Weighty Wednesday -- Body Image

I missed my WW meeting this week. Hubs took my car yesterday morning. I could have arrived late, but why bother when I knew I was still over my goal weight.

Yeah, I'm all about justifying my inability to lose weight . . . sound just a tiny bit familiar?

Anyway, today's topic is body image.

I'll go with the American concept of body image, as I haven't been out of the country since my kidlet was born, and am not familiar with other countries concepts.

Americans are obsessed with the idea of the 'skinny' body image, which makes it even more bizarre to realize we are also one of the most obese nations, too!

But the concept of the 'perfect' body hasn't evolved in only the last 50 years since Twiggy hit the runway in England and became the standard by which designers use to display their clothes.

Oh, no.


In China, it was common to bind the feet of women. This practice can be traced back to 700 AD and it was only recently banned just over 100 years ago, in 1911. Tiny feet were considered a status symbol, but can you imagine the pain these girls and women suffered their entire lives?

Then you have the women in some African and Asian countries who wear neck rings. They cannot take these rings off once they are place on because their neck muscles have atrophied and they couldn't hold their heads up.

 I can't even wear a turtleneck shirt without feeling like I'm choking, I can't imagine having these around my neck . . . but then again, I wouldn't have a degenerative disc disease in my cervical spine, either!

Or 17th century dresses, with exaggerated hips:

Or the advent of the corset to give the hourglass figure. No wonder Scarlet O'Hara ate like a bird in GONE WITH THE WIND. One couldn't eat in a tight corset!

Or the 19th century bustles, which emphasis big butts:

 

It wasn't until the blonde bombshell Mae West came on the scene that women started looking like we should look.

 

Or Betty Grable, WWII pin up girl.

Or Jane Russell

 

Or do you prefer Twiggy's look?

 

I don't. This picture screams anorexia to me, but then again, she could simply be a slender person. Not all of us were made to be this size.

Personally, I think women should be happy in their own bodies. Some of us are short and rounder than others (me) or tall and lanky (not me). This is easy to say, but harder to do. A swim mom and I were talking about this at the last swim meet. It wasn't until age crept up on us, and we had to deal with age-related metabolism and our various aches and pains, that we realized how smoking hot our bodies were 20-30 years ago, while we were in our 20's and 30's.

Too bad at the time we thought we were fat and never realized how good we looked.

Don't make this your future. Enjoy who you are now. I say this with the exception of the morbidly obese. Obese is not healthy. It causes numerous health issues. Slightly overweight with a little extra padding is not obese.

"Normal" is just an average, as there are always people on each end of the spectrum. The key is to find the happy medium.

Personally, I'd go for the Jane Russell look myself, maybe it's just the brunette in me.

Later, peeps!