When you Think About Beauty...

    When most people in our modern society think about beauty what is it that pops into their heads? Is it mountains, waterfalls and vast meadows full of buttercups? No. When society thinks of beauty, they think of women, for the most part. Not just ordinary women, mind you, but the ones we see in movies and magazines. The women like Kate Beckensdale who are so frighteningly thin that you could break them in half with the flick of a wrist. This is what beauty has become in our society. Personally, it scares me. When the standard of beauty is so outrageous, only two things come of it; eating disorders and obesity. Some girls will actually be able to reach this morbid goal of thinness by starving themselves, while the ones who can not will get depressed and turn to food to comfort them, causing obesity. Now I know I am talking in extremes here, but is this not a problem?
    This trend of anyone beautiful having to be super thin is a very new concept. It only became popular in the 60s when Twiggy graced the runway. But the public has embraced it so vehemently that it has been getting worse ever since. For eons before this, humans had always admired a healthier figure. As you can tell by Greek, Roman, and basically any art up until the Twiggy phenomena. If you watch any Marylin Monroe films you will see that she is anything but the scrawny, fall through a crack actresses of today. She is one of the biggest icons in our country still, and yet she never was as thin as Kate Moss. You see, as recently as the 50s people still preferred women who had curves and were at a healthy weight (which is considered overweight today even in doctor's offices). If you were super skinny you were considered not as attractive, because you had none of the curves that women are supposed to have. Hips, thighs, breasts, even the stomach. Women were supposed to have fat there, it meant you could bear children and in many cultures they worshiped the female form, literally.
    Like I said earlier, even in doctor's offices this new unreality is pressed upon us. Young women who are uncomfortable with their weight because of all this societal pressure can go to the doctor's and be handed a chart. Said chart will give them a matrix of height and the weight you are supposed to be at for that height. The weights they give are extreamly hard to reach unless you are naturally skin and bones and they do not take into account bone structure, age, or anything that can significantly affect how much you weigh. If you miss the target weight by five pounds, you're considered overweight which is ridiculous because everyone knows that your bodyweight varies give or take five pounds throughout the day because of water-weight. So according to this chart  you need to be at least 5-10 pounds under the target weight to actually be at the target weight. I am 5' 5" tall. The target weight range for my height in the 130 pound area. Now, I weigh 146 pounds give or take the five for water weight. So according to this chart, at any point in the day I could be almost twenty pounds overweight, which to them is borderline obesse. Now, I don't think I"m skinny. I, like every other girl I know suffer from a sever lack of self confidence because of society's beauty standards, but I do not think I am even close to being obesse. I eat healthy foods, and I don't drink a lot of soda or eat junk food. I am not an atheletic person, but I go for walks, ride my bike, play DDR, and other such exersizes. I try to do something active everyday. I don't always achieve that goal between work, school and homework, but I give it my best shot. I find the fact that the doctors are telling me I'm to fat very disconcerting, especially seeing as I do not have any rolls in my belly or anywhere else. What do they tell to my fellow women who may be slightly thicker than I am? That they are hoplessly ugly and fat? This standard needs to stay out of the doctor's office!
    I am also a believer in the fact that some people are just genetically heavier than others. These people may try everything, but they are just a certain weight. This doesn't mean they're unhealthy. They probably exercise and eat better than I do, they are just made different. And we tell these people there's something wrong with them?!
    I'm sure this blog may strike some people as overdramatic maybe. But I am getting sick of looking at people who would not have survived 100 years ago simply due to their self deprivating skinniness. I hope someday real beauty will take back control of the media, because until then beautiful girls will be killing themselves to achieve this bogus standard we call beauty.