True or False?

This video is one of a girl's "vlog" on losing thirty pounds. She wants to lose weight to become a model and is 5'8" and wants to weigh 90 pounds. 90 POUNDS! That is in no way healthy, and she is doing it on youtube.com and asking for the support of viewers. You can even subscribe to her vlogs and keep up with her weight loss. It is called "Watch Me Disappear-My Journey to a Size 0." How ridiculous is that? She admits to having an eating disorder that she physically recovered from, but not mentally. She wishes that she never recovered and is willingly relapsing. What do you think of her video? On the sidebar to the right there are more links to her later videos. I think she is sick and needs some serious psychological help, and soon, before she kills herself. How do girls get this way? What makes them feel that they have to weigh 90 pounds? I believe the blame should be put onto the fashion industry and the media. What do you think?

Curves?

This slideshow is supposed to show the positive transformation the fashion industry is making. Their big claim to fame is that a change in a few models from size 0 to 2 0r 4s has been hitting the runways. Check out the pictures in the slideshow... they are clearly girls that are no where near the size of a 4, or even a 2 for that matter. They are frail, colorless, wiry, and as boney as ever. I do not see any difference in these models from any others. One fifteen year old aspiring model lost ten pounds before coming before the designers, and when they say her body, they told her to lose more weight. "The look this year is anorexia. We don't want you to be anorexic but that's what we want you to look like." This is a direct quote from the article, and the goal is to raise awareness about the rate of eating disorders in the fashion industry. Some designers have been encouraged to change their standard size to a 6, but most do not want those type of curves. I find the whole "designers designate what size is beautiful" thing. I cannot stand it. Who says the people who make the clothes get to decide what the rest of us should look like. 

Fad Diets

I have heard this one before, and even read other interviews with Beyonce about this diet. She apparently tried this diet for the first time before the movie Dream Girls when she had to shed many pounds, and quickly. Beyonce is a woman known for her sexy curves, she flaunts them and rarely strives for that "stick thin" look we so often see in celebs these days. Anyway, this fad diet consisted of a concoction of maple syrup, lemon juice, water, and cayenne pepper. The maple syrup isn't any old Aunt Jemima's, though. It is an organic syrup called Madal Bal Natural Tree that is often used in "fat detoxes" or fasts. Beyonce lost twenty pounds in just fourteen days on this revolting diet. I cannot imagine trying to survive on such a concoction, and although it "worked" Beyonce was not happy during the two weeks of weight loss. You can check out her feelings on it in this article. Lets just say that she was pretty excited to restart her normal eating habits again. Check the quotes!

"Dying to Fit In"

The entire article is chock full of important and relevant to my topic, but the section I want to focus on it called Dying to Fit In. Click on the green heading and it will direct you to this part of the page. A word this site uses to describe women is not we commonly hear in our society. "Prisoner" is the word this article uses to describe the women of America. "Women are enslaved to a beauty myth, chained to the false belief that our value is based on our appearance alone." I personally feel that this is extremely true for us as women, and may very well be true for women of other countries as well. Do you feel that as an American woman you are a prisoner to this stereotype and expectation of what you must be and/or look like? If so, where do you feel that this pressure comes from? Is it the media, your friends, family, or a combination or them all? If you do not feel that you a slave to a beauty ideal, how did you learn to rise above this expectation or even avoid it? Either way, it saddened me that most of the given information on frequent eating disorders and bad self esteem was not new to me. I feel that I am constantly surrounded by this information but few are doing anything to change it. Let me know how you feel!

Thin vs. Fit

Something that I have noticed before but have never really taken to heart or thought about thoroughly is the fact that models on magazine covers are more often thin instead of fit. Fit and healthy seem to go together, but the outstanding goal of the media seems to be to get women thin by any means, whether that makes us unhealthy or not. This article, from Pioneer Thinking, gives us not only tips on how to feel better about ourselves as women and as people, but it teaches how to protect ourselves from the judging and menacing eyes and words of the media. The media may try to tell us how to look, act, and feel, but that does not mean that we have to listen. Avoiding the media's portrayal of women is unavoidable because it is surrounding us all day every day. So, if we cannot avoid it, we must learn how to correctly interpret it and therefor react to it. Exercising regularly and eating healthy are good steps to making yourself feel and look 100%. Fight the urge to be thin, and instead get fit!

