In my last blog, I encouraged you to make a different kind of New Year's resolution. Instead of vowing to do whatever it takes to lose weight and "improve" your figure, how about committing to practicing peace with your body? In other words, why not make a conscious effort to accept, appreciate, nurture, and enjoy body you have?
I borrowed the phrase, "practicing peace with your body," from my friend Cissy Brady-Rogers, who is a therapist specializing in the treatment of women with body image and eating problems. She coined the phrase to emphasize that making peace with your body is an ongoing process, rather than something you achieve once and for all. In a culture that worships the slender ideal and constantly encourages us to go to war with our bodies--to monitor, control, restrict, punish, loathe, "fix" and fixate on them--learning to live harmoniously in one's own flesh is the journey of a lifetime.
This journey begins when we wake up to the false promise our society has sold us, namely, that our happiness resides in the size of our bodies. This promise is part of a culture-wide devotion to thinness that has many of the features of traditional religion, including beliefs, images, myths, rituals, and moral codes that teach us to define our value and purpose through the pursuit of a "better" (read: thinner) body. Learning to recognize and critique this "Religion of Thinness" is a crucial first step on the path to overall health and well being.
This critique involves a paradigm shift: from the illusion that losing weight will "save" you (i.e., by somehow solving your problems and making you happy) to the insight that various industries and markets are profiting from the sense of inadequacy so many of us, particularly women, feel about our bodies. Indeed, this new perspective understands that weight-loss markets in particular benefit from the very sense of shame they are so good at stirring, particularly in women. Shifting our paradigm thus entails examining the taken-for-granted notion that healthy, happiness, and beauty come in one uniformly narrow size, and asking: who benefits when we buy into this belief?
Such questions are central to the practice of cultural criticism, which means questioning the dominant norms, values, and assumptions that circulate in our society and that are largely taken for granted; and it means investigating whom these norms, values, and assumptions really serve.
Cultural criticism of the Religion of Thinness begins with the simple insight that women are not born wishing they were thinner. Rather, we are indoctrinated into this belief by a society that glorifies the fat-free female figure. Years of exposure to media images of "beautiful" women who are uniformly thin conditions us to associate slenderness with beauty. Though it is virtually axiomatic in our society, this association is actually far from natural. In fact, if we had lived just over a hundred years ago, a well-cushioned body would be the ideal to which we would be encouraged to aspire, though probably fewer of us would have developed the kind of intense preoccupation with physical perfection that women experience today because back then people were not bombarded day-in-and-day-out with mass media images of the ideal.
In our image-saturated culture, it doesn't take long for us to internalize our culture's devotion to thinness. One study found that 80 percent of fourth-grade girls interviewed in the Chicago and San Francisco areas said they had already been on diets. Roughly the same percentage of women in the mid-50s report a desire to be thinner. For many, this desire amounts to a life-long ambition. Whatever our age, unless we are aware of its pervasive influence and vigilant about challenging its authority, we easily, without giving it any thought, internalize our culture's dictates about body size into our own psyches, bodies, and spirits.
But when we identify the messages our society sends us about the importance of being skinny--when we notice how advertisements target our insecurities and promise us fulfillment through a slender body; when we scrutinize magazine images that equate "women's health" with a fat-free female figure; when we ask why all the "sexy" women on TV and in movies are uniformly thin--these messages have less power over us. Such conscious, critical awareness gives us the freedom to think differently: to think for ourselves. As we begin to realize that we have been culturally conditioned to distrust our bodies and believe that there is something wrong with them, we can redirect our criticism away from our own thighs and tummy towards the industries and ideologies that seek to profit on the very feelings of shame and alienation they stimulate.
Here are some basic questions you can ask to practice cultural criticism of the Religion of Thinness, particularly in relation to media images (i.e., advertisements, magazines, movies, TV, internet, etc.):
1) What messages does this image give me about my body? Is the message conveyed in a way that is explicit? Or is the message more hidden? (Practice looking for both kinds of message--the obvious and the subtle)
2) Who produced this image and what do they want me to feel when I see it? Who benefits if I buy into the message this image is conveying?
3) What vision of "health," "happiness," and/or "beauty" does this image depict? Does it suggest that these qualities only come in one size? What alternative visions of "health" and "beauty" does it leave out?
4) What other qualities or assets are associated with slender bodies (i.e., affluence, romantic success, self-control, etc.)? How do these associations add to the appeal of the tight and trim figure?
