Thursday, Feb. 06, 2003 7:01 A.M.
Weight loss I stole this from mizlizzy's Diary. She got it from Freep.com I agree with Mzlizzy, "Amen to that." LEONARD PITTS JR.: What matters? Heart, brains, not girls' size
January 31, 2003 BY LEONARD PITTS JR. It may be the ultimate weight loss plan. No diet, no exercise, no surgery, no pills. Just a little digital wizardry. Point and click here, point and click there, and unwanted pounds melt magically away -- from your photographed image, that is. This is what the British edition of GQ magazine recently did, altering photographs of actress Kate Winslet -- without her knowledge, she says -- to give her that svelte look common to heroin addicts and supermodels. Winslet's response: "This is me," she says. "Like it or lump it . . . I'm not a twig, and I refuse to be one. I'm happy with the way I am." Winslet, it should be pointed out, is not what we delicately describe as a "plus-size woman." She's just a woman with womanly curves. I wish I had a convenient theory for when and why womanly curves became a bad thing. It was not always thus. Marilyn Monroe was not, after all, a bean pole. By contrast, a 1997 Psychology Today article reported on a researcher who had quantified the fact that Playboy centerfolds and Miss America contestants had been getting skinnier over the years. Our perception of beauty has changed. And if you're wondering why that matters, it's because our girls are watching. Watching and learning how it is they should be. Much of what they have learned has proved dangerous, if not deadly, to body and spirit. Approximately 5 million to 10 million women and girls (and 1 million boys and men) suffer from eating disorders -- primarily anorexia and bulimia -- which are sometimes fatal. That same Psychology Today recounted the results of a body image survey of 4,000 women and men. Almost 90 percent of the women wanted to lose weight. Score one for pop culture. I mean, one of its primary functions is to make us dissatisfied with what we are, make us want what it is selling. Right now, it's selling the canard that the average supermodel's body is achievable or even desirable for the average girl. And girls are getting sick, even dying, as a result. There are feminists who would argue that the solution is for men to stop objectifying women, but their reasoning flies in the face of human nature. If somebody hadn't objectified somebody else, none of us would be here to argue about it. And anyone who doesn't think women fantasize about a masculine ideal has never seen a soap opera or romance novel. I'm not out to stop the endless mating dance of male and female. I'd just like to see something done to protect our girls and women from its more insidious effects. Just like to see the media gatekeepers become more conscientious about depicting the beauty of women and girls in all its dimensions. Not just breasts, but brains, heart, humor, compassion, love. It is a pipe dream, yes. So I guess those of us who care about such things will have to be satisfied with concentrating on those girls closest to us and exhorting them to value themselves for ALL the things they are. I tell my adolescent daughter that there's going to come a day when someone will seek to evaluate her by the same cold, meat-market standards by which GQ evaluated Kate Winslet. I hope, when that day comes, she has enough love for herself to respond as Winslet did. "This is me. Like it or lump it." For the record, Kate: Like it. Like it a lot.
I have, myself been both ends of the line. When I was younger (21) I weighed 95 pounds. If anorexic had been as well known as it is now, I would have been accused of being that. Then I went up to 168 a few years ago. I was, in my opinion, at 5'2", fat. In all honesty, I think scrawny and fat people are taken more seriousley. Why? Because others tend to listen to what you have to say more. They aren't fixated on how you look. Aren't most of us guilty of buying into this crap? I just had an epiphany. How is it that I can tell Brittni (my granddaughter) that she is beautiful the way she is? She is thin and tall. But she thinks she is too fat. And here is Grandma telling her she is fine the way she is and all the while, she hears me talking about Dr. Atkins and wanting to lose 20 pounds to look "good". I think Grandma needs to practice what she preaches and embrace her own damn self. I see it everywhere. My friend is another one. She tells her daughter (16) that she is beautiful and yet she sees her shop for all the products she heeds for her weight watchers. Sort of giving the girl a double standard, huh? I'm not saying we shouldn't diet and get in shape. But maybe we should chose our words more carefully around our young friends/relatives and focus on losing weight to be healthy, not for appearance. Something to ponder. Thanks for getting me to think so early in the morning, mizlizzy!! Later,
Cosmic
|
yesterday's gone/tomorrow's coming- - 2009-07-27
- - 2009-07-07
- - 2009-06-29
- - 2009-06-26
- - 2009-06-09
MY PERSONAL HEALTH PROGRAM
� kmurray 2007 - 8
|
