Writing about Body Image

[alanajoli]

Speaking of characters I've fallen in love with lately, there's a great new web series I picked up from a friend* via facebook called The World of Holly Woodlands. Calle, the loveable star, is an out of work actress who doesn't fit the body image Hollywood promotes. But in this world, skinny isn't in: instead, actresses who are "cusha" (or about

Comments

[citizenjaq]

http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/go/may

All those factors you mentioned - "Hunger, tiredness, exercise, diet, hormonal cycle" - jumble up your brain something fierce. Whether it's directly, with post-exercise endorphins being generated, or indirectly, with chronic pain affecting your mood and general outlook, so much of your personality is influenced and possibly even defined by mere chemistry in the brain.

Maybe we each have a "true" personality, but how would we ever know what it is? Just the amount of sun we get changes how we think. Let alone pharmaceuticals - Paxil made me "meh" all the time, Wellbutrin tweaked me the hell out and Effexor lets me feel almost, for lack of a better term, normal.

I worried for a long time that medicine took away the "real" me. I certainly don't feel as creative, ambitious or smart as I used to. I also don't feel as anxious, desperate or miserable. Fair trade.

[alanajoli]

I've been thinking about this comment more and more, even after leaving a response on facebook, and I wonder if the idea of that "true" personality is tied into the idea of the soul -- at least, in how I thought about such things as I was growing up. It goes with that body-mind-spirit division that we hear about so often: the idea seems to be that those elements aren't already unified -- that somehow, they're divorced from each other. I had in my head that the soul was something housed by the body, but independent -- the objective self, if you will. And I'm wondering how much I need to entire reevaluate that way of thinking -- that there isn't an objective self beyond the body, there's the self that is part of the body.

[citizenjaq]

Yup. It's troublesome, all right. I'm certainly not saying there's definitely no soul, but it's undeniable that the body and brain at least affect and influence the personality / consciousness / soul. It could very well be that they influence each other, like different firmware versions will change how your MP3 player behaves (and the same firmware on slightly different hardware will behave very differently).

[alanajoli]

One of the reasons I had trouble with Kim Stanley Robinson's really excellent novel Years of Rice and Salt was that the reincarnated characters weren't always identifiable as themselves -- their personalities also changed in each incarnation. And now I'm thinking maybe that was exactly the right way to do it: the soul may be the same, but the experience of reality -- and thus the way a person reacts to it -- is different.

Of course, if the soul only gets one shot at an earthly trip, then there's no reason it couldn't be formed by the experience of life rather than the other way around. Although I do like the firmware analogy... :)

Fun to ponder, anyway!

[asakiyume]

Fascinating on so many points--thanks for this. I feel the same way about message stories, and I liked how you put it: you receive the message so strongly but have no story to remember and enjoy afterward.

Tangentially, what have you learned about women's bodies and how we experience exercise?

[alanajoli]

Oh, I've been learning so much! One of the big differences in organized exercise particularly is that, psychologically, there are tendencies that differ between how men and women get the most out of a work out. (These are only tendencies -- there's certainly a spectrum!) Men tend to be driven by competition, even if it's only topping their own scores -- they're motivated by what I'd call leveling up, to use gamer terms. Some women certainly are similarly motivated, but women also tend to be motivated by the social aspects of exercising -- which probably contributes to the success of places like Curves. When designing an exercise program for women, making it a comfortable place to socialize -- or to create a sense of community -- gives a greater chance of success

[asakiyume]

This is fascinating! Thank you so much for taking the time to write it out.

I like the baby pushups :-)

[alanajoli]

I like them, too! Sadly, Bug is too squirmy for them to really work, now. She's on the move instantly!