These are just some of the questions you might ask as you develop a critical perspective on our culture's devotion to thinness. There are countless others and I encourage you to come up with your own ways of unmasking the lies we have been taught to believe about the ultimate value of the slender body.
Though it requires intelligence, practicing cultural criticism is not just an academic exercise. I also see it as a kind of spiritual practice because it is about transforming our consciousness so we can be more awake to ourselves and to the world we live in. In this sense, practicing cultural criticism of the Religion of Thinness is more than an antidote to the persuasive power of our culture's obsession with being slim; it is also an alternative source of purpose and self-definition, one that is far more meaningful than the shallow quest for that slender ideal.
Rosalyn Hoffman: Bring Back the Belly
Body image - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sao Paulo Still Struggling With Body Image Issues
http://road2riddick.blogspot.com
I am tempted to offer a theory on your article - there are people, who have adopted a strategy of comforting obese people in their morbid habit - telling them to love and accept their obese shapes, to never try to course-correct, that they are beautiful as they are, etc. - the hidden goal being to drive these poor people faster to the end. Indeed, if obese people did not try to be healthier and change their eating habits for good, if instead they fully embraced the unhealthy lifestyles they've had for decades, their deaths are not far away. I believe that people who push them in that direction want to eliminate obese people as quickly as possible and purge the population sort of speak. It's faster than to push them to lose weight and adopt healthier lifestyles.
I know it sounds crazy, but I see no other reason behind an article such as yours, published in a country where 2/3 of the population is obese or overweight. No respectable physical or metal health provider would ever comfort the morbid habit of a patient knowing that it's killing them. Unless they have an agenda.
I was fit all my life, I entered my 40s, became sedentary and quickly became 60lbs overweight. Bad habits and no other excuses. I looked it in the eye and stopped eating without thinking. I made sure that I got 2-3 25min sessions of aerobic activity every day. I looked around and found some really solid exercise programs that weren't based on fad machines and weird activities.
Now I am at an ideal weight and I make my living with my body as a freediver and nobody would say that I am underweight.
The bottom line is that everyone knows that they should be active and eat right. It isn't ok to rationalize being overweight by "being happy with one's body" just as it isn't ok to be compulsive about being super thin. There is nothing wrong with wanting to see your abs and maintaining a high level of health...
Wouldn't it be better to ask oneself what one's bodies can do: run, walk, smell fresh bread and roses, feel the winter wind on my face as I ski downhill, swim fifty laps or more, bring pleasure through taste, sound, touch, sight. Just the pleasure of having a lover's hands on one's body is enough to love the skin one inhabits. None of that is about being "beautiful. "
And may be this is again old-style feminist (or just not western), but surely we are more than our bodies? Shouldn't a woman's self-esteem be about her brain, achievements - professional and personal? What happened to realising that a happy, fulfilled 80 year in Asia looks a lot more beautiful than Kate Moss?
A typical day in America revolves around sitting in the car, sitting in the office and finally sitting on a couch infront the TV. Hell, they don't even walk to buy something around the corner, they take the car.
And when it's time to play tennis or basketball - that is usually done on the Wii.
Of course maybe one of the delusions that goes along with anorexia is that the anorexic sees society as more focused on thiness than we are?
112,000 deaths in the obese category and a NEGATVE 86,000 deaths in the overweight category. People who are classified overweight actually live longer than those classified normal.
The original report from the CDC estimated 400,000, then they quietly revised to 300,000, then almost no coverage for the latest numbers.
Obesity is not a death sentence.
Period.
Peace,
Shannon
Peace,
Shannon
I am by no means thin. According to the BMI, I am overweight. However, I eat more healthy than most of the 'thin' people I know, and I am in better shape than they are. I have trained and participated in triathlons and duathlons, and I am currently training for a 1/2 marathon. I'm a healthy human being, and there isn't much I can do about how my body is built, and yet society tells me I am fat.
I think that the writer of this blog was making a point that the more we all focus on weight, the less we focus on health and the worse off we are.
And, no, I'm not anorexic or a drug addict... I'm petite and I eat healthy. I wish I had a nickle for every time I've heard someone ("jokingly") say "I hate you! You're so thin!" What if I went around saying "I hate you! You're so fat" ? I don't think many people would think that was endearing.
