Perspectives of Women and the Media
Dec 8th, 2007 by Amanda
Most of the time, I’m fairly content with myself. I’m a big woman, and if you don’t like it, well too bad for you. If the way I look would stop you from getting to know me then it’s not me missing out - it’s you. (Funny side note - I’m watching the Sound of Music with my roomie right now, and the song “I Have Confidence” just started - coincidence? 
)
I know I could be healthier. But I happen to know some absolutely gorgeous women who are large. You don’t have to be a size 2 to be beautiful.
Unfortunately, most people don’t realize that. Last week, Jennifer Love Hewitt took a lot of flak for some photos of her in a bikini. People called her fat because of that photo. I stumbled onto a flickr set that illustrates BMI and how off the categories really are. There were some photos of gorgeous women and they are considered overweight, obese, or morbidly obese - and it just seemed ridiculous. I showed them to a friend, and she looked at the pictures and agreed with the categories. I was mortified! I couldn’t understand how she could look at some of those photos and agree with the classification.
But then I stumbled onto another website, and I realized why. People’s perspectives of how a woman should really look are so skewed because of Photoshop.
We think that when we look at a photo in a magazine that the model/celebrity actually looks like that. After all, cameras don’t lie. But they don’t actually look like that!
That’s why so many of us have such a screwed up picture of what women (and even men) should look like. And it’s stupid. We should be thrilled with how people actually look instead of lamenting that we don’t look the way touched up photos do.
I don’t know if this is something that can be changed - though I’m inclined to think not.
Amanda,
check out the last video that I posted here.
Its from the Dove self esteem fund. It really make an impact of what you are talking about here.
frac, my link didnt work:
http://techskeptic.blogspot.com/2007/10/ot-great-atheist-videos.html
According to their BMI I would probalby be morbidly obese. Yes, I am overweight but not morbidly obese! Frankly the only ones I agreed with were the underweight ones cuz IMO 1/2 the normal ones were underwight to and thats not cuz I am heavey its cuz that is just not healthy.
It’s weird that appearance issues for guys tend to be completely different. We’re less messed-up about weight, but I’m convinced that most guys that make the magazines are abusing at least one steroid.
The problem, I think, is that the words ‘obese’ and ‘fat’ have such negative connotations. Yet they’re just physical descriptions, like ‘tall’ or ‘red-haired’, and shouldn’t have value judgements attached to them. The BMI simply illustrates some statistics, and suggests that people who are very thin or very fat are likely to have health problems (though not necessarily). It doesn’t mean they’re any less valuable as people, or that their shape is due to any fault of their own. Genetics has a lot to say in our body shape, as does our diet during childhood. Also, some very heavy people are healthy, as are some very light folk… and that’s fine.
If people focused more on living healthy lifestyles, and eating for maximum nutrition for their own benefit, rather than worrying about what they look like, there would be much less of a problem. The media, of course, is very much to blame in the way that heavier folk are seen negatively.
Nevertheless, it’s statistically true that someone who is medically obese is more likely to suffer health problems than someone who is within the average weight range. It’s a bit like the statistics that say someone with a lot of cancer or heart disease in their family is more likely to suffer those illnesses. So it’s wise for someone in that category to take more care (eg not smoking, eating fruit and veg, avoiding saturated fat, taking regular exercise, etc). Surely the same is true of people who are clinically obese.
Interesting article. Jennifer Love Hewitt had a fabulous figure in that photo, I haven’t got a clue why anyone would call her fat.
Regarding the BMI photos, I think they were misleading. Whether or not the people were obese or overweight etc was down to their statistics. However, we were seeing them with clothes on and if clothes are chosen carefully they can hide a multitude of sins. Equally if not chosen with care they can accentuate all your worst features.
Those airbrushed photos were an eye-opener. I have seen the odd celebrity and been shocked how lined and drawn they usually look in the flesh! Some of the airbrushing shown was frankly unnecessary and just made the person look unreal and freakish.