Fatty Fatty Two By Four

As I was perusing my local newspaper online, I stumbled across two articles that are completely connected, though you wouldn't now it at first.

First off is a celebrity article about how Victoria Beckham is worried about her "flabby arms".  From first glance one could easily dismiss this article as frivolous, and heck, even question why it is in a newspaper and not in some tabloid magazine.

But then you see this excerpt:

"David is allegedly encouraging the 33-year-old to tone up her arms with exercise, rather than resort to a surgical procedure called brachioplasty which removes loose skin on the upper arms.

The source added: "Victoria knows exercise will take forever to work. She feels under enormous pressure to look the part when she arrives in Los Angeles as everyone will be scrutinizing her.""

Kudos for David if he really is encouraging her to exercise instead of go under the knife but the key part of this is the final sentence about how Victoria is feeling tons of pressure because she knows she will be scrutinized.  And she will be scrutinized.

What is so wrong with our society that a woman who is, might I remind some of you, a size 0 feels compelled to opt for surgery instead of just exercising or, here's a crazy concept, just accepting her aging body as it is, because she feels that her arms are too flabby?  Let's just say that even if hypothetically that her arms were a bit flabby, who would notice?  And how long would it take them to notice?  Well, the answers of course are that someone with too much time on their hands would notice and that it wouldn't take very long at all before they reported about it and everyone else would jump on the bandwagon and discuss how Victoria Beckham is letting herself go ever since arriving to America.  Because of course first come the flabby arms, then the fat ass, then the cellulite and eventually 100 pounds.  What to do then?

In our celebrity obsessed world (I'm talking about the USA, but don't be fooled into thinking that because you live in another country you aren't affected, because you most definitely are) as well as our "thin is in" obsessed world, we are driving even "ideal" sized women to obsess about their weight and body in ways celebrities from the past never had to deal with.

And of course this topic begs to bring up the common questions of: What are average women supposed to think and do about all this pressure?  How do we measure up?  How can we ignoring the banging drums of body image and weight loss?

Never fear ladies, because we are no longer alone (and we haven't been for quite sometime, it's just taken awhile for it to hit mainstream media).  The men are no longer being ignored.  Our diet industries have completely caught on that men can be fat too.  And in conjunction with our media, the diet industries have rationalized that men should care about their bodies and looks as well.

Here's my favorite excerpt from the article:

"Weight on the typical man's radar screen is barely a blip," said Karen Miller-Kovach, a dietitian whose title at Weight Watchers is chief scientific officer. She is the author of the recent Weight Watchers book She Loses, He Loses, about men and women and their differing attitudes about diets and weight.

"Men are slow to come to the plate of weight loss," she said, "but generally, when they do decide to lose weight, they tend to be more successful than women, not only in terms of the speed but keeping the weight off.

"When it comes to weight loss, women fight battles. Men declare war."

Of course, they are leaving some key issues such as women's bodies are designed differently than men's when it comes to haboring and distribution of weight/fat (giving birth anyone)?  In fact, the Weight Watchers website states this (they address barriers that women deal with in weight loss):

"Additional barriers include the childbearing years and menopause, as they are vulnerable times for weight gain that men never experience."

Do you like how they use the word "vulnerable" as if you are some sort of victim of pregnancy and menopause instead of treating it as a natural inevitability (preganancy for some, menopause for all women).  Ah, but I digress.

Another factor being ignored is that there are different societal factors at play, such as the roles that women are dictated to play which is to stay at home, cook food, watch the kid/s (if any) and keep the house tidy on top of working if you have a job outside of the home.  Doesn't leave a lot of "me" time does it?  Whereas men, stereotypically, have one main responsibility and that is to work outside the home.  Besides that, their time is their own to do with whatever they please. 

Weight Watchers does however address that there are more pressures on women than men

"Women, in general, are more motivated to lose weight. Some key motivators include the societal pressure to be thin and a greater concern with appearance. Women also tend to be more health conscious⁴ and more knowledgeable about food and nutrition.^5"

Might I be so bold to suggest that the last sentence ties into the first sentence of that paragraph.  Without those pressures stated above that women feel we would be more like stereotypical men and be oblivious to nutrition, lack the knowledge of certain foods and probably be less health conscious.

Seriously, if we women felt the same amount of pressure that men feel do you think most women would be the least bit knowledgeable about which foods contain however many calories and which foods contain good fats versus bad fats?  I don't think so.  We would buy and eat whatever tastes good and whatever would satisfy that craving or need at that moment.

But thankfully that will not happen, and soon the average man will learn to know what it is like to starve and make your body and food the enemy.  Eventually it will become the norm for not only size 0 women to start worrying about random parts of their body but also for men with size 29 inch waists to join them.

What does this spell for your average American?  Well, hopefully there will be enough of us out there that have enough self-confidence and self-esteem to be able to block out all the noise.

Comments

[Virginia]

I can't STAND that stupid Victoria Beckham. Bleh. It's a sad world when people think any part of her stick figure self is flabby.