Watch out - body image rant ahead!

[logansrogue]

Okay. So you ALL know how I feel about body image, about what women should feel. They should feel comfortable with their natural form. Curves are great. Yada yada yada! You know the drill.

A lot of the time on ONTD people put up the latest pictures of some celeb and say "OMG they're TOO FUCKING THIN!" and people say "GROSS!" and "HOW can they do that to themselves?!"

Then someone - EVERY TIME - some person will pop up and say "Hey, I'm thin! People tell me to eat all the time! I hate it when people do that! People can be naturally skinny, you know!"

Yeah, we know, we fucking KNOW already. But you know what? Shut up. This isn't about you. This isn't about you and your skinny little body that God gave you naturally. You're thin? Congratulations. People give you a hard time about it? Well fuck, I can't find jeans I can fit properly cause my waist is too thin and my arse is too curved. Do you see me bitching and whining about it at every opportunity?

What shits me is these people take it personally when people TRY to address a very real and very terrible problem. People are hurting themselves, STARVING themselves, to look like what the media touts as the 'ideal'. This isn't about you being skinny. It's about people that AREN'T skinny TRYING to be.

When someone is naturally skinny - yes, they look fabulous. They have their own look and it's wonderful.

But you tell me that Nicole Richie doesn't look like death walking. If you expect me to say "Naturally skinny is beautiful, and so is Nicole", you're in la-la land, cause it's not happening.

Personally? No, I don't find extremely skinny people all that attractive, male or female. There are some people I know that carry it so gracefully that I think they're beautiful. People I know in real life, and actual celebs.

For the most part, though, I don't notice really skinny people. I don't MEAN to be like that, it's just my natural evolutionary tendency to notice people who have a body that in natural terms say "I have had plenty to eat, I'm very healthy, I am a good specimen to mate with." It's in my natural coding. I'm sorry about that.

That said, I do have a naturally skinny comic character - Lilita. Though, she IS an alien. LOL.

Comments

[starfyre01.livejournal.com]

I hate Hollyweird with its fucked up version of 'women should look like they've been on heroin, and because of that, they're beautiful' mentality. I've been losing weight (health issue/problem for years), but I have NO intention of going that route. I've made a goal for myself and I think I'm gonna look great. I'll have curves, etc., but I'll never be 'perfect' - and that's great :-)

Nicole Richie looks absolutely SCARY these days :-( Actually, there's a lot of actresses that are scary looking skinny these days...

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Heaps of them. It's awful! :(

[starfyre01.livejournal.com]

What's really frightening though is seeing a 10 year old girl who looks perfectly normal point to one of them and say, "I want to look like that."

EEEKKK!

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Frightening, isn't it? :(

[marymc.livejournal.com]

I got this, as a t-shirt with Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas ->


Heeee... ;D

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

I'm not mad on big muscly guys, I'm just not mad on REALLY skinny guys either. I like a reasonable, healthy medium.

[marymc.livejournal.com]

I like the fact that it's Sally. It says "I dig scrawny pale guys", so anyone with an iota of irony gets it. ;D

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Oh. Well, it's in a fandom I'm unfamiliar with, so ... yeah. LOL! I don't get it. LOL.

[marymc.livejournal.com]

Roffles! Long story short, her luvvaboi, Jack, is a skeleton. ;D

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I figured that one. I must be slow. LOL!!

[commanderteddog.livejournal.com]

Word. Because you know if a slightly heavy person went "Hey, I'm heavy! People tell me to work out the time! I hate it when people do that! People can be naturally curvy, you know!" if would cause hell. But... ONTD is no stranger to wank. But even offline. Being underweight is okay and overweight is not.

I'm built... wide. It's not because I'm a lazy ass; during my mom's ultrasounds, the doctors thought I was a guy because of my broad shoulders! If that isn't nature over environment, I don't know what is. Yeah I'm heavy, but my blood pressure is below average. My health checks out clean except for the weight. I would love to lose it, but it just... doesn't... go. And I've TRIED going to the gym. It's hard for me to raise my heartbeat up to the proper level for burning calories without dropping dead from exhaustion. It's like my heart and muscles are unbalanced; one tires out long before the other.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Oh, great point. So fat people can be given a hard time for being fat, but thin people aren't allowed to be given a hard time for being thin? Whut?

I just wish there was a healthy damned medium somewhere, you know? The thought that we can't guess why a person looks the way they do, we don't know the whole story, it's more important how they hold themselves and how they act towards their fellow human beings.

But that's far too noble a way to behave to fit into reality.

I got wide hips and shoulders. Little middle, though. Causes real problems when I'm buying jeans :T My legs are totally skinny - they fit into size ten pants. It's my hips that are too wide, and it's not fat that stops it - it's the hip bones, the round tops of the femurs. You wouldn't believe it. LOL.

[crzydemona.livejournal.com]

:: standing ovation :: I agree with EVERY WORD.

Great post and great icon! :)

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

*bows* It is a cute icon, isn't it? LOL!

