Basically I want to talk about body weight. Over, and under, the two sides of the coin (and the debate).
As a young female, I would have to admit that weight, body size and shape are topics that are often not far from my mind. I stress over being "fat" frequently, have a horror of changing room mirrors and exposing my flesh. I know I am not alone in this, I know plenty of girls (and women) who do the same. But it still wrecks my head, because I don't think it should be this way, and with a BMI of 23, I know that it shouldn't be this way.
Then we have the other problem, obesity is on the rise (I even posted about it), and all the things that come with it (diabetes, heart disease; we all know what they are!) It is a fact that more of us are overweight than underweight. Walk down any street in Ireland and I am sure that you will see more people that you would grade as "fat" in your mind, than as "healthy".
So where is the balance? On the one hand we (women mostly I think, and please acknowledge that I am generalising hugely and that not everyone will agree) have this huge media and social pressure to be thin. There is a constant projection of thin =successful, thin=attractive, & thin=healthy around us, and so in our minds, thin=enviable,thin= desirable, thin =what we want to be. Remember girls, you can never be too rich or too thin. I say that not without a certain amount of bitterness.
I hate that I get upset about my figure, I hate the way I feel I would be better if I were thinner, I hate always feeling self-conscious about my body, I hate the way I dream up crazy weight-loss schemes in my head, I hate that I am jealous of friends who are slimmer than me, and worst of all I hate that fact that I am supposed to be beyond all this. Especially because going into health sciences, and being very aware of what constitutes "healthy", and having worked in countries where being thin meant that you were poor and/or ill, where food was so precious, having cared for a child who was so malnourished that their skin was peeling off, having seen real hunger.......... I really should know better.
Two close friends of mine have battled with eating disorders, one of them had to be hospitalised. I doubt either of them even now having "overcome" will ever have a good mentality about food and bodyweight. They are both intelligent, together girls from good homes, who are going on to pursue high-flying careers. I know of maybe two or three others who were in my year at school. So how many out of the general population are suffering, tormented?
Recently I read an article on BBC about "pro-ana" and "pro-mia" groups on myspace and other networking sites where girls egged each other on to get thinner and thinner. Surely it couldn't be true could it? Being a member of MySpace I did a search there. What I found made me absolutely sick. It was all true and some of it was literally unbelievable. How could people think these things?? Almost all had warning labels along the lines of "If you are not serious about ana (anorexia) or are just going to disapprove, you may not join. Ana is a lifestyle choice not an illness" This was on one of the girls pages. Supposedly "thinspiration". Underneath it a girl had written "I love this vid...thanks for all the help!"
More thinpriation =)
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How could you look at these pictures and see perfection not illness. This video makes me really sad, and deeply uneasy. Check out this girls profile if you really want to feel queasy.
And then there's the other side of the coin. The fact that we are facing an obesity epidemic. Fact: Nearly two thirds of men and half of women in the UK are either overweight or obese. And that isn't good either is it? Officially there are 1bn overweight people in the world. At the same time as having fashion and the media push the thin is beautiful image at us, we have food and drinks companies pushing the "eat eat eat" idea at us. How many times have chocolate bar companies used the "go on, you deserve it" line to push high-calorie, nutritionally empty products at us?
Below the Mars Delight, specifically marketed to women, and containing 22okcals and 14g of fat.
Is it any surprise that people are ending up like this?
My question is where is the balance? How do we find a healthy middle ground? What is the future going to be? I cannot clear this subject in my own mind.
