body image

I just turned twenty in May. Over the past year, I have
noticed that my metabolism has slowed down significantly.
I can no longer eat everything in sight, yet suffer no
consequences whatsoever. So I started exercising regularly.
I had more energy, but I still hated looking in the mirror to
see the 7 pounds I've gained since college camping out on my
belly and thighs. As you can probably tell from my last post,
this has caused a great deal of frustration for me. I have
been trying to lose a few pounds, and instead I've gained one.
In the meantime, I have guy friends who are trying to lose five
pounds and lose ten. And that really is frustrating.

What is more frustrating, however, is the fact that I have allowed
myself to take the media's view of what a woman's body should
look like to heart. It's my fault really. I love fashion, and have
a subscription to almost every major American fashion magazine.
So I'm constantly looking at women who are 5'7" to 6 feet tall and
weigh as much (or little) as I do at 5'3". My bmi is perfectly healthy,
which means that those stick thin models are not. So why do I want
to look like them, exactly?

Kate Moss, you have done our world a great disservice. What happened
to models like Cindy Crawford? I don't think it's any coincidence that the
height of the super model was 15 years ago when women actually had a little
meat on their bones. Women could realistically aspire to look like Tyra Banks,
you know?

And what about Marilynn Monroe? She had curves that wouldn't quite!
She was considered to be the epitome of what a woman should look like.
And men seemed to like it. But now, I'm supposed to be able to fit into
jeans that say ZERO on the tag? What does that even mean? I'm not
supposed to exist? That isn't a size.

I was recently at an exhibit at the Frist where a few Greek statues were on
display. I noticed that all of the women had bellies. Pooches, if you will.
And pretty big thighs and hips. The men, however, were the ones that looked
muscular. Well, folks, if Aphrodite was the most beautiful woman in the world
and she had a pooch, I sure as heck don't see what's so wrong with mine! We're
always saying so and so "looks like a Greek god." Maybe you look more like one
than you think.

I'm tired of crying when I go to try on clothes because I don't fit into a specific
size, or I don't look like the girls in the magazines. Pop culture is polluting our brains.
We don't need to look like Jessica Alba, or Jessica Biel, or Kate Moss (who recently
developed a pooch, and I love it), or Beyonce, or anyone but ourselves. And why
would we want to look like any of those girls? They don't seem happy. I wouldn't
be either if I never ate. And I'm certainly not going to throw up to look that
way, either.

Ladies, put down the magazines and embrace the fat between your legs
and the pooch on your belly (which, by the way, produces estrogen, which
then helps us deliver babies and create life!) HELLO!