Body Image

***This is a diary I posted on DailyKos and thought I'd share with you since it does fold into the health perspective.***

I was in our office breakroom heating up my lunch yesterday when a coworker came up to me and asked me how much weight I've lost and wanted to know what kind of diet I'm on. I've lost about forty pounds in the last two months because of illness so instead of sharing the horrible details that I'm sure is more than she bargained for I've been putting off this rather persistent colleague with vague answers. Yesterday she was like a dog with a bone though and wouldn't let it go. Atkins, Weight Watchers, Low Carb and on and on..... I finally had enough and blurted out that I'm on the radiation starvation diet. You would think that would have stopped her right? Guess again....she said (I kid you not) "Well it looks like it's working for you"!!! WTF??

Seriously, I know we have a culture that equates "thin" with attractive however there is just something wrong with the idea of being thin at any price. Which brings me to why we should care.

The truth is that most American women come in all different shapes and sizes and do not conform to what the ideal is that we see in the media daily. This disconnect with reality has a negative impact on girls who are subliminally told over and over again what is attractive and what is not and find themselves lacking.

Thin may be attractive in our society but it does not equal healthy. Take for an example this picture of a Ralph Lauren model....

She's attractive right? This picture is not real though, Ralph Lauren airbrushed this picture of her so that her head appears larger than her pelvis! Not biologically possible, not healthy and not a realistic example of beauty. This model who in reality is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 120 pounds was fired for being "unable to fulfill the terms of her contract" code for being too fat to fit in to the size 0 samples.

I've attached the Weight Watcher's healthy weight range chart below and if you fall within the ranges you are doing good.

Weight Watchers Weight Ranges For Adults (in pounds)Height Ft/In Min Max 4'8" 56" 89 112 4'9" 57" 92 116 4'10" 58" 96 120 4'11" 59" 99 124 5'0" 60" 102 128 5'1" 61" 106 132 5'2" 62" 109 137 5'3" 63" 113 141 5'4" 64" 117 146 5'5" 65" 120 150 5'6" 66" 124 155 5'7" 67" 128 160 5'8" 68" 132 164 5'9" 69" 135 169 5'10" 70" 139 174 5'11" 71" 143 179 6'0" 72" 147 184 6'1" 73" 152 189 6'2" 74" 156 195 6'3" 75" 160 200 6'4" 76" 164 205 6'5" 77" 169 211 6'6" 78" 173 216 6'7" 79" 178 222

Healthy is what should matter, not whether you fit someone else's idea of what attractive is.