issues about body image

There is hope for you...

 

that is what i was thinking.

 

Honestly HB, you didn't offend me - I do appreciate where you're coming from and I know what your thought processes were in those posts. I was at a food hall thing the other day getting a drink. I caught myself thinking "my God, people eat a lot of crap". I guess when you go through a significant change, you can't help looking back now and then. I think it's ultimately healthy and keeps you on track with your own goals. I agree that it's about honesty and peeling away the bullshit and facing up to it. You and I have both done that - it's hard, and I appreciate that you were coming from a place of pain where in order to stay that big, you had to sell yourself the `big boned etc' hype. I was just giving you a gentle nudge...and I'm glad that I felt that I could (if that makes sense?) - .

 

Hasbeens is a skinny little snob.

 

Take this to the five word sentence thread please.

 

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5'11, 185 is hardly skinny.

 

Absolutely.

 

Of course I recognize that there are 2 separate issues here. Since I'm not personally dealing with obesity & never have; but I've dealt with severely negative body image all my life, that's the issue I feel I can address with some knowledge.

I must disagree with the statement I bolded above. While I can agree that obesity can contribute to negative body image, it's not the primary cause of it--not in girls in women in general. The "fattening" of America is a relatively recent phenomenon, historically speaking. The kind of negative body image that's common among girls & women preceded that by multiple generations. I might also point out that females of all sizes & all levels of attractiveness deal with this. Even the most gorgeous women are insecure about their looks & place far more importance on looks than is reasonable.

Then too, just because I attribute a lot of that body image problem to societal forces, including mass media, doesn't mean I think the solution lies in changing or censoring media. That's the least effective & efficient way I can imagine of addressing the problem.

That has to be addressed one person at a time. Parents who care about their daughter's mental as well as physical health are the best beginning. Teaching our kids that they're valued for things other than their looks is the most basic thing. That would include things like challenging the many media images they're exposed to, & challenging common assumptions about what is & isn't attractive.

As for those of us who are already adults & have body image issues--we just need to recognize how we've been affected & work to overcome it. Part of that means becoming very aware of all the unrealistic crap we're bombarded with daily, & at least challenging it in our own minds.