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Womanly Panther (wu)
Womanly Panther
womanly panther - 2004-04-28 14:28:42
The american body image, and habits of consumption are in a very tweaked state. I, for one, am a person who is always aware of what and how much I eat, but I have steadily gained weight, like most people my age. I would rather have my younger, thinner, physicality, and in better moments I plan a path back. I think if I truely stopped worring about being fat, I would get really fat, pehaps, morbidly fat, which an increasing number of americans are, with the concurrent rise in rates of diabeties, and other weight related diseases.
One almost hopes, that if we could stop worring about being so thin, we could stop being so fat, but I don't know.
I put a lot of blame on our free enterprise driven food supply. Highly processed unhealthy food is much more profitable, more brandable and more marketable than simplier healthier foods.
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Womanly Panther (wu)
Womanly Panther
womanly panther - 2004-04-28 14:30:53
oops, didn't mean to copy that name three times.
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Womanly Panther (wu) - 2004-04-28 14:33:35
it won't stop!
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I wombat - 2004-04-28 14:50:08
OK, I've read some of that article now, hum, well, ok, it's really about this, I feel potentially attractive only when I am below a certain treshold, fat wise.
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paula - 2004-04-28 16:20:50
I feel potentially attractive only when I am below a certain treshold, fat wise
This is the crux for a lot of people, I think.
Yes, beauty norms are largely culture-based (not 100%, there are certain things that seem to cut across cultures) but if you're in that culture, the most expedient thing to do is to conform a little so you can have a date on Saturday night. And there's nothing wrong with that, really, unless you're making yrself crazy with it (read: anorexia, etc.)
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2fs - 2004-04-29 07:39:59
True - but what happens to those who don't fit those norms (or rather, who miss them by a wide margin) is they're not only thought of as a species of moral failure (which is odd, but typically American to moralize everything) but as less intelligent and competent. Which really makes no sense. Then, I just read somewhere that beauty confers all kinds of undeserved benefits on people, even where you wouldn't expect it: like student evaluations of professors.
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I wombat - 2004-04-29 09:12:30
Yes, and general unattractiveness is a factor in the likelyhood of a death row inmate being executed.
we're getting into the whole aesthetics/morality matrix in our culture, it seems to me that there's a lot of strange overlap there.
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Paula - 2004-04-29 09:40:16
but what happens to those who don't fit those norms
I was talking about the average person, and I was being slightly flippant. I was also taking into account that while everyone is good and worthy no matter what they look like, there is the reality that when it comes to physical attractiveness & cultural norms, sometimes it's easier to just play along with the arbitrariness, as long as no one gets hurt. But it's up to everyone to decide how much effort they're willing to put into it.
Me? I'm not willing to put that much effort into it anymore. Love me 10 pounds overweight or don't come a-callin'.
Obviously, people outside norms (beauty, intelligence, physical ability) are always going to have to deal with life on different terms and it's an entirely worthwhile endeavor to try and change the parameters of "normal."
And to address the "pretty people have it easier" idea: yes, it's "true" and yet people overcome limitations all the time. Nothing's that cut and dried. Although I've always maintained that Kurt Cobain wouldn't have been hailed as the "voice" of his generation if he hadn't had chiseled facial features and good teeth.
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Chunky - 2004-04-29 14:22:40
The article flummoxes me a bit. I do think it's a real problem that Americans are morbidly obese in growing numbers. I do think that diabetes and joint trouble, aggravated if not caused by obesity, should be prevented.
However . . . I too think the BMI is a crock. As a big boned gal, even when I was trim and fit, doctors squinted over a laminated chart and proclaimed that i was obese.
Isn't it interesting how, as our populace gets more and more obese, our celebrities get thinner and thinner?
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Dan - 2004-04-30 13:26:45
Geez, what a belligerent article. Must be written by an American!
It'd be interesting to read a more objective analysis of the issue - this fellow spins everything that works against his thesis and jumps past it as quickly as possible. If it's really true, though, that there's never been a study of long-term weight loss, then his argument has to be taken seriously. A correlation between weight and health isn't enough to establish a cause-and-effect relationship.
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