I'd like to see what would happen if she told them to put down the Big Mac.
Wow. And I bet it's really troubling for you to see all those degrading reality shows that focus on how you have to change your body... you know, like "The Biggest Gainer" and "Less to Love."
The fact is that women in the normal weight range are about the only representation of cultural beauty norms that are portrayed in the media, and have been for 40 years. You can't find clothes that fit you? Maybe that's because the number of women who are a size 0 is statistically insignificant, so there is no profit in it.
On the other hand, fat women do make up a majority of the population, yet fat fashion is frequently dowdy, frumpy and downright ugly. At least if you *can* find clothes (and I assume you can, since you probably don't roam the streets naked), they are stylish and cute. Fat women have a hard time just finding a shirt that isn't emblazoned with cats or eye-bleeding patterns.
Nobody should be insulting people based on their body size, period. But if you think normal-sized women experience the level of viciousness and contempt that fat women do? Well, you're deluding yourself.
Peace,
Shannon
This begs the question: How do you appreciate, nurture, and enjoy the body you have if it runs like crap? Even a person who is moderately overweight will experience unncecessary problems throughout their life. You're putting down "thin" people by claiming it's their fault that women feel so bad about their bodies. Being "thin" isn't an indicator of poor health, but being overweight always is.
This whole article is a cop out, comforting overweight people by saying, "It doesn't matter what you eat, or if you exercise. Looks aren't important.". Maybe they aren't, but your health is. Each person has almost 100% control of what they put in their mouth, and what they do on their free time.
Being fit and staying fit is a lifelong process that requires you to educate yourself on proper diet and exercise, maintain self-control, and work very hard. Don't try to take away from those of us who care about our bodies.
For every truthful and informative article on health that is published there are billions of dollars spent to convince us that we need to eat fast foods and faux food that provide little nutrition and lots of fat. When was the last time a fast food company went bankrupt? McDonalds, Burger King, etc. continue to grow sales. They use very sophisticate marketing techniques and target children; brainwashing the next generation.
Countries like Japan that begin to accept the SAD (standard American diet) are finding a growth in obesity which will eventually lead to an unhealthy disparity between our self-image and our diet.
I certainly don't have the answer to the problem but I do believe that being satisfied with our obesity is not the answer. At least dissatisfaction has a potential to lead to change.
As for obesity, one of my biggest issues with the way this "epidemic" is framed is that we hear so much about how Americans need to lose weight, but there is almost zero acknowledgment of the fact that dieting poses serious health risks, it's ineffective, and studies show that dieting is actually an accurate predictor of future weight gain. If someone's weight is determined to be a medical problem (and as Meredith pointed out, there are plenty of people who are technically "overweight" and are perfectly healthy), she/he needs comprehensive health care that addresses both physical and mental health, and includes a screening for disordered eating. Telling a binge eater to just eat less is about as effective as telling an anorexic to just eat more.
Having a poor diet and lifestyle is.
Not everyone who is fat has a poor diet and lifestyle.
Not everyone who has a poor diet and lifestyle is fat.
Peace,
Shannon
I'm calling on men to reject this pressure from society's DEVOTION to be "successful"
Men, it doesn't matter if you have a job or prospects or even ambition.
You are great the way you are....reject it when society tells you that you MUST be employed.
Don't give in to the public pressure to shower or shave, as well.
You are beautiful just the way you are.
We should tell him we admire and respect him everyday... even if all he does is sit around and play video games all day.
are considered fat enough to be "plus size"
I am a plus size woman (with an unhealthy BMI), and I shop online a lot. Most of the places I shop feature the women in the picture above. Occasionaly though they won't bother to put the clothing on a plus size model as well as the regular model. After looking at page after page of "plus size models" it is actually jarring to see a normal size 2 model. They look strange and often the clothing just kinda hangs on them. At that point I am always amazed that THAT is the beauty standard in our country.
Much like I'm never going to be 5'11 (I'm 5'3) I'm never going to be a size 2. I could be a size 8 or 10 though, and that size would put me at a healthy weight/BMI. That is my goal. Trying to wear the same size as "normal models" seems as odd to me as trying to grow 7 inches.
I really wish the fashion industry would provdie more models at aroung the 6-10 range instead of the 0-2 range. Just like the majority of women are not likely to be healthy at a size 16, the majority are not likely to be healthy at a size 2 either.