Filed under: Health and Fitness, Rants, Social Commentary, weight loss, Womanhood, women's issues
Okay, NOW I’m pissed.
First, let me state that the outfit Britney was wearing for this performance was a poor choice for anyone, at any time. It is unattractive and tasteless and would make just about anyone look bad.
Having said that, I am beyond incensed at the plethora of “fat” comments engendered by this! I heard the comments before I saw the performance, and looked it up fully expecting to see the visual evidence of a year-long binge. Let’s face it, the girl has been on a bit of a roll lately. I expected that to be reflected in sagging arms, a bulging belly, jiggling cellulite – in short, all of the things advertised in the Web flames.
Frankly, I see none of this. I see a body that is a hell of a lot better than 99% of the women on the planet, and one that most teenage girls wouldn’t be ashamed to claim. I see a shape a little curvier than the one she had pre-babies, but I do not see rolls and bulges and flab. I see arms that are more rounded and less toned than the average Hollywood star’s, but they are not fat, flabby, or unattractive. I see legs that are a little thicker than most of the same Hollywood stars’, but again not flabby or revolting.
Britney does not look the way she once did. She also doesn’t look like a woman who has given birth twice. Frankly, considering the two kids and the lifestyle she has been pursuing, she looks damn good.
In what universe is this fat? I truly want to know. Because I don’t think I want to live in that universe. That is a universe of carrot sticks, water and lettuce, and very little else. A universe of girls learning to hate themselves at an earlier age all the time; of young women starving themselves and abusing their bodies in the name of “beauty” because if they don’t, they are reviled; of the average woman looking at herself with nothing short of disgust and revulsion, no matter how healthy she may be, because she can’t possibly live up to the not only ridiculous but downright dangerous standard that is being held up for her review!
I have a 16-year-old daughter. She is frankly gorgeous, if I do say so myself (and I do). She is 5’4″, with long light-brown hair and greenish-brown eyes, lovely fair skin with a delicate smattering of freckles across her nose, a sweetly curved mouth that smiles a lot, and a knockout figure. If she were a little older, she would be called sexy as hell; as it is, my friends see her and say, “She’s got such a cute figure! She’s on birth control, right?”
She wears a size 6. She probably weighs more than Britney. (The boys who text her constantly don’t seem to mind much, though.)
To the idiots criticizing Britney’s appearance, this beautiful girl would be considered a “tubby chick” and ridiculed for her size. Which, frankly, is utter bullshit. I despair because she thinks she’s fat; I wonder how to make her see that her size is normal, healthy and gorgeous, (and a size I would have killed for at that age!) and that protruding bones do not equal beauty. I agonize over what it does to her self-esteem that she is not a twig. And then I read articles like this one, and I want to throttle somebody.
It is no wonder that young girls everywhere are growing up to be women with enormous self-esteem issues and a complete lack of reason when it comes to their body image. It’s not just the fact that bone-thin women with a silhouette similar to that of a drought-surviving Ethiopian are paraded before us and called “beautiful”. It is the fact that women with an ounce of flesh – whether it’s fat or muscle – are called “tubby”, “chunky”, “fleshy”, and outright “fat”.
I am no fan of Britney Spears. I never have been. The girl needs turned over someone’s knee and taught some manners, some class, and some self-respect. But this is ridiculous, and I am deeply angered on behalf of every female on the planet. It is time that this insanity stopped.
Filed under: Health and Fitness, Rants, Self-Respect, Social Commentary, weight loss, Womanhood, women's issues
Forgive me…I will warn in advance that this is angry and opinionated and…hostile.
But I mean, honestly. Sometimes people make me so angry I could cry. Here is this father, who is a fashion designer, talking about the sobering discovery that his daughter has an eating disorder, and lamenting the unrealistic standards of the fashion industry that help to create situations like this.
And several comments down, here’s this troll commenting that a size 10 to 12 is only average because Americans are all fat, and we shouldn’t pretend that’s acceptable. And meanwhile, she is a size zero and perfectly healthy. (She’s responding to a somewhat angry comment that the father’s promotion of a size 4 to 6 is not any better than the fashion industry standard of 0 to 2. I thought that comment was a bit overheated too, though I agreed.)
I only commented (mine is about number 41 or so) because I couldn’t reach “J”, to knock her the f&*k out. And it is so good that I couldn’t because I don’t think I’d have stopped kicking her when she lost consciousness…
Am I the only person who is sick to utter death at these women who help perpetuate the myth that we all need to be a particular size? Please don’t misunderstand me…I am on a journey here, striving for the utter limit of good health and wellness and fitness, and I don’t intend to stop ever because, well, you can’t. You don’t get there and then go on vacation. It’s for life. But…
I also accept that “healthy” for me is not the same as “healthy” for someone else. At a size 16/18, I was horribly unhealthy. I was heading for an early grave. At a size 8, I’m in pretty darned good shape. But I know women who, at a size 16/18, are in great shape. They’re strong, they have excellent medical test results, they are athletic, they are happy. For them, health is not about a number or a measurement or a BMI or anything else. I also know women who are a size 2, who can’t carry a damned 24-pack of bottled water and couldn’t finish a 5K if their lives depended on it. It’s not about a number on the scale or the tape measure.
Why do we do this to our daughters? Our sisters, our mothers, our nieces and friends? Ourselves? I am so, so sad. Because it’s bad, it’s really bad, when the faceless media does it to us. It’s unforgiveable when we do it to each other.
Madelaine Albright said, “There’s a special place in hell for women who do not help other women.” I believe that. And as far as I’m concerned, “J” has a one-way ticket. If that’s overly hostile…okay. I can live with that.