A Canadian gal living in Britain with 3 men and a dog. Wine helps.

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Friday, October 07, 2011

Maybe the answer is a suntan (spray on of course)

This photo has been making the rounds all over facebook. 

(French Model - Tara Lynn)

My initial reaction:  What a beautiful woman. 
My second reaction hmmm pretty much what my bod would look like in that position, other than the fact I have pasty white skin and my legs are smaller. 
My third reaction:  Why can I look at her and think she is beautiful but if it were me in the photo I'd be tearing it apart.

A lot of heavy ladies will look at this photo and wish that they could look like this naked...

I don't know how many times I will receive a compliment from someone telling me how good I look in a certain top, or skirt and my initial response is to say I think it makes me look fat.  I don't know why I do this.  I'm not fat; I'm slightly overweight and I'm in pretty great shape... so I wonder just what my problem is.  (ok, don't answer that, it could take forever.)

I continuously find myself comparing my body size to other women and it's exhausting.  I don't think I'm alone in this and I have to ask the question:

Why aren't we ever really content with the way we look (unless of course, we are slightly drunk on wine)?

One day I tell myself that I'm happy, healthy and at peace with myself and how I look and there is so much more to life than fitting into a size 8, yet the next day I'm beating myself up again. Let me tell you, it's rough being in an abusive relationship with myself. 

There are so many females out there who are slender, yet have no muscle tone or real strength.  They are what my sister refers to as skinny-fat.  I think it is much more important to follow a healthy diet and exercise than it is to be a certain size or shape, be that slender or curvy.  I know I will never let myself go to the point where I become hugely overweight or obese because no matter how many excuses people make, it is just not healthy.  The pressure that you exert on your knees, back and heart speak for themselves.  After she lost a 100 lbs I can remember my friend saying that she never realized how bad she felt when she was heavy.  She thought she'd felt pretty ok until she dropped the weight and realized how much better she could feel.  

And I'm sorry, no curvy woman could ever admit to me that it isn't an amazing feeling when you fit into a size that is smaller than you normally wear.  Or when you try a dress on that clings in all the right places and looks great, without the use of spanks.  It's an awesome feeling. Or even better, when you can lift that 50lb sack of dog food by yourself.

I also know it works the opposite way for underweight women too - many women who are skinny stress about body image, boob size, etc. It's not just the heavy girls who do this.  I just happen to be on the other side of the spectrum, so that's the angle I'm coming from.

The photo above was accompanied by some blurb about whales and mermaids and then goes on to talk about how wonderful wales are and lists a bunch of reasons why one should wish be a whale rather than a mermaid.  Sorry, I just think this is a shield to hide behind.  The slogan was meant for a fitness campaign, not personal attributes that relate to your nature.
That slogan is not the best slogan in the world, not by a long shot. It's pretty terrible actually.  And Tara Lynn is no whale.  Yet I'd be lying if I said I'd rather have her body then Jennifer Aniston's.  So yeah... I'd rather  look like a mermaid over a whale even though mermaids are mythical and wales are awesome.

2 comments:

Tina said...

Honestly? When I saw this picture first I googled her name. I had never heard of her before and initially looking at the picture my reaction was "no one can be that curvy and have that thin of a face, the picture must be a fake". I was glad to see that she is in fact a real person, although if you look at candid pictures of her and then at this one you can see that she has been "touched up" which just bothers the bejesus out of me. This isn't even what she really looks like. Her face is fuller, but in my opinion what she looks like in "real" life is much better than this picture.

Tawny said...

I refuse to wear spanx or control top panty hose or anything that sucks me in. Frankly, if it's not comfortable, then I'm not wearing it. And if it means I can't wear a snug fitting dress because I'll be self-conscious without the use of spanx, then I find something else to wear because in that situation, the snug dress with or without spanx isn't me. Period.

Bah. I could say a lot about this whole topic but I don't want to monopolize your post ;).

(And I think you're right about the suntan - I always marvel at how chubby girls can pull off a bikini as long as they've got darker skin or are tanned. I might be smaller than them but you'll never see me in a bikini with my pale-ass skin!)