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Hey, so many people worship a good ghetto booty. I love a nice arse on a lady. I lament when girls lose weight or lipo their hips, thighs and ass. Like, go on - take away EVERYTHING that's sexy about your lower half!! *shakes head*

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the fashion industry are a bit thick when it comes to ladies clothes. The other problem is that physiques differ so much, and it's a mass-production industry. All they can do is make a sort of middle-ground.

[afdani1984.livejournal.com]

What pisses me off is when people assume because I'm small, that I'm not capable of certain things. I'm fully aware of my limitations..but one day at work i was trying to move a box and one of the guys actually pushed me out of the way and said "let the men do it". That's the kind of shit that pisses me off. I had to lift as much weight as they did to get this fucking job and if I need help, I'll ask. I don't starve myself, I'm just petite. I can't help it. All I know is it's a pain in the ass to find pants that fit around my hips and don't drag on the floor. But anyways...I try not to pay too much attention to the media. They either critisize for being too thin, or critisize for being too fat. Then they wonder why the percentage of people with eating disorders is so high. There needs to be more people that teach young girls how to appreciate the body they were given. There's things I don't like about the way I look..but I've given up caring, and just concentrate on what I do like about my body.

You know you could do a whole Pscyhology thesis using the show American Idol as reference. Mandisa was critisized for being big, Taylor Hicks because he's completely gray at 29, Elliot Yamin has an awesome voice..but doesnt have the 'hollywood' look. Yet with all that..I'm still drawn to the show like a fucking train wreck. LoL.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Heh. I've heard a lot of complaints that women of your type have. My best friend, Bianca, is short and although she's reasonably curvy, people seem to assume that she can't do things. She gets very angry about it. It's ridiculous cause she's one of the most competent people I know.

As far as being drawn to Idol goes - it's nice to see people go from every day Joes and then up somewhere where they put a part of themselves out that, up until that point, nobody else has been able to see. It's the same reason why I go to karaoke. There's something that happens to a person when they're on stage. You see their true bravery and soul.

[afdani1984.livejournal.com]

Yeah my true bravery and my soul shines in the shower and in my car. LoL I am a self proclaimed car rocker. Gotten some strange looks pulling up at stop lights and people stare cuz I'm going skitzo playing drums on my steering wheel. I bought speakers for my bathroom so i can listen to my ipod in there. lol

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

I wish I could listen to music in the bathroom!! I just have to sing to myself instead!

I swear. I'd have big long baths where I listen to Loreena McKennitt and groovy loose music.

[afdani1984.livejournal.com]

Yeah I only have a standup shower in my dorm room..but holy fuck if I had a bathtub..i'd never leave my room and I would be hospital clean. I usually listen to my soul music in the shower. Otis Redding, Al Green, Stevie Wonder...mmmm

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Nice music! :D I love them!

[nousia.livejournal.com]

Well said, Nancy. *claps* :D

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

*bows*

Obesity vs. Anorexia

[flyingreptile.livejournal.com]

What shits me is these people take it personally when people TRY to address a very real and very terrible problem. People are hurting themselves, STARVING themselves, to look like what the media touts as the 'ideal'. This isn't about you being skinny. It's about people that AREN'T skinny TRYING to be.

OTOH, Obesity is also a serious problem. I don't know about the overall relative severity of these disorders, but over 30% of the US is obese, but well under 0.5% are classified as anorexic.

Thus implying that large people are gross lazy slobs could serve a greater good. However this is not likely to be popular with large people, even if you later say "Oh, I didn't mean you". In Politically Correct subcultures it is common for it to be considered bad to imply that fat people are lazy, but also good to imply that thin people are anorexic. IMHO it is especially dangerous to a group of people's mental health to imply that they are morally obliged to not admit to feeling slighted.

You could say something like "I wish the media would display a wider range of forms of beauty" that doesn't imply any particular bodyshape is ugly and gross. Or you could just follow Napoleon's axiom and acknowledge that you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet. However it seems a bit much to expect the eggs to not complain about this.

OTOH by complaining about you complaining am I doing the same thing? My head hurts.

Re: Obesity vs. Anorexia

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Well, this is really completely besides what I'm talking about. Just because I give people like Nicole Richie a hard time, and those stupid bitch teenagers that wear 'ana' bracelets and stuff, doesn't mean I automatically support people being obese.

I believe in a maintainable middle ground. Something that the person's body is comfortable with, that won't hurt that person's health. I believe people should feel good about themselves for what God (or their genes if you care to believe) gave them.

Sure, you shouldn't say "You're lazy" or "Put down that hamburger" to a fat person, but you shouldn't say "Dear God, have a sammich!" to a skinny chick either. It's a personal decision and it's up to THEM to deal with their weight. Rudeness is rudeness, full stop. And I'm not being rude. Me saying "She looks anorexic, she's been previously a very curvaceous girl and now she is looking on the verge of collapse" is very different to me saying, "God, that bitch should eat something" based on her looks alone. Get what I mean?

But I surely do appreciate your argument.

Re: Obesity vs. Anorexia

[flyingreptile.livejournal.com]

OK. *tele-hugs* :)