Don't Die For a Diet

I was checking out YouTube for some examples of extreme diets and such, when I stumbled upon this scary, scary video. It starts out with a little girl, cutting out pictures of models from magazines. It goes on to give advice on how to stay thin, and tells viewers that one can never get too thin. These dangerous pieces of advice are apparently from actual pro-anorexia websites. The video ends with the instructions to NOT take this advice, and to follow the healthy advice of dontdieforadiet.com. I found this video to be quite disturbing, but I thought I would post it just to get some opinions on it. So, what do you think? Would this video help girls, or hurt them?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBYt9bYu194

BMI Info

BMI is deemed inaccurate by many sources, but this site gives the best summary of why it isn't appropriate to judge yourself by this false measurement. As a young teen I used to constantly check my weight on the BMI scale and was so worried that I was fat. I have never been over a size 7 in my life, and according to the BMI I was at risk for obesity. First, BMI does not ask for age, it only requires an input of height and weight. Secondly, it does not take muscle mass into account. So, if an athletic girl who is not unhealthily overweight, she may often appear so to the BMI scale, inaccurately making her self conscious. Why is BMI set as a standard for women to hold themselves to when it is not even accurate? I first learned that I should hold myself to the BMI standard by a health article in Seventeen Magazine as a young teen, and I did not learn to stop thinking of myself outside of these weight standards until a few years later. B-M-I equals a big fat L-I-E!   http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2006/nov/28/healthandwellbeing.health1

Curvation Nation

Curvation may just be a Walmart brand of bras, underwear, and clothing, but they are making great headway into the new movement of teaching women to be comfortable and confident with their bodies. Curvation presents The Curvation Project Confidence Awards to recognize women who "personify and project the power of confidence through contributions to their local communities." The award is a $10,000 grant to put towards their program to help continue their work in building women's confidence. Queen Latifah, one of the most beautiful women ever, is a spokesperson for the foundation. I found this site in an US magazine-ironic, huh? Check out the sight to find out more! http://www.curvation.com/pc/awards.php

Plus Size-Or Normal Size?

I will admit that I am an avid America's Next Top Model viewer, and I have no idea what makes this show so addicting, especially when most of the women are twigs. Anyway, while watching last season's show, I became attached to Whitney Thompson-she was the most naturally beautiful one, she had great personality, and her photos were fabulous. I immediately found myself crossing my fingers for her to get the win. Whitney did go on to win Next Top Model for that season, but the reason it made so many headlines is because she is the first "full-figure/plus size woman" to ever win ANTM. You can see on this page a photo of Whitney and she looks anything but "plus size." Given, they may have airbrushed and edited the bejesus out of her pic, but she is gorgeous without all of that. So many teens have written to her thanking her for her courage to stand up against the media's standards of beauty. I look up to Whitney for this too, and she should be seen as a beautiful woman...not a beautiful plus size woman. Bodies come in all different shapes and sizes, that is just what is natural. Each shape is beautiful, and maybe we need someone like Whitney to remind us 0f that. http://www.nypost.com/seven/05152008/tv/a_plus_model_110903.htm

"Sexy" Timeline

http://notjustskindeep.wordpress.com/2008/05/29/has-thin-always-been-in/ This page focuses on how the perception of sexy has evolved over the years. It begins with fashions in the West where the 'thin' trend seemed to have begun in the first place. As I scrolled down the page I was so shocked to see the older pictures and how much more there is to those women! They seem a little fat to me, but that is only because my mind is warped by today's disgusting standards. I feel so guilty that that is what I first thought. But, in my defense, I was glad to see the bigger size, and the more I looked at these women, the more beautiful they looked. So it seems I no longer have a true view of beauty that I personally hold to a standard. It seems that the media has ripped my views apart and brainwashed me. Maybe seeing these curvy, sexy women will undo a little warping. When I looked at the picture of Marilyn, I saw a body type very similar to my own, and knowing that she was seen as a sex symbol in the 50s and 60s made me realize that beauty has been taken way out of context in modern day modeling and media. As i went down the page the women just get skinnier and skinnier, and to me they became less beautiful. Protruding clavicles, sharp jaw bones, and countable ribs are not attractive, especially when compared to the pictures at the top of the page. If we naturally look more like the curvy women, then why is thin what is now in? We are fighting our natural women-ness to lose our curves. The collage of America's Next Top Model made me feel so fat, and that is just now how it should be. So, let's start a revolution: Long Live Natural Bodies! 

Men's Opinions on Curves vs. Ribs

Women often desire to be twig-thin because this is what they see portrayed in the media and therefor think that a toothpick is what they need to have to get a man. Well, although most of us hold our bodies up to a standard for ourselves but sometimes others as well, many women feel the need to change for men. For those women I share this piece of information: "latest poll shows 80% of men want curvy voluptuous women, NOT rail think stick models like we have been told." This is a quote from the article I am sharing with you. The 80% are attracted to bodies like JLo and 15% to average-sized women, and a mere 5% to skinny-minnies. So, ladies, if we are trying to look attractive to the opposite sex, losing a ton of pounds is apparently not the way to go. A man's opinion should never be the motivation behind a body transformation or self image in the first place, but I think it is nice to hear men speak out against the media's stereotypes of what is desirable. http://www.nancyhayssen.com/blog/6/why-thin-is-not-in-80-men-say-they-love-big-women/

