Myths of Female Beauty

[helwen]

My thanks to bytchearse for finding and posting this
article on perceptions of feminine beauty.


As for me, I _am_ working on losing weight but mostly for health reasons (my knees appreciate it, for one). I have a mental picture of how I'd like to look, which is still heavier than the so-called ideal BMI, but I know it's a weight that works well for letting me do what I want to do, physically. Aesthetically-speaking, I can always manage to look good if I decide to make time for it.

And happily, my sweetie never fell for the modern popular societal ideals of feminine beauty -- inner beauty is more important to him. Also, he prefers not to have to worry about breaking anything when he gives me a hug ;)

Comments

[antoniseb.livejournal.com]

Ummm, concerning your sweetie's tastes... you showed up on the scene, and were clearly one of the most attractive women I'd ever laid eyes on. I was married and unavailable, but still felt like something had been taken away when your sweetie managed to win your heart.

BTW, my knees are also requesting a lighter load.

[danabren.livejournal.com]

Smoothie ;)

[helwen.livejournal.com]

*blush* Thank you!

As for me, I've always thought you cut an elegant figure.

And too, I've found your quest for fitness to be something of an inspiration. We are none of us perfect, but I for one cherish every small victory, be it mine or a friend's.

[flidaisairmid.livejournal.com]

Personally I am losing weight for two reasons, and neither of them is appearance. I think my ideal BMI is a funny idea . The first reason i am losing is to teach my son how to live life as a thin, healthy person ( he was 425 lbs when we began and his joints, breathing and heart were suffering because of it). Second reason is I want to get below 200 pounds for the first time since I have been in first grade, simply to be able to say to myself that I weigh less in my 50's than I did at age 6. It defy s logic, which is what makes me so love the idea. Being overweight never stopped me from romance, sports, feeling good about myself or any such thing. It did seriously hinder my fertility though.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Yup, health is number one, and the BMI myth doesn't account for a lot of different reasons for folks to _not_ fit into the gov't standards.

It has hurt me in regards to sports unfortunately, perhaps because I have mostly flat feet, so my knees are kind of sensitive to weight changes. But I have orthotics now which also helps, as well as increasing the amount of exercise I get.

I also have asthma but it wasn't a real problem for me until I got a combo of walking pneumonia and bronchitis one summer. I've gotten it to a tolerable place, but I'm thinking that losing a few pounds might help as well. Physically I'm shooting for around 130 lbs., even though supposedly I should weigh around 115 -- ha! All my ribs would show if I got down to there, no thanks.

The Biscuit has really been looking good this summer, and so have you. I think what you guys are doing is awesome! I've been cheering for you all being able to do more, go for walks in the woods, etc. :)

[flidaisairmid.livejournal.com]

Thanks . The weight loss thing has almost become a kind of side benefit for us. The freedom and discovery seem to far outweigh any weight or health benefits we are gaining. Before biscuit was born we were very active, but between a high risk pregnancy, then numerous ear infections and Autism, it was starting to feel like those people we once were had died. Parenting special needs children takes a lot out of you, both energetically and emotionally, and there are so many days that you just cannot see what battle you have to face first. It can easily rob your life. My ideal weight is supposed to be 130, but I cannot see my frame with that little flesh. I am shooting for 160, and then I will see how I feel.Before Biscuit was conceived, i had reached the weight of 310, and my hormonal cycles were a nightmare at best ( estrogen dominance). I got to 210 on the day I conceived him, and have not gotten back to that point yet.

Healthwise , I have arthritis that came as the result of an injury and perhaps the wrong course of treatment, and it got a lot worse with being sedentary and gaining weight. It is not perfect yet, but every day , with each activity, it gets easier. I have a personal goal to be back on some really rustic trails come this summer. I want to experience those sights again and I want to introduce Biscuit to them as well. Weight loss and fitness will only help to make that happen.

Where exactly DO they get these crazy normal numbers ???

[helwen.livejournal.com]

I don't know where the numbers come from, but Oakmouse posted an interesting link further down in the comments.

[oakmouse]

There's a new study claiming that 50% of the people who are at a "normal" BMI are still too fat and at risk for *insert laundry list of booga booga diseases here*.

Basically, they're never gonna let anyone be an acceptable weight. F*** 'em.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Yup, totally! Besides, probably the only way to achieve the new "normal" is to buy the diet foods they recommend... feh.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Hm, that probably wasn't completely clear. I meant to imply a monetary connection between whoever puts those recommendations together and the diet food industry.

