What's mostly on my mind tonight is an ad I saw today while flipping through RedBook. I don't read many magazines anymore because I'm trying to divorce myself from the "everyone knows" type articles and the you-have-to-be-perfect-and-beautiful-all-the-time mentality that makes up practically every part of almost all the magazines I used to read. I had to start throwing away my Shape magazines as soon as I got them because they were making me depressed (just eat less and move more and you'll look like this supermodel!!!!!!!). And don't even get me started on Cosmo.
The ad I saw in Redbook was for Slim-Fast. Yes, Slim-Fast is annoying in general. "Just drink our carbalicious drinks and then starve yourself and you'll lose weight!" Don't you just want to kick them where it counts sometimes? Yes, we all do. But this ad is different. And apparently, it's just part of a huge ad campaign. The tv commercials, I hear, are really bad (NC-17, seriously). But I'll stop rambling and just show you what caught my attention. Click on it to read the small stuff.
Yeah, ok. Who amongst us hasn't tried to lose weight because we kind of hated the way we looked when we were fat? I know I have. When I went on a low calorie diet, it was to look better because I hated the way my body looked.
The reason this ad bothers me so much is because it adds fuel to the self-loathing fire that most women (and men) live with. No, it doesn't say, "Hey gals, you should hate your body so that you'll want to buy our product," but it does try to make you think that by losing a couple of pounds, maybe you'll get everything you want in life. A sexy bikini body that will attract that hot guy you like who will love you so you don't have to love yourself. It was almost scary to read what Ashley from Massachusetts said her real reason was... To be the skinniest mom in her group. Not just one of the skinniest, or the healthiest, or the strongest or even the prettiest, but the skinniest. There's something wrong with this picture.
I don't think it's healthy for women to focus on skinny. That's not what really matters, at the end of the day, because we're not all designed to be skinny like that. Some of us are designed to be chunky, curvy, strong or big boned. And there's nothing wrong with that.
My grandma lived to just shy of 103. She wasn't a skinny woman. She wasn't fat by any means, but she was big boned, thick, muscular, well built, even into her 100s. She worked hard all her life raising 12 children, about half of that time working on a large farm and the other half working as a school lunch lady (back in the day when they made every meal from scratch). She didn't get skinny until shortly before she died.
I wish the media wouldn't focus so hard on weight. It seems like practically everything said about a star is about their weight. Look at how great she looks in a bikini (and here's how you can looks that great too!!). OMG this celeb is skin and bones!!! WOW this celeb is a beautiful plus size lady! And that celeb lost all her baby weight in TWO DAYS!
Let's just stop with the weight thing already. It's not as important as we make it out to be. Yes, I think it's really cool when people celebrate plus sized stars, and I also think it's a needed wake up call when they point out how ridiculously skinny some celebs are, but I think spending that much time focusing on weight is dangerous. Pretty soon, everyone is saying how losing weight is the only way to be happy, the only way to be healthy. Instead, let's focus first on health and finding our body's natural balance. If we're treating our bodies right, they'll get to the weight that we're supposed to be at. That may mean we're very skinny, like my 6'5 175 pound bean pole husband. Or that might mean we're chunky, like me, a curvy 5'7 185 pound girl.
Yeah, us girls are all bitches sometimes, especially to ourselves...
ReplyDeleteI like your blog, thanks for taking the time to do this!