Willendorf Was Fit, Too

[omorka]

An Interesting Article

Now, I know I need more exercise. The sedentary lifestyle I currently have I know is not good for me - partially because I know what I feel like when I'm more fit (I used to walk a lot when I was a child). I have long suspected that that was far more important than my weight per se. I should probably research a good dance studio . . .

Comments

[moontyger.livejournal.com]

This article was great, and I really agreed with a lot of it. The class issues in fat phobia are often overlooked, but clearly form a big part of it. And of course the profit motive is obvious.

But then again, I don't find fat disgusting, either.

However, I do think some of us naturally thin people get our body image issues overlooked, too. I have always felt uncomfortable at body image workshops because it seems no one thinks I could really have a bad body image or any problems associated with the way I look. And yet I have repeatedly been told that I am too skinny or not curvy enough to be attractive, not to mention the frequent comments about my breats being too small. And it really isn't that I am eating disorder queen or anything here; you know that. I hate it when people assume that, or that I feel I cannot order a salad because I feel I need more greens without people assuming I am on a constant diet or something. Is it so hard to believe that my body is just naturally this size?

I do think the politics of fat is a big issue in this country and we really need to change it. But changing it should not mean reversing it and having thin people looked down on and harassed, either.

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Well, according to most body-mass index charts, IIRC, you're not even underweight - you're at "healthy." And I can't imagine anyone telling you that you aren't curvy - you certainly have hips. (Low-rider jeans actually look okay on you; they look silly, like cleavage on an A-cup, on someone who has no hips.)

On the other hand, our culture promulgates such an unrealistic idea of beauty that almost all women have body image issues of one type or another. If our stomachs are flat enough, our boobs are too small. If our boobs are big enough, they droop. If we have prefect tits, our asses are too big. And every woman thinks her thighs are too big, even the supermodels. (It's even worse for women of color.) And we, as women, need to do each other the favor of understanding that even women who we think are more attractive than we are have been hurt by the standard of beauty that no-one can meet.

[moontyger.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I am usually considered healthy on those charts. Yet maybe it is just the people I know, but I am often the skinniest woman in the room when out with friends and such. Not that I have been out much at all lately...

And so true! I know hardly any women who are happy with their bodies, and those that are have had to work very hard to be so. The odds of any woman feeling attractive, no matter how beautiful she is, seem very, very low.