Say No To Size 0

Oh my goodness! This youtube video shows various pictures of scarily-skinny celebs and models. The music is hilarious, so make sure you turn your volume up. Each of these is a picture of a real woman and the size of them is haunting. I have seen some of these pictures in magazines before and they were praised for their sexy thinness. This is just disgusting and all I want to do is feed them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFxrwqo_j4A&feature=related

This video shows the original and then photoshopped version of modeling and celebrity photos. The end results are shocking. The ones of the natural beauty look just fine as they are, but the photoshopped version looks like a wax or mannequin figure. The last portion of the video take a play-by-play on the way an advertisement was made. A normal looking girl was completely transformed. I was shocked to see the differences, you will be too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUUAgZ8f1OU&feature=related

Loving Your Body is Healthy

Women's health and body image are directly related to one another. Unhealthy eating habits and disorders develop from poor body image and self esteem. This is something that we all know and have probably experienced first hand at some point in time. Researching where the pressure for a perfect body image comes from is the first step to stopping the self hate so many women and girls have for their bodies. In a study conducted and reported on this site, when asked, 70% of adolescent girls wanted to be thinner, while only 7% wanted to be larger, and 33% were happy the way they were. Why do so many strive for thinness? Because thin is what's in! The standard sizes of women and girls has been changed from 6, 8, and 10 to 0, 1, and 2. This website is based in Australia, which proves that body image and problems with the media is not just an American problem, it is a world problem. You can read all of this and more on this mind and body health conscious group. http://www.womhealth.org.au/studentfactsheets/bodyimage.htm

About Face

About-face is an amazing website fighting the media's negative and destructive portrayals of women. Their slogan is "Don't Fall for the Media Circus!" I think this is just a great milestone that women have made. There are various links on About-Face and it is so fun to play around and read the articles. They have a list of "offenders" who are companies or organizations targeting women through advertisements that induce negative body and self images as well as lower self esteem of many girls. There are some sections full of facts, such as "90% of all girls ages 3-11 have a Barbie doll, an early role model with a figure that is unattainable in real life." They give examples of appropriate role models for women and young girls. They include the Dove Campaign in there positive role models, which I have mentioned before in my blog. Check out this site, it is an great place to explore. You can even buy some cool posters! http://www.about-face.org/

Stereotypes

"Women are pressured to have hard bodies and silky hair, along with sparkling white teeth and abs of steel, but where do these stereotypes come from? Is it from the books they read or the schools they go to? Or maybe it's from two of the most popular forms of media today; movies and television." This is a quote summing up the most common form of stereotypes women face  when they turn on the television, sit down for a movie, or flip open a magazine. If you have all of these qualities, well then good for you I suppose, but I know that I sure don't have hardly any of them, but I am pretty happy with myself. My question is exactly that from the quote-where did these stereotypes come from? Yes, they are unavoidably seen in the media, but where did the people behind the media come up with such stereotypes? Who stood up and said "This is what I think we should make beauty look like, so let us make all the women set this ridiculous standards for themselves." Yeah, I doubt it, too. Every woman is different. If we all held each and everyone of these stereotypical qualities of beauty the world would be a boring, and in my opinion, an ugly place. Curves are what make women's bodies so wondrous, not lumps of hard muscles everywhere. What do you think and how do you react to these stereotypes when you are faced with them? http://media.www.quchronicle.com/media/storage/paper294/news/2005/02/16/Commentary/Stereotypes.Of.Women.Are.Widespread.In.Media.And.Society-865192.shtml

Average Lives Cannot Handle Celeb Diet Plans!

We all know that celebs have ridiculous diet plans and exercise techniques and schedules, but why do we allow ourselves to think that each of these mostly extreme weight loss ideas are good for us? So many of these celebs tell readers that they exercise nearly EVERY day of the week, sometimes for over two hours per day! Now, hardly any of us have time like this on our hands to devote to such prolonged sweat time, let alone with a five star trainer. The foods they include in their diets are expensive and often delivered to their homes ready to eat. The average woman hardly has the time to make it through her week normally, let alone with such weight loss dedication included. There are countless websites chock full of diet tips, recipes, and exercise plans. Tell me, how many of you would be willing and or/pumped to follow these tactics? (Especially something as hard core as fasting for 21 days!)

 http://www.modeldietplan.com/celebrity.htm http://www.celebrityfitclub.com/www/xnt/cfc/pages/Splash.aspx http://webcenters.netscape.compuserve.com/celebrity/becksmith.jsp?p=bsf_celebextremediets

Airbrushing-It's Lies I Tell you!

If you think that all those sexy fems in our magazine ads and on the covers are as good looking in person as they appear to be in the photos, think again. Airbrushing and all kinds of digital photo editing unnaturally enhance these women's looks to make them more desirable-but does it? Millions of teenage girls read these magazines, pining over the images they see that do not even closely resemble themselves. Many, including myself at one point in time, believe that they will not be acceptable unless they mirror these looks, however fake they may be. However, actions are being taken to lessen the amount of digital editing allowed. These images are creating a beauty standard that is not only unhealthy, but unattainable. The beauty is fake--so trying to achieve it is hopeless. What actions do you think should be taken? Have you personally been affected by such images? Check out Newsweek's article at http://www.newsweek.com/id/135166