
Click on image to go to the Dove Real Beauty Campaign(While looking for a pic of the 'Dove' models to go with this post I found this article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/18/AR2005081801887.html It made me feel bad for saying 'real woman'. I certainly in no way suggest that anyone who is below a size 10 is artificial. My only point is we should stop putting so much focus on beauty and deciding a certain body type is a standard of beauty. In any case check it out.)
