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The skin you're in
Opinion: The thoughts that pass through every woman's mind, both skinny and curvy.
Sometimes I think we live in a very strange world. As the earth spins on its axis, half the world is waking up, feeling the tug of pain in their stomach and praying that today is the day they can eat enough. They trudge out of bed and make their way grimly to a piece of machinery lying in their bathroom. They stand on this machine and the number of pounds written in red dictates whether they can have a healthy breakfast or whether they are going to reach for a processed so called 'healthy' breakfast bar.
Twelve hours later the other half of the world wake up, feel the tug of pain in their stomach and pray today is the day they can eat enough. They look outside and see the rain has still not come. They see they do not have food to feed their animals either. They see that today will be yet another hungry day, sustained only by some bread if they are lucky. The same sensation of unbearable hunger and pain. Yet half of these people have access to as much food as they wish to eat and they do not partake.
Why? Why are we in this bizarre situation?
The crux of the matter is that in the Western world almost every woman thinks she is fat. This is a very, very sad statistic. Even the ones who do not think they are fat think they could always stand to lose a few pounds. Naomi Wolf calls this phenomenon "the one stone solution" in that most women believe that they are one stone away from their ideal weight, and that if they were at this ideal weight they would be happy. After all, it is only in the Western world that we have the saying "You can never be too rich or too thin."
I want to make it clear that I do not have anything against people losing weight if they have to. If your BMI is over 25/your body fat percentage is too high, you are finished growing and you are not a bodybuilder, it might be good to shed some weight.
However, this does not mean starving oneself to achieve extreme thinness. It means nourishing your body with healthy protein, healthy fat and good carbohydrates such as starches, vegetables and fruit. It means looking after yourself so you are less likely to end up a young diabetic, or get heart disease. It means finding out whether a medical condition could have caused the weight gain, if your diet is healthy. In short, it translates to self care. Self care is not compatible with wanting to be seven stone.
Why do females constantly justify their diet? Why do they feel they have to give a speech as to why they are eating certain foods? It's none of my business what anyone eats or not eats, so why do they have to justify it to me?
I am a health nut myself but I do it for my health issues, not because I am looking to get to seven stone. In some ways perhaps we were better off in the old Catholic Ireland days. My mother tells me people were told it was vain to worry about weight or external appearances; that time was better spent helping others and praying. Now I'm not saying religion is the answer, but perhaps there is something to that.
Maybe we are okay just the way we are. Maybe we need to realise that a totally unrealistic, air brushed media ideal has become our God and it is time to step back and stop worshipping at its altar.
By: Lynn Dunning
Photo from Flickr: amigurmi
