Let's talk about weight
I looked through my tags to make sure I hadn't posted about this before, because I've been thinking about it for awhile.
As a woman of a certain size, who will always be a little bit round even after losing weight, I don't like the fact that for a very long time skinny was the only way to be considered attractive. And I think we can all agree with that. No sane person thinks it's OK to be so obsessed with being skinny that it leads women to starving themselves and all other kinds of crap just to fit the image.
However-
Do we really need to trash skinny women to get that point across? Not every woman who's really skinny is that way because they're malnutritioned. I've known women who try to gain weight because they are sick and hurt from being accused of anorexia, but they can't seem to gain or maintain a higher weight. It's just the way they're built.
Skinny woman are not the enemy. Society as a whole is. But it's not going to do any good if we change the tide from making fun of fat people to making fun of skinny people. We need to be inclusive of all body types.
I'm not saying eating disorders don't exist or anything. But assuming that any woman who is skinny is starving herself and is therefore disgusting is not any better than the things that have been said about larger woman for years.
One of my favorite examples: Gabrielle Anwar.
Yes, she's tiny. There are times when she wears a bikini on Burn Notice that you can see her ribs. However, she has a naturally tiny frame, is a vegan, does hip hop yoga everyday, has a high stress job and raises three kids as a single mom. She doesn't have a whole lot of body fat, but it's not because she starves herself. And for further proof, check out the season 2 bloopers real at 6:02. She flexes for the camera and has some pretty enviable biceps. My understanding is that people who are anorexic or bulimic (or don't have the proper nutrition for whatever other reason) can't develop muscle mass because their bodies steal the nutrients from their muscles to make up for the lack of nutrition.
She also talk about weight (and looks in general) in a way I really love in this interview. Excerpts:
She doesn’t take those looks seriously. “My daughter tells me that I have horrible things written about my lips, my leathery skin, and my breasts,” she once said. ” My lips look big because I over-line them with lip liner because I want to look like Angelina Jolie. My skin is leathery because I love the sun and I’m not as vain as I am in love with the sun. And my breasts got really big because I had a baby and then they got really small. You know what? It’s called aging. I think I’ve graduated past the ingénue.”
and
Interestingly, you’re criticized on some Burn Notice message boards for being too skinny.
I have a lot of feelings about weight and about bodies.
Go ahead and tell me. This is the Internet - we don’t pay for paper.
I feel as though it’s such a personal journey, and I feel people are very quick to judge our weight. Being in the public eye, one can’t win, because you’re either too thin, and you’re anorexic and you’re on the verge of death, or you’re overweight and you need some sort of rehabilitation in each case.
And you?
For me, and I think like most women, my weight has fluctuated over the years with pregnancy and breast feeding and grappling with an image of a younger version of myself with an older shell.
So you don’t pay attention?
No. It’s more complicated - and personal. The media has an unusual obsession with weight, but the reality is that women’s bodies fluctuate. We go through a lot of transitions. From puberty on. Our bodies are designed to make another human within them, and during a typical menstrual cycle, we gain weight, we gain water weight, we lose it. Our bodies swell in various parts and then they shrink and it’s a lot to contend with within a 28 day cycle. So combining 12 versions of that a year, though all those years that we live, it’s a really intimate journey that we have with ourselves. And for it to be documented and commented on so flippantly in the media, is, I think, really disturbing.
As someone who is small boned and of a petite frame, I find it equally upsetting to have women who are of a larger body type being hailed as wonderful spokeswomen for women’s body issues. It’s a personal experience, and I think ultimately I can gauge my ideal weight by how I feel, as it probably should be for most people. It’s not about my silhouette or whether I can fit into a zero or 2. It’s again, my clothing size varies within a month. Not within a 6 month dietary phase. And I think I need to really remember that my body has produced three healthy extraordinary human beings from within. And no matter whether it’s sagging here or swollen there, it’s not about that. It’s not about that. It’s about the magnificence of what we’re here to do.
You talk about it much deeper than necessary.
Hey, the heat runs deep, man.
(and then she talks about having a sex dream about Obama, it's not related to this topic but it made me lol)
So, yeah. I sort of feel wiped out on this issue. It's been in my head so long I feel like I've been discussing it for ages.
