Beauty and Weight (Another Gender-Issues Blog Writing About Weight - How Surprising)

I am not immune. I refused to weigh myself this morning, because I feared what the number would tell me. I ate pizza for lunch, on the same day that I ate a large breakfast, and now that pizza is on my mind - how could I have eaten known un-diet-friendly food, right after chag? These thoughts are so powerful, they distract me from reading about fornication in ancient Rome. Anyone who knows how much I love reading about fornication will know this is serious.

And so, yes, I resent Western media culture. You see, there is an industry where dieting is part of the job description - acting and modeling. Then, these slim people are held up to society as "what beauty looks like". Basically, Western society gives men the right to judge me by my weight, to assume that if it is not below a certain number, I am automatically ineligible. And Western society asks me to judge myself by my weight, to give into diet fads, and wear clothes designed for stick-figures.

So I espouse my usual views about the objectification of women, the fashion and hollywood industries' success at feeding women negative body images - and it is so abstract. Then, there is my daily life, and these catch-phrases become much more concrete. I think overall, I have a healthy body image, and I work on myself to make sure I continue having a body image.

But yes, there are those moments, there are those days even - when I worry, that a slice of pizza or a rugelach is propelling me away from the vision of beauty that has been ingrained in me, that of slim-ness. The best way to fight the media would be not to care, to detoxify myself from all the beauty myths that I have known, but to do so is much harder than it seems.

So ladies and gentleman, please hesitate a moment before making a fat joke or calling someone fat. And please realize - those models and actors diet and have personal trainers, and makeup artists, because that's what their job is - to tailor their body to the needs of the camera. But real women need to tailor their body and soul to the needs of their lives and the real world - which means eating and not always having time to go the gym or spend hours on hair and makeup - and maybe, not even wanting to spend that time, when you could just be reading a book, or writing a facebook rant instead of reading about ancient Roman fornication.