I'm confused

This post is meant as a bit of a joke, and maybe at the same time a bit of not-a-joke.

Why....in the middle of an "obesity crisis", are women (and men even) still complaining about the media "bombarding them with unrealistic images of what they should look like"?

The last report I looked at stated that 65% of americans are overweight or obese. On the other hand, 5-7% of american women will suffer from anorexia or bulimia during their lifetime.

I will never try to argue that eating disorders do not cause significant health problems and I definitely won't make light of that fact, however, I think anyone could agree that obesity's list is mighty impressive. Obesity can contribute to your chances of getting diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, fuck...I'm not going to list them all....look here if you really don't know what being fat does to your health.

Now, I understand that eating disorders are serious, and that even in the absence of an eating disorder, people can experience low self esteem and feelings of anxiety or inadequacy due to not looking as good as they think the people on tv or in the magazines do. But is the media's message really the problem? I'll admit that I have no use for fame for fame's sake and therefore do not read "People" and their ilk....but I've always found they have a variety of shapes of people within their pages. Why do women automatically associate the skinniest thing in front of them with what everyone thinks is ideal? Maybe a few years ago that was the case, but it seems lately that the super-skinny is being stigmitized almost as much as the super-fat.

Maybe it's just me being so confident in my body image that I'm missing this stuff....except that's not it. Ask anyone who actually knows me, I have my hang-ups. There's stuff about me that I wish was different. I wish my arms were a bit beefier. I wish my jaw-line was more defined. I don't know what I'd want my hair to be.....but I really don't like it. I wish that I didn't feel so ugly that pulling the "You won second prize in a beauty contest" card in monopoly causes a momentary sense of pride. And yeah there are famous people, and even not famous people that I wish I could look more like....but it doesn't keep me up at night. And why would it?

Hell....if I go to the magazine rack there's all sorts of stuff there trying to make me feel inadequate. All the houses and gardens in the Home and Garden section look better than my house and my garden. Most of the cars in the car magazines are cooler than mine, and they're definitely newer. All the computers are faster, smaller and more powerful than mine, and all the tv's are bigger and brighter. Do I wish my stuff was more like that stuff....sure. Does it make me feel bad that my stuff isn't more like that stuff. Yeah, a bit. Am I outraged that they don't put more dumpy houses in the magazines with garages full of older, uncool cars and rec-rooms filled with small tv's and big, slow computers. No....not really. It's nice to look at nice and fancy stuff that's better than mine. And for me, when I actually do look in a magazine, it's kinda nice if the people in it look a little better than the people that are hangin' out at the mall.

And even if the ideal is set a little too far on the skinny side of things, is that necessarily a bad thing? Remember..... 65% of americans are fat at this moment. Is it a bad thing to surround them with images of people who are skinnier than them? But what about the people who end up getting eating disorders. Well, for starters....let's look at things on a completely indifferent, numbers-only level. Less than 10% of americans will suffer from anorexia or bulimia in their lifetimes. Which of those numbers is bigger?

And pretty much everyone agrees that there is a pretty large psychological component to eating disorders. Obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression seem to go hand-in-hand with anorexia and bulimia. What's to say that even if every environmental/societal trigger for these diseases was removed that the same people who would have had these problems wouldn't succumb to something else. A vicious cycle of never-ending home-improvement. Frequent upgrading of vehicles despite there being no problem with the old one. Compulsive shopping perhaps? Hmm...looking at the current economic crisis and the credit crunch, maybe it's already happened.

So yeah, for all you women (and men) in the middle. Maybe you should stop whinging about "the media" making you feel inadequate by bombarding you with unrealistic body images, and start thinking for yourselves. Take a look at yourself and be as healthy as you can be, and stop worrying. Sure there are people on TV who are hotter than you....but that's ok. I bet your boyfriend or girlfriend thinks you're pretty alright. Do you think you'd even bother with TV or movies if the people weren't better looking than you or doing more interesting stuff than you? If you don't like the people that are on your tv or in your magazines, there's a simple solution. Stop buying the magazines, and turn off the tv. If it's really burning you up inside then stop buying the products that are advertised during the shows that offend you and write letters to the companies. Personally I say leave things the way they are. There are way too many fat people and they need someone to look up to.

Oh yeah, maybe put the credit card away for a bit too, last years stuff is fine.