I was reading an article yesterday about the model Crystal Renn who used to be a "normal model" at size 0 (she was anorexic at this time) and is now a "plus-sized model" at size 12. Crystal talks about how the fashion industry (and our society in general) needs to make some serious changes, specifically by not glamorizing waif thin girls/women. Hollywood clearly doesn't help this cultural attitude about weight as most actresses could jump on the catwalk and fit right in with the size 0-2 models.
After I read the people.com article, I started doing some research on the topic and was surprised by some of my findings and mainly by comments people left on various articles. The general consensus seems to be that models and actresses do not represent an attainable reality for most women and are harming the self-esteem of young girls who idolize these women. And I agree with these thoughts because I, myself, have often been overly critical of my body and the number on the scale.
It's difficult to open a fashion magazine and see these women wearing beautiful clothes and looking fantastic and actually remember that they have entire beauty team working on them and lighting experts to put them in the right light. Oh and not to mention the "re-touching" that the industry even admits to using. It's hard not to compare ourselves to these women. But we shouldn't. Most of them, I'm convinced, are constantly hungry. And if they're not, they do have plenty of money for personal trainers, personal chefs and liposuction. Besides, if you ask most men, they don't prefer the waif thin look where you can see a girl's ribs. Most men like T&A...the bigger the better in many cases.
So I do think the fashion industry and entertainment world have got it wrong, as do most of the women who left comments on the articles I was reading. But I was a little taken aback by some of the comments. While a size 0 is not necessarily healthy, is a size 12? According to various internet sources, the average dress size for women in the US is a size 14. This wasn't very surprising to me, considering how fast food restaurants are on every corner, portion sizes have increased over the years and America has gradually been getting fatter. But what did surprise me, was the numerous comments from women proudly proclaiming to being a size 12 or 14 and saying, they're "normal" and could stand to lose some weight but are not overweight. How you could stand to lose weight, but not be "overweight" is beyond me and doesn't compute, but that's beside the point - or actually, that is my point. While women shouldn't strive to be a size 0 or 2 and I don't think we should focus so much on the number on the scale or the size of our clothes, I get the feeling that many women don't think they are overweight, when in fact, they are. So there's a strange dichotomy in our society.
If you google "is a size 12 overweight" you get over 5 million hits and after clicking on some of the links, its clear there's no consensus as to the answer. Experts say BMI is the real test for whether or not someone is under or over-weight. So perhaps the question of whether a size 12 is overweight is irrelevant. But reading these articles has got me thinking about our culture and what we are teaching young girls. I for one have realized I need to get a grasp on my body image way before I have a daughter and screw up her self esteem. I do think the best thing for me growing up was doing sports and staying active. As a pre-teen and teenager I didn't have time to sit around and worry about my weight or how I compared to models - I was either going to school or swimming for 2 hours a day.
And perhaps you are asking yourself why I would be writing this post when I myself started a diet a month ago. If you ask my husband or most of my friends, they'll tell you I look great and don't need to be on any diet. One of my friends laughed at me when I told her I started WW. Perhaps they are right. My BMI is in the normal range. I wear a size 6. And I exercise 5-6 days a week, rarely eat fast food and typically eat healthy. So why am I trying to lose weight? It's a good question. Personally, I want to fit in the clothes sitting in my closet. I read somewhere that we shouldn't desire to be the same size or shape as models or actresses. But if we want an attainable goal, you could look to a size you yourself used to be, because if you were that size at one point, you can realistically be that size again (this does not apply if you had an eating disorder when you were the smaller size). I have a tendency to pick good food but eat too much of them (remember my overeating compulsions...) and if I stop working out, I don't feel good about myself. But I don't need to be a size 2, nor do I want to be. I just want to be healthy and happy. And right now I am.
And the next time I have a negative thought about my body, I'm going to remind myself that last Sunday I did a 9 mile run. My body is working for me and I need to love it in return, because its the only one I have.
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