Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Fat Free

Why are women more self conscious about their bodies than men? And why are men, no matter what shape and form they come in, always think that they are God’s gift to earth?. I suppose it all starts from the early days of Human kind, when God created Adam and then Eve. Men think they are the perfect sex because God made Adam first. But, unfortunately it did not occur to them that God perhaps thought that the man s/he created was not perfect enough, so Adam was modified a bit and Eve, the mother of all women, was made to be top notch of perfection.
I believe the issue of body image starts from the type of clothing a culture expects a person to wear. When you think of it, we are used to men wearing suits, they come in different colours and patterns but they stay suits, consisting of a jacket, shirt, tie and trousers. However, when it comes to women, there is a countless variety of different clothing that will unduly makes a woman think too much about the way she looks. This thing not only applies for the western society, but also to the majority of the world.
The society puts a lot of pressure on females, for example, when a man takes his girlfriend to meet his family for the first time, the female gets subjected to a length of criticism after the nerve-wrecking meeting starting from the way she looks, and especially her weight. Speaking from a personal experience, I always had a comment or two about my weight from friends’ parents. And to top it all, every time I went to visit their house over a dinner party or whatever, there was usually a flying comment about whether I lost or gained weight. When a female applies for a job, her appearance and body image is of prime importance for the majority of ‘female-required-jobs’.The media puts pressure on the female celebrities, the examples are plenty as one has to just watch the E! channel and observe the weight-relating reports.
And you know who else puts pressure on females? Females themselves!!!! Every time you walk aimlessly down town, the only gender that always stares back at you and eyes you from head to toe are FEMALES, its very rare that males do that in broad day light in a country like England unless they are under the influence of alcohol or some kind class A drugs! Another example is in the gym, females tend to look at each other and think to themselves ‘ I wish I had a bum like hers’ but men don’t do that! I even questioned some of my mates about whether they look at fellow athletes in the gym, and the answer was ‘ no’.
So, I wonder, who is to blame in this never-ending quest to form fat-free women?

4 comments:

Luckybellybuddha said...

Used to be a fad related stuff dear babbler.
During the 40s & 50s, plump & chubby women were way more popular (smoking too, it used to be considered cool) & then came the 80's & 90's and fashion swung towards slimmer bodies. In fact at one point, girls looked "sick" slim.
You even had models looking like skeletons walking on catwalks.
But all that aside, as healthy life is becoming the issue behind our sizes, I think it'll be here to stay now for the obvious reasons & for both men & women, hence why we get sagging, about to depart old people mishreffing & yarmooking walk.

Babbler said...

Thank you.
1. I think the issue of 'dress to impress' goes both ways, i.e. for both men and woman. So, it is not gender exclusive.

2. I think fat men are not desirable either. Ugly is a strong word, as I beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

3. Woman have a right to pick and choose too.

4. This saying is redundant.

5. I agree with you in that it is in our mind.

I believe that the issue of weight has cultural differences. i.e. an over-sized woman in certain parts of Africa is perceived as attractive but in the Western world is probably not.

Luckybellybuddha said...

O sh7agah ma radatay 3alay law sama7tay, that is??
>:-(

Babbler said...

Apology mistletoe :D

Obsessing about your weight for health reasons is valid. but I think that using the 'health' excuse has been abused a wee little with the weight issue.
yet again, your point of it being a fad is correct too. As historically, you can observe a very clear difference in how bodily appearance is perceived.