of "Mermaids and Whales"

[seshen]

There is a photo being shared on Facebook of a lovely French model, along with a story of a gym sign disparaging women who don't meet our "culture of thin" ideal. I think this is an admirable movement, because the quality of a person should not be judged by their weight. However.... there is an ugly side of the coin I've noticed in various

Comments

[phoenix_glow]

I have heard this problem before. At Overeaters Anonymous gatherings, anorexics sometimes sneak in next to the overeaters as they don't have their own group. It's all about food, and it's all about being at a bad place with it - not how one looks.I think people are hopefully starting to get that.

The whole point of acceptance is that women come in ALL sizes, and a woman's worth is not all about how she looks ANYWAY. Pardon me as I go put on my pretty, pretty pink princess dress now. ;)

[ferretlightning]

Yeah, I've been having a hard time jumping on the "real women have curves" thing that's been going around FB lately for that reason: I know people that are just naturally skinny.

Yes, some women starve themselves to get skinny. Others are just made that way. (Granted, you can also often tell by looking...the ones who are made that way look healthy and generally I think look fine, while the others...sometimes, not so much...)

And even so, if someone wants to starve themselves skinny: it's their business because it's their body and their life. I think the whole "real women have curves" thing runs more along the lines of "who are you trying to convince: me, or you?".

Thanks for posting this. It ties in nicely to a blog post I'm going to be making later today on my public, personal blog and this was something I was planning to address too.