Get a Better Self Image

Here are 10 Steps to a Better Body Image. I know that doing these things will not improve your entire self-image overnight, but they encourage and teach women how to look at themselves in a more positive and satisfactory light than the media often puts us in. This article gives many tips on making yourself happy/satisfied on the inside instead of just looking at surface beauty. The author points out that "beauty is a state of mind, not a state of your body." I think this is an extremely helpful piece of informational opinion because it reenforces the idea that confidence is what makes someone beautiful and that when a woman is happy with herself, others see that and it transfers to her outer beauty, no matter her physical appearance. I encourage those of you who could use a self-esteem boost to try a few of these out and see how you feel. You never know, maybe it will change your mind on how you see yourself. 

Real Life Question and Advice

A thirteen year old girl posted the following question on Yahoo! Answers recently. "Help please!  Am I too skinny? I am thirteen (in eighth grade) and I weight 80.2 pounds. My ribs are visible through my skin. I don't like eating a lot but I am a type 1 diabetic and I am suppose to eat certain amounts to maintain my blood Sugar and I usually eat that much some days less. Some people ask if I'm anorexic or bulimic but I'm not and I want to know how skinny is too skinny for my age? I'm 5'4"." You can read the various responses she received and judge them for yourself. Some tell her to eat more calories and foods with substance, some tell her she is too skinny for her age/height, and others compare themselves to her and say that she is just fine. What is your take on this? I feel like she is too skinny and maybe even unhealthy. I just do not believe that being only 80.2 pounds at her age is good. I know that I personally was always quite thin at that age, but I am shorter than her and never weighed that. If she is asking the question of whether or not she is too skinny, does that mean she doesn't have an eating disorder? Can we even judge that from the given information? Diabetes seems to be a big reason for how much food she eats. I just cannot see her being healthy if people commonly perceive her as too skinny or assume she is anorexic. 

Parent Involvement

This article was quite interesting. I can totally see this situation happening to a number of teens with their bewildered parents standing by without a clue as to what they should/could do to help their daughter. I have actually had this experience with my own mother many times as a young teen: none of my clothes look as good on me as on models, so I must be fat, and my whole body (which is actually healthy) is covered in ugly fat. I hate to admit that I ever had those thoughts, but I believe that being honest about our personal issues helps break societal barriers. Anyway, the article goes on to give parents some advice on listening to their child, understanding where she (the daughter) is getting these thoughts, and how to spot an eating disorder. I think information like this is important for parents because many have no clue how to help. Do you agree with the given tips, and have you ever been in a similar situation? What do you think helps girls in this situation? Empowered Parents 

Ruby

Ruby is a new reality show on Style Network. I saw commercials for it this weekend while watching TV, and decided to share it with you all. Ruby is a 500 pound woman, and the show will give an inside look at what her life is like--the struggles she faces, etc. Ruby's goal is to lose "hundreds of pounds" because her doctor has told her that if she does not lose the weight, she will definitely die. The executive producer is a close friend of Ruby's and she says, "Ruby really wants to inspire people. She's so entertaining and hysterical, so it's going to be an inspirational but also a really fun show (realitytvscoop.com). Style Network's website (which I recommend for a full view of the show and what it entails) has a whole mini-site about Ruby and her show, life, and even tips on how to deal with societal problems at such an extreme weight. Check out Ruby and let me know what you think. Do you think this show is a good idea and will help people and Ruby, or is it just another reality show to make money? (Notice the posed pics of Ruby on the site, don't they seem airbrushed and edited a little? Hmmmm)