Plus sized. Overweight. Fat. Anorexic. Bulimic. Cow. Curvy. Tall. Model.Short. Ass man. Tits guy. Feminine.
Women have evolved from the time of hunters and gatherers to the emaciated models we see plastered to the suffocating media around us. Along with transition of the female gender roles, there has been a transfer in the ideal body of a woman. The body practices women perform has changed drastically as well.
As a pear-shaped woman myself, no matter how hard I work out, how many A-line skirts I wear, or how many salads I consume, I will NEVER be taller, thinner, or have straight lean thighs. It just won’t happen. The downfall of this is that I am a college student in the 21st century. I inherited my shape from my grandmother, who also had round hips, full thighs, and a thin waist; however, the distinction comes in our body practices and progression of the feminine ideal image of the times. In the 1940’s, when my grandmother was around the same age as myself, the pin-up girl images were considered the sexy ideal: hips were lusted after, and thick thighs were considered healthy. The desired female image is a political fight, pushing our unconscious bodies to give into the ideals of the era, sending us into a constant fight against food, clothing, sex, art, and most of all ourselves.
Succumbing to being a docile body in the culture of today would lead women to starving themselves to mirror the size 00 models we see around every corner of life. The terrifying truth behind this is that, as stated in Susan Bordo’s article, “the term hysterical itself became almost interchangeable with the term feminine.” I see that in my bulimic best friend’s eyes, my younger cousin’s calorie counting journal, and my own mother’s drive to join Weight Watchers EVERY January first. Their docile bodies have been wasting away in front of my eyes.
The woman’s body is something to be celebrated. We were placed on this earth to produce life, pass children through curvy hips, and feed that new life from our bodies. Now if that isn’t beautiful, in any shape, I don’t know what is. Lose the labels, lose the jean sizes, lose the daily political and cultural fight against the image of the ideal woman, and take a damn minute to celebrate the beauty behind your body.
I completely agree with you. To many women are obsessed with changing their bodies to fit the ideal women. When in reality they look really good the way they are.
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