Today women are constantly bombarded by images of stick-thin women. We’ve been led to believe that thin equals beautiful therefore anything else (read: not thin, fat, voluptuous, full-figured, curvy etc) is ugly. Photographs of waif-like models and celebrities splashed across magazines, billboards and television screens are a constant reminder of the size to aspire to.
The choice role models of our times, celebrities, buttress this stereotype daily even during pregnancy. A few weeks after childbirth, we see them in photographs looking as slim as, if not slimmer than they were previously.
Increasingly, women are under pressure to look just as good, if not better than all the images of the body beautiful. The countless diets we hear about are testament to this fact.
I have always maintained that if I had the kind of resources most celebrities have at my disposal and if my livelihood depended on the way I look, I, too, would look just as good as any of them and perhaps better.
I would have a nutritionist and chef to plan and cook my meals. They would have the headache of counting calories, preparing and cooking and washing up to deal with. I would have a personal trainer and all the necessary equipment to work out at a time and place convenient for me. I would have domestic help to do the household chores and keep an eye on the kids. Tell me, with all of the above, how on earth I wouldn’t possibly be skinny!
The title of this blog post was inspired by something Delphine Fieberg posted on Facebook. It is not just apt, spot on and so in line with what I think but also reassuring and witty, I just had to share. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
A while back, at the entrance of a gym, there was a picture of a very thin and beautiful woman. The caption was “This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?”
The story goes, a woman (of clothing size unknown) answered the following way:
“Dear people, whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, seals, curious humans), they are sexually active and raise their children with great tenderness.
They entertain like crazy with dolphins and eat lots of prawns. They swim all day and travel to fantastic places like Patagonia, the Barents Sea or the coral reefs of Polynesia.
They sing incredibly well and sometimes even are on cds. They are impressive and dearly loved animals, which everyone defend and admires.
Mermaids do not exist.
But if they existed, they would line up to see a psychologist because of a problem of split personality: woman or fish?
They would have no sex life and could not bear children.
Yes, they would be lovely, but lonely and sad.
And, who wants a girl that smells like fish by his side?
Without a doubt, I’d rather be a whale.
At a time when the media tells us that only thin is beautiful, I prefer to eat ice cream with my kids, to have dinner with my husband, to eat and drink and have fun with my friends.
We women, we gain weight because we accumulate so much wisdom and knowledge that there isn’t enough space in our heads, and it spreads all over our bodies.
We are not fat, we are greatly cultivated.
Every time I see my curves in the mirror, I tell myself: “How amazing am I ?! ”
* Image of French Model Tara Flynn*
What do you think? Please free to share this with any mermaids and whales you know.
Thanks for stopping by and tara for now.
). It is being published by Breathless Press
