By Ahmed Hajouj.
We're no longer shocked by the celebrity photos that show protruding hipbones, bony breastplates, countable ribs, and collarbones practically piercing through the flesh of their shoulders. It looks normal to us now. It's the look we're supposed to achieve.
The media sounds a loud alarm over the celebrities who get too thin. And then they go right on showing us image after image of the very same women as beauty icons. It's insane.
*The hottest boutique in Los Angeles, catering to the stars, carries only sizes 0-8.
*The average American women wears a size 12 or 14.
*The usual waist size for a celebrity's pair of jeans is 28.
*The average woman wears a size 34 jean.
In a recent celebrity magazine, the following heights and weights were listed for five well-known performers:
*Terri Hatcher 5-6, 109 pounds
*Kate Bosworth 5-7, 107 pounds
*Lindsey Lohan 5-5, 102 pounds
*Victoria Beckham 5-6, 105 pounds
*Joan Allen 5-10, 110 pounds
All are severely underweight. This is starvation imagery. Anorexic-type bodies regularly presented as the beauty ideal.
Today's female body is expected to be slim, trim, lean. Tight, toned muscles. Six-pack abs. Hard bodies. Sounds like a description of a man's body doesn't it? The only feminine characteristic remaining on today's "perfect woman": fake, plastic breasts. The real ones disappear when a woman is underweight.
The ideal female body looks like a young, very thin, muscular prepubescent boy with large breasts. This is where 100 years of media brainwashing has left us. "Brainwashing" seems like too strong a term until you consider that most females see 400 to 700 media-generated images of thin women every single day.
Rounded bellies, padded hips, curvy thighs. These are "problem areas" to be worked on. In reality, they are beautiful, natural qualities of a healthy female body.
It's time we define our own style. Make our own rules. Turn our backs on the media and embrace the beautiful bodies we were been born with. It's time to live with grace and beauty instead of self-hate and struggle.
Too many of us have learned to dislike our own bodies:
*53% of 13 year-old girls,
*78% of 17 year-old girls, and
*80% of adult women spend every day disliking the only bodies we will ever have.
How about a world where all body types are appreciated…
*Where naturally thin bodies are considered beautiful.
*Where naturally curvaceous bodies are considered beautiful.
*Where the thin aren't trying to get plump.
*And the curvy aren't trying to get skinny.
Let's live in a world where the bodies we were born with are the best, most beautiful bodies we could each have.
How to do that?
*Stop buying from companies who advertise their products with starvation imagery.
*Don't go to movies that star emaciated actresses.
*Make your voice heard. Email or write companies to complain about their irresponsible imagery.
*Swear off TV shows, fashion magazines, and other media that depict only thin women. (Just 5% of American women are naturally underweight. Among the actresses on television…it's 87%.)
*Reinvent your sense of female beauty with images of all types of women. Old art is one of the best choices. Go out of your way to view old paintings and sculptures to help get you started.
*Reeducate your eyes to appreciate the natural, average female body.
*Don't talk about your own weight loss or gain and don't comment on others' bodies in that way.
*Appreciate the women in the world around us. Practice seeing without the anorexic eyes we've been trained to view the world through. There is beauty in our natural curviness.
*Move with grace and pride.
You are beautiful. Reject the propaganda of starvation imagery. Love the body you're living in, it’s the only one you get and it deserves your love, honor, and affection.
