overcoming-obstacles:

girlgrowingsmall:

And that’s insulting. Just because I don’t want that body type for myself, I’m pathetic? That’s bullshit. I don’t WANT to look like that. I don’t want to be that thin. Maybe some ladies do, and that’s fine, but I want to be curvier and, put bluntly, a little meatier than that. Because that is what I like. And I bet you that woman occasionally eats a bag of chips. Believe it or not, you can have an occasional bag of chips and still be healthy. A truly healthy diet lets you eat anything as long as it’s in moderation and in harmony with proper nutrition. Do I believe it’s important to cut down on junky foods if you want to get healthy? Yes. Is it pathetic that I’d rather occasionally indulge (as is healthy to do) than have a body that personally does absolutely nothing for me? Not in the least. How dare you call people pathetic for not wanting that body. There isn’t only one pretty body type in this world. And there isn’t only one way to get a pretty body.

From Mirror, mirror - A summary of research findings on body image:

Why are women so much more self-critical than men? Because women are judged on their appearance more than men, and standards of female beauty are considerably higher and more inflexible. Women are continually bombarded with images of the ‘ideal’ face and figure – what Naomi Woolf calls ‘The Official Body’. Constant exposure to idealised images of female beauty on TV, magazines and billboards makes exceptional good looks seem normal and anything short of perfection seem abnormal and ugly. It has been estimated that young women now see more images of outstandingly beautiful women in one day than our mothers saw throughout their entire adolescence.

Also, most women are trying to achieve the impossible: standards of female beauty have in fact become progressively more unrealistic during the 20th century. In 1917, the physically perfect woman was about 5ft 4in tall and weighed nearly [140 pounds]. Even 25 years ago, top models and beauty queens weighed only 8% less than the average woman, now they weigh 23% less. The current media ideal for women is achievable by less than 5% of the female population – and that’s just in terms of weight and size. If you want the ideal shape, face etc., it’s probably more like 1%.