Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Have you seen this picture floating around on the internet?
I don't normally post pictures of scantily clad (or not clad) people on my blog. But I felt that this was good enough, and maybe even important enough to write about.
I have self image issues. Major ones. Maybe, reading between the lines on my Wednesday Weigh-Ins, you've already ascertained that. I've been plagued by self image issues that have made their way into self esteem issues. I've fought my battles. Someday, maybe, I'll get brave enough to talk more about those battles. Today is not that day.
This picture was originally just a 3 inch by 3 inch photo in a major fashion magazine. When I saw this picture, it was amazingly refreshing. A woman posing for a major magazine who looks like a normal woman. She has a normal looking tummy. She has normal looking thighs. Nicer ones than mine, but still normal looking. She is a size 12-14. Not a size 0, 1, or 2. A normal healthy size.
And she is beautiful.
No matter how we would like to deny it, we compare ourselves to other women. We see covers of magazines, stick thin mannequins, impossibly thin actresses, and we do compare. We tend to focus on the thin women around us and think they are the ones we are supposed to look like. We tend not to notice as much all the perfectly normal women.
I'm not talking about wanting to be a healthy weight. I am not at an ideal BMI. When I exercise and diet (which I'll eventually get to. I promise you and me that.) I'm not aiming for a dress size or pant size. I'm aiming to be healthier.
Have you see this commercial?
When I first saw this commercial during the Super Bowl many years ago, I was brought to tears.
Hopefully, the media becomes full of pictures of real, healthy, happy women. And the next generation of girls will have an easier time of it than I did.
4 comments:
I know those issues all to well. As I've gotten older I have more "fat days" than "skinny" ones. I on occasion mention how unattractive or fat I feel to Ed. And he is just amazed that I think that about myself. He said he never believed that women thought that until I said something about it all the time.
I to struggle, and know for my female counterparts it's a lot rougher after having kids. A friend of mine is always complaining, and all I see is her size 2 ass after having four kids. Yeah. we all have issues. and Katherine. I always thought you were beautiful and have many times compared myself to you. (You always come out the winner, not just int he looks dept.)
But I think every woman has these issues whether they make them known or not.
When I was in 8th grade, I weighed 108 pounds. The fact that the scale had crossed the hundred pound mark made me feel fat and awful. My mom and grandmother didn't help. I look at high school pictures of myself and I'm shocked because I was thin and cute, but felt like I weighed about 300 pounds.
Now I'm older and, shocker, I actually am overweight. And I feel the same way about myself as I did back then.
I'm glad there are seems to be a slow and steady push toward putting normal people out in the media. It will take awhile, but it'll happen.
You're right. It is important. We juggle many things we often do not name: knowing we need to be healthy and exercise and then feel and look good/home, families, work;careers, education, social, religious or political involvment, husbandry in one form or another, caring for an extended circle of friends or family, transportation and shopping...it is not a small list, once apportioned to slaves, then to servants and now to the family circle, the tasks to maintain our lives are still significant and an image that makes most of it possible is vital to being capable.
I am still waiting for stretch marks to become fashionable- maybe one day;)
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