Real Women Have Curves
Date: Aug 27th, 2008 2:38:11 am - Subscribe
Mood: content
Currently Reading: Lord of the Flies ( ISBN: 0-571-05686-5 ): Petting the kittens
Tis the battle cry of the new century. Of the movement to free women from the enslavement of the model and high fashion industry. Lets face it everywhere women turn they are faced with commercials, products, and pictures telling them they are less then perfect and need to do this or that to make themselves more attractive and therefor worth more to society. And really what women can can make herself look like this:
Unless she does so naturally or has thousands of dollars for personal trainers and nutritionists to help her out? Fact is the average women will never come anywhere close to looking like that and it can be very disheartening to see that presented as the standered of desired beauty. Poor self image in women is common and really is a problem, but I have to wonder if our current way of dealing with it isn't just as damaging if not more so. This is where I have a problem with the battle cry of "Real women have curves!" comes in.
Basically we're not trying to instill in girls the idea that big is good. Big is natural and is okay and that's fine, but in the same sweep we've started brushing the naturally skinny women aside. We've begun isolating them and looking down on them like they're something disgusting. Take for example how they've now banned models who are to small in size from fashion shows. Okay so we've taken the larger models and made them feel good, but the model that was to skinny to enter now feels bad about herself thinking that there's something wrong with her.
We've gone from one extreme to the other and in the end we're still judging women by the way they look. We're still judging them by something that they only have so much control over. So what would make a real woman?
We've already established that body isn't a good way to do that. Some women are curvy, some are naturally small and skinny. Some are tall, short, fat, thin. We come in all different shapes and sizes.
Attitude and mind aren't something we should look at either when judging a 'real woman'. Variation is the spice of life and again some women are very intellectual some aren't. Some have good common sense some don't. You get the point I'm trying to make.
So what about genitals? Seems like a safe bet. Every woman has a vagina right? Wrong. I don't care if you agree with them or not, but the fact is that there are formal guidelines and actual medical studies done that separate transgendered men from 'normal' men. Look up the damned research yourself though I'm to lazy to find it and this isn't a debate on that. Either way a man can still feel like a woman and who are we to tell them they're not?
If you ask me being a woman is a state of mind. I'm a woman because I feel like a woman. That's how I identify myself, that's how I think of myself, and when I look in a mirror that's how I see myself, and that's all that I need to know. It doesn't matter what type of body, mind, or genitals I or anyone else has. If you feel like it, identify yourself that way, and think of yourself that way then shouldn't that be what makes you a real woman?
So how about we stop trying to put a tag on what makes a woman a woman and start encouraging girls to be proud of what they have? Of who they are regardless of how they look or how their thought process works?
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