Abercrombie & Fitch, weight, etc.

[helwen]

I expect most folks have read or heard about the CEO at A & F by now. I was never super keen on their stuff, but stopped even checking them out after the racist tees they put out a few years back. Somebody suggested a ban in one of their posts. Me, I don't plan on that, as I don't see it making much of a difference -- well, unless enough people do what I've done, in which case they might go out of business. There's been some good posts on this, including one by a SCAdian friend of mine who I think is not only smart and talented but quite beautiful.

Here's a post I wanted to share on the general topic of appearance and health that I really appreciate:

http://morecabaret.com/2013/05/07/why-i-dont-diet-an-ode-to-my-father/


Now, I myself am working on losing some pounds, but I'm not really built to carry as much as I'm carrying. I also don't want to be as thin as I was in junior high. Thank goodness my pediatrician was successful at scaring the heck out of me, or I might have done more damage to myself; likely I'm not as tall as I could have been, if I hadn't been starving myself during those critical pre-teen/early teen transition years...

I was 25 lbs. under my height/weight range when my doctor confronted me about it, and I still thought I wasn't thin enough because I have muscular legs. It wasn't until high school that I saw that sometimes thin didn't mean you were healthy and in good physical condition, when some of the girls with slender legs had trouble keeping up in gym class.

That's the thing though, isn't it -- the challenge is not to try to be like what we or (especially!) what others _think_ we should be, but to discover who and what we really are; to live that life, be that person.

As for A & F's idea of catering to the "cool" crowd? I think if you're doing your best to be true to who you are, you are definitely one of the real cool crowd. I'm working on it.

Comments

[loosecanon.livejournal.com]

all love to you, and to her.
The destruction we wreak in the name of chasing unicorns...

I feel somewhat of a tragic note in the AF story, the man is obviously losing his own battle of self-preferred beauty stereotypes even as those young people he seeks to entice are rejecting the message he seeks to promote.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Thanks *hugs*

Yes, I see this company and probably others like it doing more poorly as time goes on.

[caitlin-sd.livejournal.com]

I have no interest in weight loss diets, for reasons simliar to the author's.. My mother was obsessed with getting down to a size zero for the longest time. I remember one year when she ate nothing but a green salad with vinegar dressing for dinner.My stepfather & I were served regular meals,which she refused to touch. I could count her ribs, but she thought it was great.

Then there was the time my grandmother decided she wanted me to lose weight & offered me mone if I would get down to a weight she picked b a certain date.( I was living on mown at the time, just after college & she knew I needed the money.) I stopped eating for the last three days before I was to visit her. I could barely function. After that I decided I was never doing that again.

I own that I've got personal issues around the subject, but I'm fine with that. I go to the gym, mostly for strength & endurance training. If I lose weight in the process, that's fine, but it's not an end in itself for me.

a couple random thoughts

[bytchearse.livejournal.com]

-I refuse to spend more than $100 on any non-reenactment garment, so I'm not their market.

-The "Boy George rule" applies...meaning if you have to say what it is, then it ain't. To wit...for him to say "only the coolest of the cool people shop here" means... ;-D

-At the risk of offending the Godwin crowd, this CEO's BS amuses me as much as how Hitler himself was exactly the opposite of his "Master race" ideal. And honestly they both make as much sense!

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Yup, I'm all about eating for health these days. Ballet did some good things for me, but also some bad, and this was one of them.

This is, unfortunately, one of the things I'm dreading about going to my mom's in June. She's got a fixation that being plump is a health disaster. Since my blood pressure is good and my sugar levels are still fine, I can basically tell her to hush up on the subject, but it's probably going to be an undercurrent to the visit.

Re: a couple random thoughts

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Hadn't heard of the "Boy George rule", but I agree. One of my history teachers once said that when a country begins talking up how powerful or whatever it is, it's a sign that they know they're in a weaker position than they used to be.

Godwin crowd? Don't know what that means. Well, I agree with the rest of what you said!

Re: a couple random thoughts

[bytchearse.livejournal.com]

"Boy George": I made that rule up to describe just such things. That teach was wise; how often do you hear of the "Democratic People's Republic of Whateverstan'?

Look up "Godwin's Law"...

also

[bytchearse.livejournal.com]

If people were able to "be true to who they are" then the entire fashion industry telling them who to be would collapse.

Re: also

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Which, in my book, would be just fine :D