Comfortable In Your Skin

[TeTe]

Great post, Shana.

 

[meowracer]

Thank you, TeTe and Gayle

ETA TeTe in b/c I was not to page 2 when I responded!

 

[rjroubi]

Robin - I think DirtDiva was saying just that - she doesn't know you but can only make assumptions about you based on what you write here. It would be sad for someone who is not the perfect weight/size to read this and interpret it the wrong way. Most people do have a roll somewhere, whether it be large or small. You are apparently very fortunate and if that is you in the picture on your profile page, then you are indeed blessed with some amazing abs. Most people don't have that, and I would think the magazine is following the Dove ad direction, to make the average woman feel comfortable in her own skin. It isn't the cover model look that we are accustomed to, the airbrushed girls who sometimes grace the magazines, but hopefully words like icky and gross can be replaced with beautiful and real, and we won't have girls by the truckloads suffering from eating disorders, trying to obtain something that isn't real to begin with, or if it is real, nowhere near average. It seems there are three types of girls/women in magazines who are naturally blessed with the perfect body, then there are more girls who work their tails off at the gym and eat the perfect diet to obtain "perfection" for a shoot, and finally there are the girls who starve themselves to work the runway. It would be nice if society would accept all shapes and sizes.

I didn't set out to have my comments misinterpreted and thank you for explaining why they were.

Unfortunately, I'll never appreciate or like that particular image. I still cringe when I view it. (Years ago, I thought the images of Twiggy were horrible too.) It has nothing to do with accepting different shapes of people. Of course, everyone should be accepted. That goes without saying. I just don't like that viewing that image. Belly fat is the most dangerous fat on the human body...that picture doesn't in any way give me feelings of health or beauty and never will. (Aren't health and beauty human aspirations? Isn't that why we read those magazines?)

Also, without opening another can of worms, by posting that image in a glamour magazine could we also be perpetuating the appropriateness of the average American lifestyle and diet which we already know isn't healthy? Ah, something to ponder.

I'm honestly glad the woman is happy in her own skin....everyone should be, but that doesn't automatically mean "everyone" should enjoy seeing her. I don't.

 

[meowracer]

Robin -the thing that still bothers me most is that stupid little string of fabric cutting across her middle. I think that contributes to some of the roll. I think the magazine did it for publicity but maybe also to help women feel comfortable...that they don't have to have a perfect body. Who knows. I would like to know what she looks like standing up. It looks more like loose skin than belly fat but again, with the posing, who knows. It isn't the look I would go for, which is why I read my M&F Hers and Oxygen magazines, etc - those are the looks I am aiming for at this point in life. However, if I were 100lbs overweight with a huge gut and earnestly trying to lose it, I would look at that girl in the magazine and just wish to look like that, I would imagine. It's just a matter of perspective. I'm glad that you understand where I was coming from. I don't like looking at some of the super fit pics of people in the fitness mags b/c either I don't care for the muscle structure or there is too much for my liking. This Glamour mag pic is not one I would hang in my room for inspiration, but that goes back to perspective. My mom has been anorexic since I was a toddler. She maintains now, at about 95 lbs lately (she is 5'7"), but I don't like looking at her body. It pains me to do so. I love her to death and spend time with her whenever I can, but I cannot bear to focus on her body. She very nearly died when I was in 2nd grade, from this disease. I would rather see a bit more body fat on a person than none at all. I accept her as she is and that is what I am going round and round saying - we don't have to love the way everyone looks but rather accept them and try not to judge.

 

[evilgrin]

IMHO, who needs the extra stress of thinking someone else's opinion counts? Just like turning off music you don't like, shut the magazine if you don't like the image. Everyone's opinion of beautiful is different and valid. I did not see the magazine picture, but I can get a good mental picture. This picture is like the picture of that actress years back showing her pregnant belly on a magazine cover and it was negative headline news for months...uh, why? Do I look at other women - I would be lying if I said I didn't, but I am not their fashion police and I don't know their life situation. My next door neighbor passes a large brick everytime she sees a woman breastfeeding - personally, I think it shouldn't affect my neighbor's world whatsoever, but she will keep going on about it. We all come in different sizes, shapes, mental propensities, and hair colors (mine changes often) - but we are ALL beautiful because of WHO we are.

Reese