Beauty, Health, and my BMI
My BMI is around 25. I recline on the line between what is defined as "normal" and "overweight."
What does this mean?
It means I am unattractive.
(because no one anywhere near my proportions exists in movies, ads for cars, in magazines, and this, my friends, is a picture of a "plus" model:
)
It means I am unhealthy.
(because our society believes, wrongly, that weights above that magic number are inherently unhealthy)
It means I should be ashamed.
(in casual conversation it is not only normal to put ourselves down for going up, it is a compliment to tell someone they've lost weight no matter what the original weight)
But here's the truth: I am beautiful, I am healthy, and I'm proud.
I've seen what the low end of the BMI scale does: it kills, it maims, it mangles, it tortures.
Our society's fixation on weight is not about health or virtue. It is about aesthetic bigotry, period.
And the first thing we need to do is stop connecting weight with beauty, health, or virtue.
Our healthy body size and shape is genetically determined. Mucking about with the mechanisms to change our appearance is like chopping off the top of our head to make ourselves shorter: it doesn't work, and what are we going to do with half a brain?
What does this mean?
It means I am unattractive.
(because no one anywhere near my proportions exists in movies, ads for cars, in magazines, and this, my friends, is a picture of a "plus" model:
)It means I am unhealthy.
(because our society believes, wrongly, that weights above that magic number are inherently unhealthy)
It means I should be ashamed.
(in casual conversation it is not only normal to put ourselves down for going up, it is a compliment to tell someone they've lost weight no matter what the original weight)
But here's the truth: I am beautiful, I am healthy, and I'm proud.
I've seen what the low end of the BMI scale does: it kills, it maims, it mangles, it tortures.
Our society's fixation on weight is not about health or virtue. It is about aesthetic bigotry, period.
And the first thing we need to do is stop connecting weight with beauty, health, or virtue.
Our healthy body size and shape is genetically determined. Mucking about with the mechanisms to change our appearance is like chopping off the top of our head to make ourselves shorter: it doesn't work, and what are we going to do with half a brain?
You rock!
ReplyDeleteAll I have to say is:
ReplyDeleteBRAVO!
Guess this means society needs to be re-educated, which means that the ones behind the campaign to drill into our heads that we need to be a certain size may need to be re-educated. Better yet we can take responsibility and teach ourselves. and spread the word.
ReplyDeleteI want to help! Let's start a rumor..."you are enough exactly as you are and your beauty shines through from knowing this."
As for the half of my brain STILL remaining after my heads been cut off...thank you for the chuckle.
You are beautiful and have very healthy thinking, might I add!
Thank you for your interesting post!
ReplyDeleteI thought perhaps you may also find this related post interesting to you:
Body Size and Human Longevity
http://longevity-science.blogspot.com/2007/05/body-size-and-human-longevity_08.html