Posted on 01/27/2003 8:34:53 AM PST by 68skylark
Okay, you don't have to ask me twice.
Seriously, you make some good points.
"Society" does put out a lot of images of especially thin women, for a lot of reasons. And if this causes distress to anyone, well I'm sorry about that and I don't think it's done to cause harm.
These images don't seem to encourage people (especially women) to keep themselves at a health weight -- obesity is just way out of control (especially in the small town area where I live -- it's not so extreme other places).
It would be nice if there was a way "society" could put out some effective messages about why it's in the best interests of individuals to keep themselves down to a healthy weight. But I don't really know what those "effective" messages might look like.
re:TEENAGE BOY'S REACTION: Like, dude, I woulda dated Karen Carpenter if she just lost 5 more pounds. )))
This put me in mind of the time I watched a couple of guys drooling over this girl...but she looked like an ad for "Save the Children." Positively skeletal. Brrr. Are we teaching boys to crave these boneracks? When I was a teen, I was considered too skinny. Boys wanted curves back then, so I guess I'm always behind the curves... Things like this must change because of culture.
And it's not the fat, it's the carbs. Too many biscuits, cookies and taters.
Fortunately, I have a pretty virtuous wife. I mean my wife is pretty and virtuous. I think most people here understand the balance. If someone thinks so little of themselves that they can use their navel for a koozie, I probably don't want to be around them. On the other hand, at a certain point in time, you have to say, "I've spent enough time on my looks, let's get on to the rest of life."
It's like everything else. Keep it in perspective, and things will work out.
I hope that it is not to intentionally cause harm, and you don't have to apologize, enjoying the human body is not a crimes or a fault. It is natural and healthy to appreciate beauty. I just believe that there are a lot of people in our culture that see only one thing as beautiful and if you don't look like that then the message gets put out there that there is something wrong with you. The most suseptible to this messages are the young. Those who have not had a chance to develop a healthy self image and all they have to go on are the images in the media and how people react to them. And when I say young I mean as young as 5 years old, they are seeing this and they are paying very close attention.
It would be nice if there was a way "society" could put out some effective messages about why it's in the best interests of individuals to keep themselves down to a healthy weight. But I don't really know what those "effective" messages might look like.
The best thing that we could do is to get images of real people out there. Look at how effect the "Subway" ads with Jared are. People can identify with him. He's not so far out there that people think they have to kill themselves to be like him. We need more images like this, especially of women. Real women, not made over air-brushed, plastic, impossibly perfect women.
Another example of hurting your body for an unreachable ideal. There is nothing wrong with self improvement as long as it is realistic and done for the right reasons and not just because some billboard told you this is how you should look.
I think the obsession with weight paradoxically leads to obesity, as others have mentioned. But as you have said, it's probably just one of the factors leading to obesity.
I'm also concerned with the image of "the perfect woman" that is presented to young men. The impossibility of this standard, and the reduction of male/female relationships to sex, is destructive to healthy male/female relationships of all kinds.
Sounds like my homeschooled 7-year-old. Although I'd have to add that when presented with a choice between pretty, traditional clothes and the latest thing, she almost always chooses traditional clothes.
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