sex.web.net

Am I Fat?“Am I fat?” that’s the question of the day from my 14 year-old daughter. To me, she looks absolutely beautiful - perfect and I tell her so. I am angry at the anorexic culture around me and frightened by the new normalcy of girls who hate their bodies. And yet, like my daughter, I am just as much a victim of body image problems. Did she get her fear of being fat from me? Did I get it from my mother? Extra weight gain somehow reflects a lack of will power to me. Somehow, those extra pounds become a symbol of my inability to control my most basic impulses. And yet, isn’t food (and sex for that matter) all about satisfying our most primal needs and desires? How does pleasure factor into this dialogue? Let’s face it: chocolate-covered strawberries and ice cream can send women into a state of ecstasy. Food and pleasure go hand-in-hand (skipping) to the pastry shop and sex-toy store. Nymphomania and gluttony are both sins of the flesh and vices we all enjoy.  It’s the binge and purge cycle all over -- we lose ourselves to the pleasure of eating and then penalize ourselves by getting on the scale in the morning. Pleasure has been consumed by our fears of being fat.

Women have become so obsessed about being thin that their consciousness has become focused inward to the detriment of developing themselves as people. According to recent academic studies, eating disorders now affect up to 10 million Americans and 70 million worldwide. Perhaps more disturbing is that more than half of American women between the ages of 18-25 would prefer to be run over by a truck or die young than be fat, and two-thirds surveyed would rather be mean or stupid. According to Courtney E. Martin, in her new book, “Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body,” women must commit themselves to developing new attitudes about their bodies, and redirect the negative energy they spend on denying themselves contentment in order to become re-engaged with the possibilities of a better life. Our desire for the "perfect body" has become more important than love, joy and passion. Martin demonstrates that a generation of women is missing from the national dialogue on politics, culture, and economics, not because they don’t care, but because they are exhausted from binging, purging, and starving themselves to attain an unhealthy ideal.

My daughter has asked me to buy 1950’s pin-up type posters for her room. Marilyn Monroe has become a symbol of a time when women’s shapely, curvaceous bodies were celebrated. I look at the pin-ups of the past and want to dip my fingers into chocolate fudge...

See: www.strangesisters.com