[oakmouse]

It was clear to me!

[oakmouse]

Nope nope. The only way to lose weight is to submit to voluntary surgical mutilation of your stomach and/or intestines. That's now being sold as the sole and only weight loss answer, and is being recommended for people as little as 50 lbs overweight, and for CHILDREN.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

I've been seeing articles on that, not just the one I read through one of your posts. I do worry about how badly those surgeries are going for a lot of folks -- I know three people who've had it. Although they all seem to be doing all right so far, in regards to being able to eat regular food at least.... still, they seem more limited in the amount of energy they have as well :(

And recommending it for children is simply ridiculous. Happily my doctor doesn't think much of the procedure.

[oakmouse]

I know in person 2 people who have had it, via internet several more. Both of the ones I know FTF have had major health problems from the chronic malnutrition the surgeries cause. Both of them have also regained all the weight over a period of 3 years in one case and 5 in the other. One stuck to her diet and exercise regime and gained it all back in 3 years; she had had gastric banding. The other, who had had a gastric resection, fell off the diet and exercise wagon and got back on it several times, and 5 years post-surgery is now heavier than he originally was; he also has new and severe problems with his diabetes due to this body's surgically-produced inability to absorb nutrients normally.

It ain't pretty.

[fitzw.livejournal.com]

My doctor specifically said that the BMI does not take a person's build into account, and that their overall health is a better indicator of whether or not they are overweight.

If the weight interferes with either your health or your ability to get things done, then you do what you can about it. Stressing about it when you don't need to only adds stress that you don't need.

Umm... :-P

[oakmouse]

IMO it's more complex than that --- I know people of all BMI categories who have serious health problems that are totally not weight related (whether over- or under-) --- but in essence he's right. BMI is so much horse hockey precisely because it doesn't allow for variables in bone mass, muscle mass, etc. Any system that classes most athletes as overweight or obese clearly has severe problems.

Have you ever taken a look at The BMI Project? Have a gander at it here and see what different BMIs can look like when you remove them from the realm of mathematical abstraction:

http://kateharding.net/bmi-illustrated/

[helwen.livejournal.com]

We both looked at that -- interesting project.

[oakmouse]

Yeh, Kate's an interesting person. I don't take everything she says as gospel (in fact I disagree with her on a number of issues centering on personal opinions) but I do trust her to get her objective facts straight.

[flidaisairmid.livejournal.com]

If you think the BMI index is funny, consider what mainstream medicine considers to be a "safe" level of cholesterol. Anyone with a number of 100 or higher is suggested a course of statin treatment. The only way a human can achieve a cholesterol level that low is through medication. Truth is, a high cholesterol level means absolutely nothing - the C Reactive protein level is what you need to watch. This , the BMI and so many things certainly make it appear that the medical community is operating on creating job security and little else. There is no health or healing, just management.

I am waiting to see the day when they announce that life is the ultimate cause of cancer, and to avoid your risk, schedule your assisted suicide session today.

[oakmouse]

Yes, "healthy" numbers for cholesterol and BP and blood sugar have all been lowered steadily over the years. Over 20 years my dad went from being hypotensive to being normotensive to being borderline hypertensive to being hypertensive without his numbers changing significantly; in fact his average readings now are a couple of points lower than they were when I was a kid and he was officially hypotensive. However, now he's on meds to control his dangerously high BP!

Here's some information on the BMI numbers, from Sandy Szwarc at Junkfood Science:
"First, an arbitrary line through the bell curve was drawn and everyone to the right of the line was called ‘overweight’ or ‘obese’. The line used to be drawn to the right of the main peak on the curve (BMI 27), but that changed in 1998, when the line was moved to the left, to cut directly through what is average for most of the population (BMI 25). Instantly, 30.5 million more people found themselves added to the rosters of the ‘overweight’ and the arbitrary change increased the numbers by nearly 50% — without a single person gaining a single pound." This JFS entry
http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2007/10/epidemics-by-definition.html
also gives more information about who changed the definitions of several health indices.

I tried to find out where the BMI came from in the first place but don't have time to sort through all of the hits generated by the music company. :-p Even after I did the search string -music and so forth, it still showed up in more than half of the total hits. If I ever find out, I'll let you know!