Enough With the Body Issues

One thing I am really into at the moment is browsing Tumblr for inspiration. I compile images on mine and frequently go back to it to feed my brain.

As I was doing my usual daily crawl the other day, I stumbled upon a "thinspiration" blog.
In case you are not familiar with thinspiration sites, they are essentially collections of photographs of thin girls used as a motivation for dieting. A bit like sticking a photo of Cindy Crawford on your fridge to stop you from snacking... The photographs do not come from magazines, they are collected from other Tumblrs or popular style site LookBook.nu and they invariably show girls who look like they have just skin on their bones. While I can completely understand wanting to diet and exercise to achieve a healthier shape, I don't think aspiring to the mythical size 0 is a valid life choice (unless it is your natural body shape or size).

This discovery was quite serendipitous as I've been thinking about body image and size issues a lot, mostly because I spend most of my waking time looking at fashion related things, be it an online retailer's site, fashion blogs or magazines. When one spends too long immersed in the fashion industry, their perception of what a "normal" size is quickly becomes warped (please note the quotation marks around the word normal -- this is not a term I like to use). A girl was recently featured on The Sartorialist and her legs were described as "sturdy" -- this caused general online outrage because of the choice of word, but also because after spending a while working in the industry, Schuman's perspective on the female body is clearly tainted.

While perusing magazines, we are confronted with images of tall, thin and pretty 16-year-olds -- and in a way it makes sense: their bodies are blank canvases and the girls are trained to showcase the clothes in the best possible way. But you know at least we know every page has been heavily retouched. I don't read magazines to see the harsh reality of everyday life, I read them to be tricked into thinking the world is glossy and perfect.

I am 5'7 and a size UK12 (US8). I'm 32 and I've had a child, so I have stretch marks, a little tummy and my bum is definitely bigger than it was 5 years ago. But you know what, I am quite pleased with the way my body looks, even if I sometimes think "I could do with firmer abs". Somehow though after prolonged sessions looking at thinspiration sites, I could easily find myself feeling inadequate or "the wrong size" because the majority of "real life" bodies displayed on there seem to look increasingly like the unachievable standards set by fashion magazines.

The mere fact there are "thinspiration" blogs out there makes me feel a bit nervous. It looks as if young women are attempting to create a new norm for bodies. I don't believe it comes from magazines, it comes from us. We are constantly striving to be thinner, prettier, fitter while binge drinking at the weekend and eating crisps and ice cream. In my Twitter feed, there isn't a day where I don't read two antinomic tweets from the same person proclaiming "I had an amazing personal training session today, I feel so good" followed a couple of hours later by "Off to the pub! Mummy needs a few drinks to forget about the week!". We are our own worst enemies. We don't need thinspiration, we don't need to be protected from women in magazines, we just need to sort ourselves out and start thinking: what am I trying to achieve here? Do you want to feel healthier? Drink less, eat more greens, go to bed earlier, exercise regularly. Do you want to look nice in your clothes? Stop insisting on buying size 10 if you are more of a 12. And most of all... relax and stop being so hard on yourselves.

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Comments

[Brittany Lock]

10:02 PM on 07/22/2011

It ultimately depends on the person. If they want to be big, average, or thin- that's their pejorative.

[AnaM]

10:55 PM on 07/20/2011

Ah...to be relaxed and not be hard on myself....
I can understand the sentiment, but it has little chance of working because each time I have to shop for anything, I'm reminded of the squeeze.
I'm a size 14. By the time I head out shopping, all these sizes are nabbed off the rack, leaving me with 10 and 12s, and a haughty store assistant telling me 'This is all we have." This ushers in the vicious circle. I am incensed. I go home. I vow never to enter a store again but of course I have to.
I don't remember the last positive or good clothes shopping experience I've had and online shopping doesn't provide the same thrill.
As for the pursuit of the thin ideal. I've been there and attempted that to realise that my body type is what it is. Thin is an impossibility. Besides, I don't want to die from the cold in winter.

[Paluxy Moon]

07:51 PM on 07/20/2011

I used to be tiny, but at 46 now have the extra 10 or 20 pounds to make me curvy. Amazing how many men DON'T CARE about those few extra pounds, but just look for the curves. I'm attracting an entire different demographic now and it feels good, because thse guys don't focus so much on my appearance but on the REAL me. When I finally realized the 10+ lbs. didn't matter, it was a huge revelation. Of course, it helps to be financially and emotionally independent - once you have achieved those things everything else falls in line.

[Liberella]

04:23 PM on 07/20/2011

right on girl! and now there's even more good news for women:

The New iPhone Vibrator App -- Strong Enough to Forget a Man, but Made for Her.

http://the­washington­fancy.com/­2011/07/we­iner%E2%80%99s­-wife-inve­nts-new-ip­hone-vibra­tor-app/

[ColumbiaPatricia]

03:22 PM on 07/19/2011

I'm 5'5 146 pounds and 51 years old. My BMI is in the normal range, yet a lot of people at work and in dating feel I should lose weight? I am tempted to have my height weight and BMI number as a tattoo - please get off my back - yes I could lose 10 pounds and look better in clothes, BUT I DON'T WANT TO.

[Theresa Ruth Howard]

08:18 AM on 07/19/2011

Is it the Media effecting women's thinking or our buying into it and then upping the ante by debasing ourselves and other women for not looking that way? It has always surprised me that women, being as strong as we are, and with every generation getting stronger- birthing babies figure out the way to have children, family, and be a part of the workforce, helping to run, and running countries and yet the subject of our bodies is still our achilles heel. Being called or even feeling fat, or having a bad hair day can dismantle us. Our bodies are our kryptonite. Where our forms and figures are a real and tangible thing the problem is in our heads, it's about the way we think about ourselves and our bodies, what we choose to believe and accept about the way they should look- things that perhaps if we stopped either looking outside of ourselves for the standard of beauty we might be able to manage. No one is perfect, even the people presented by the media as the standard for "perfection" in beauty or body- and we as women have to start to break away from the lemming like acceptance of what we should look like in order to find balance and peace for ourselves inside and out. This is why I created the forum http://mybodymyimage.com- it is not about size or shape but about acceptance appreciation and respect for the body - your body..mine.

[WireDolly]

10:45 PM on 07/18/2011

Amen. I'm a born-thin size 2 and oh, my the glares I get from other women, even friends. I have other issues to deal with (I've had cancer) so I couldn't agree more: Keep YOUR body issues off MY body.

[rabbitfurcoat]

10:11 PM on 07/21/2011

'Keep YOUR body issues off MY body'.
F&F
That is the best thing i've read all week.