39th and Broadway… you are added to the blog roll!

Men like the man profiled here grew up as bullies from high school (where I was never obese, but as a thick young lady (again, size 8-10 instead of 0-4) calling even average girls names like “thunder thighs.” Unfortunately, it stuck with me for a long time.

Many people ask questions like yours about why men are not ridiculed for their “smelly feet, hairy backs, beer bellies, and bald spots?” They are, just not as much as women. Why> It’s psychology.

Men do this to each other all the time – it’s part of male bonding. It doesn’t bother them as much as it does us. Some are even proud of their flaws (and don’t understand why that may stop them from getting that swimsuit model girlfriend, LOL!), and strut them.

Why are women picked on about such things more often than men? Because we allow it. And even worse, we do it to each other. Until those things change, the rest won’t.

This is we have Full FIgured Fashion Week, and the State of the Curvy Community panel discussion to face these straight on and move from there…. If we cannot accept these ignorant and foolish stereotypes then how are we to move forward and unite….

Why are our bodies such a public debate, why are men not picked apart for all their flaws. God knows they don’t have perfect bodies either but we never see pictures on TMZ of George Cloony exposed for having cellulite! Alex Blimes is disgusting and the perfect example of what is wrong with the media!

(In my family, for instance, my mother, my grandmother, and my great-grandmother were all well over 200 pounds by adulthood. I’m not, quite, but I’m definitely chubby, and the only reason I’m not 200-plus is the residue of an eating disorder and some remaining slightly unhealthy habits. You can’t tell me that Mickey D’s and convenience food are at fault for my Polish-German great-gran’s 19th-century enbonpoint. Not only that, but my gran and great-gran died in their late 80s, and my mother is over 75, and none of them had or have diabetes, either.)

Historic paintings also show us a plethora of overweight and fat women, and I don’t expect any of them ever consumed a plate of Krispy Kremes, either.

After nearly a century of being shamed or worse, yes, it would be nice to see fat, attractive women getting some equal time as body image role models. Maybe, if they did, then young girls who are just a little bit on the soft side won’t do stupid things to try and get skinny at any cost, wind up starving their metabolisms into the glacial category, then BECOMING obese even when eating the same things as their normal-weight counterparts.

And yeah, I wanted to slap Bilmes. I saw Girl with a Satchel’s post about his article earlier (http://girlwithasatchel.blogspot.com/2009/06/mags-meanwhile-at-gq.html) in which she plaintively said, “back in 2007 he was responsible for a very positive body image story, ‘Critical Mass’, which he penned for UK Vogue.” Yes, right, quite – he wants a girl who’d have a sandwich and a beer like “Cruz or Bellucci.” In your unrealistic DREAMS, Bilmes. They are also very slim women, albeit shaped a bit differently and perhaps with a slightly better sense of moderation. But like any celebrity whose product is at least partly their looks and bodies, I doubt they’re actually scoffing the carbs with much more frequency than those he reviles for being “too skinny”.

Brava! And thank you. You’ve managed to articulate what feelings I had when I originally read the piece, but wasn’t quite sure how I was feeling.