Calling all Ladies!

[fantastic_jackie]

This is up on Yahoo, but it's under a longish blog entry.

If you are a chica, and especially of the American variety, (though not restricted to), you really need to watch this video.

The whole Week thing is weird, I think, much like all those national awareness days/weeks/months that are seemingly more for show than action and effect. (And it was 2008. lol This isn't new.) But this is definitely an important issue, and the so-called "Fat Talk" is something we should all work at to decrease.

The video is right: women have come a long way, but the whole image thing is eating us alive.

Personally, I really do not care about other's opinions of me; I never have, and it has always distanced me from my peers. I honestly don't care what anyone thinks of me, unless you are a friend. But even I am not immune to the self-depreciatory thoughts regarding my image: It still doesn't matter what they think; it matters what I think, and what I think is not always good.

I don't think any girl is immune to it. In America, the goal is to be an air brushed Photoshopped barbie, and anything short of that unattainable goal means there's something wrong with you. An interesting discussion would be whether this particular image issue is a result of our male-dominated soceity or women's relatively quick rise to power and equality. But whatever the cause, I think, as a society and a culture, that we need to take steps to deal with that problem.

What do you ladies think? It definitely needs to be more than just Talk that's adjusted...

Note to Self: Self, you need more girl icons. 99% of your current selection are of males. <.<

Comments

[longcleeve.livejournal.com]

I think the actual root of the problem is the concept perpetuated through the media that a woman's only value and power comes from her ability to be sexually attractive. What purpose does a female character have outside the love interest of the often not-so-good-looking-but-with-other-adorable-qualities leading male? Are there EVER normal looking women on TV? No really, take Fox News. The women are insanely beautiful. It's out of control. The men? They don't need to be, their serious reporters.

I'm no fan of Gilman's socialistic views, but some of her commentary on women in the early 20th century is still disgustingly appropriate for today: (of failing to be sexually attractive) "What else is the creature good for, failing in the functions for which it was created? The scorn of male and female alike falls on this sexless thing: she is a human failure."

And people wonder why girls are killing themselves to be "beautiful"? What other value are they told they have?

Bah.

[patriot-jackie.livejournal.com]

I agree with this as a good chunk of the issue. - Though women overwhelmingly enjoy a good romance, so it's understandable the catering Hollywood has employed and the romance novels that authors write. - There are a number of commercials that propagate the necessity of beauty. We are a vain soceity when it comes to our appearance - far more with women, I think, than with men. Because while we all fawn over Johnny Depp, it's also considered a "true" stereotype that men are far less picky about being the perfect size in the perfect pair of jeans. There are, of course, the "metrosexuals" who would vehemetly disagree with that. ;)

I also can't stand that we look at, for instance, Hilary Clinton, and proclaim, "She's a woman and look what she did!" For all our claims of progress to equality, we still treat success as if it's against the odds. History does dictate what happened in the past, but we're living in a different world from then. It is not uncommon for a woman to hold political office or be a powerful executive. - But that's a different rant. ... Mostly.

[mrstater.livejournal.com]

I'm not trying to be cynical, I'm truly not (see Kate Winslet icon -- she's known for being against model thinness), and I apologize in advance if I don't address this with due sympathy. I certainly don't think it's okay that so many women's self-esteem has driven them to eating disorders, but...

I have an issue with this message being presented in this way against the larger backdrop of obesity rates. 37% of American adults, and 17% of American children (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/health/14obese.html), are obese, which we all know contributes to so many health issues, not limited to diabetes and heart disease.

Now, I know that the video is promoting "your health ideal," for which I will give the Tri Delts the benefit of the doubt that they don't mean it's any more okay to be overweight than underweight. But again, but: for years there has been a campaign that implies big is beautiful, too, and the fashion industry is catering more than ever to the plus-sized crowd. (I mean, they really have to, don't they, when so much of the adult population is fat? How else will they sell clothes?) This is occurring even to the extent that clothing manufacturers have actually started cutting sizes larger to accommodate our growing population. (Big problem for those of us who were already in the smallest sizes and have nowhere to go! Though I solved this problem by having a baby to spread out my hips. :P)

All that to say...while I do acknowledge that body image is a struggle for women, is the Barbie doll ideal really so much of an issue anymore? Don't we all know that models and magazines are unachievable goals? Hasn't that message been presented for a long time now?

If we can't tell someone honestly that something makes them look fat (you know, in a tactful way), that's just one more area where we're being PC instead of tackling the root of a problem. Which is that we're incredibly unhealthy in his country. And that needs to be changed from the individual's lifestyle choices all the way up to the government's subsidy of corn which renders so much of our food nutritionally null...

This is so much more of an issue than self-esteem. Why don't women use more of our empowerment to make some real change, not just in the way we talk about ourselves? And if we're going to talk, let's talk about how to achieve our "healthy ideal," not just leave it as some nebulous idea that makes us feel better about ourselves instead of making us better.

I am sorry if this isn't the kind of comment you were going for. It's a soapbox of mine. And I'm getting off now.

[patriot-jackie.livejournal.com]

LOL. Ter and I had practically the same conversation, but we came to the conclusion that this was not the purpose of the video. - Although the whole awareness week thing? Seriously lame.

The blog entry this was attached to, which my History has misplaced somehow, was responding to poll results in which many women who were not overweight either thought they were or hated their appearance. The poll further reflected (or it may have been a different one) that women who have low self esteem because of their appearances believe there's nothing they can do to fix themselves.

I think that as a society, we logically know that the barbie doll figure and face is unattainable. That doesn't mean that it's still not portrayed as what is desirable. Otherwise, I wouldn't constantly hear women and young girls lament that they wish they had her hair or her skin or her body. Anorexia and bulemia wouldn't affect so many American women. Our Speaker of the House wouldn't have the nickname Stretch Pelosi. 'Talk' is too simplistic a term when it's actually a cultural viewpoint. Everyone from magazine models to newscasters are air bushed to perfection without a single blemish. But as a society that places so much importance on appearance, what can we expect?

I don't think that asking someone whether a particular outfit makes them look fat is a bad thing, because there definitely are outfits out there that do so. But I do think obsessing about it, unless a solution is being bandied about, does contribute to the problem of too much negative focus. And obsessing about it, when one is perfectly healthy and in shape also contributes to it. To that extent I do think that yes, friends shouldn't let friends "Fat Talk."

[mrstater.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay, that makes more sense in context, so I retract my soapbox rant in regards to this video, lol.

I did shake my head at the irony of this being put out by the Tri Delta sorority, though. My freshman roommate was one, and if she's representative of the type of girl they like to have in their sorority, it's all beauty pageants and crash dieting to fit in formal gowns. Which, upon reflection, may be why some people on top felt this awareness was necessary!