I must say, I am getting more and more frustrated with this obsession American's have with body image. I've been researching a bit lately and keep finding over and over again cruel comments made about people with perfectly healthy/thin bodies.
And to be perfectly honest I even hear it from perfectly nice people I know. Case & point: I overheard someone a couple weeks ago talking about one of their favorite shows, Dancing With the Stars, she discussed people's skill level, partners, etc. and then she said something that intrigued me, she said that Cheryl Burke (the curvy 2-time professional champ) had gotten really heavy. Heavy is the word she used. Now, I don't regularly watch the show, so of course I tuned in to see how a woman who a few months ago had a body fat percentage (in my estimation) of less than 10% could now be heavy. What did I find?
Cheryl Burke was wearing a very skimpy dress, sporting flat abs and a great bod! Now, was her back as chiseled as it was 3 seasons ago (when she had perhaps the most perfect back ever)? No. Was it still a very attractive and thin back? Yes. Come on people. Come on...what were you thinking?! Heavy? Really? Ah, no. Here's a video clip from her recent appearance on the Ellen show...you be the judge.
You see, it's not just fashion mags, and has-been models (ie. Janice Dickinson) who tell women they aren't good enough. It's not just the men's magazines and the 19 year olds with eating disorders. It's our everyday people, our sisters, our moms, our friends. Why? It simply doesn't makes sense...why do we hold women to standards that can be described as nothing less than sexist, demeaning and eating-disorder-promoting???
Choose your words carefully. Little girls are listening and when they hear us call someone like Cheryl Burke heavy it only serves to tell them something is innately wrong with Cheryl and by extension the 99.5% of women whose bodies are far less as perfect as Cheryl's!
You are so right! The media may have started this obsession with being perfectly slim, but we women perpetuate it daily! We keep it alive thru our comments about each other, thru our purchasing of fashion mags showing anorexic models, and thru how we talk to the younger women and girls in our lives! I know that if my childhood chubby body hadn't been so scrutinized and criticized, I would have had better self esteem and so would probably have dealt with my weight in a healthy manner when the time was right. But because I was made to feel so bad about it, and about myself for being heavy, I just kept feeling worse and worse every time someone made a comment, and this made me eat more to console myself. Nasty vicious cycle that messed me up for years. Please be careful how you talk to your daughters and other young women in your life about weight, food and body image. They are listening, and they will react. Make sure it is positive!
www.WhyAreYouWeighting.com
Posted by: stacey grieve | October 30, 2008 at 03:30 PM
UNBELIEVABLE! She looks great. In fact, she looks healthy and feminine (not gaunt and stringy).
Totally unfair. She has a right to be ticked off!
The madness must stop!!!!
The P
Posted by: Princess Dieter | October 31, 2008 at 04:31 PM