As a woman of a certain size, who will always be a little bit round even after losing weight, I don't like the fact that for a very long time skinny was the only way to be considered attractive. And I think we can all agree with that. No sane person thinks it's OK to be so obsessed with being skinny that it leads women to starving themselves and all other kinds of crap just to fit the image.
However-
Do we really need to trash skinny women to get that point across? Not every woman who's really skinny is that way because they're malnutritioned. I've known women who try to gain weight because they are sick and hurt from being accused of anorexia, but they can't seem to gain or maintain a higher weight. It's just the way they're built.
Skinny woman are not the enemy. Society as a whole is. But it's not going to do any good if we change the tide from making fun of fat people to making fun of skinny people. We need to be inclusive of all body types.
I'm not saying eating disorders don't exist or anything. But assuming that any woman who is skinny is starving herself and is therefore disgusting is not any better than the things that have been said about larger woman for years.
One of my favorite examples: Gabrielle Anwar.
Yes, she's tiny. There are times when she wears a bikini on Burn Notice that you can see her ribs. However, she has a naturally tiny frame, is a vegan, does hip hop yoga everyday, has a high stress job and raises three kids as a single mom. She doesn't have a whole lot of body fat, but it's not because she starves herself. And for further proof, check out the season 2 bloopers real at 6:02. She flexes for the camera and has some pretty enviable biceps. My understanding is that people who are anorexic or bulimic (or don't have the proper nutrition for whatever other reason) can't develop muscle mass because their bodies steal the nutrients from their muscles to make up for the lack of nutrition.
She also talk about weight (and looks in general) in a way I really love in this interview. Excerpts:
She doesn’t take those looks seriously. “My daughter tells me that I have horrible things written about my lips, my leathery skin, and my breasts,” she once said. ” My lips look big because I over-line them with lip liner because I want to look like Angelina Jolie. My skin is leathery because I love the sun and I’m not as vain as I am in love with the sun. And my breasts got really big because I had a baby and then they got really small. You know what? It’s called aging. I think I’ve graduated past the ingénue.”
and
Interestingly, you’re criticized on some Burn Notice message boards for being too skinny.
I have a lot of feelings about weight and about bodies.
Go ahead and tell me. This is the Internet - we don’t pay for paper.
I feel as though it’s such a personal journey, and I feel people are very quick to judge our weight. Being in the public eye, one can’t win, because you’re either too thin, and you’re anorexic and you’re on the verge of death, or you’re overweight and you need some sort of rehabilitation in each case.
And you?
For me, and I think like most women, my weight has fluctuated over the years with pregnancy and breast feeding and grappling with an image of a younger version of myself with an older shell.
So you don’t pay attention?
No. It’s more complicated - and personal. The media has an unusual obsession with weight, but the reality is that women’s bodies fluctuate. We go through a lot of transitions. From puberty on. Our bodies are designed to make another human within them, and during a typical menstrual cycle, we gain weight, we gain water weight, we lose it. Our bodies swell in various parts and then they shrink and it’s a lot to contend with within a 28 day cycle. So combining 12 versions of that a year, though all those years that we live, it’s a really intimate journey that we have with ourselves. And for it to be documented and commented on so flippantly in the media, is, I think, really disturbing.
As someone who is small boned and of a petite frame, I find it equally upsetting to have women who are of a larger body type being hailed as wonderful spokeswomen for women’s body issues. It’s a personal experience, and I think ultimately I can gauge my ideal weight by how I feel, as it probably should be for most people. It’s not about my silhouette or whether I can fit into a zero or 2. It’s again, my clothing size varies within a month. Not within a 6 month dietary phase. And I think I need to really remember that my body has produced three healthy extraordinary human beings from within. And no matter whether it’s sagging here or swollen there, it’s not about that. It’s not about that. It’s about the magnificence of what we’re here to do.
You talk about it much deeper than necessary.
Hey, the heat runs deep, man.
(and then she talks about having a sex dream about Obama, it's not related to this topic but it made me lol)
So, yeah. I sort of feel wiped out on this issue. It's been in my head so long I feel like I've been discussing it for ages.