A picture in the September issue of Glamour magazine seems to have continued feedback from readers. The magazine was flooded with e-mails and letters from readers who say they love the “woman on p.194” who is pictured in her underwear, proudly showing off her pooch. The relatively unknown model was featured in the body-confidence article “What everyone but you sees about your body”. One woman from Somerset Massachusetts wrote in and said “ This beautiful woman has a real stomach and did I see some stretch marks? This is how my belly looks after giving birth to my two amazing kids! This photo made me want to shout from the rooftops.” Showing a picture of a woman with some belly hanging over her underpants is a pretty radical move for a magazine. I’d like to see the day when they feature a seventy year old naked woman. After all woman are supposed to be not only young and thin but also a bit bony to be a model. The clothes are the only thing that counts, they need to be the center of attention. The body is merely a hanger for the clothing and sadly without their garments they would be reminiscent of individuals suffering from famine. The average woman’s size is between a twelve and a fourteen. Yet we are deluded into thinking we should be a two, four or six because the media consistently showcases women whose lives revolve around getting paid to look good. Many of those same women suffer or have suffered from anorexia and or bulimia. I am not advocating for being overweight, but how our weight is distributed is usually genetic. I have the same body as my mother and grandmother. I would have liked to have gotten Angelina Jolie’s body but it just wasn’t in the cards. I spent a great deal of time as a young woman trying to lose weight and be a size my body consistently rebelled against. I tried all kinds of diets and even took amphetamines which my obstetrician gave me after the birth of my daughter. Oh I got thin alright but I was also a whirling dervish. Isn’t it time we stopped showing women walking the runways that are essentially cadavers? Isn’t it interesting that men don’t seem to be starving themselves to be attractive! Let’s stop buying into photo shopped pictures, stupid articles touting ridiculous weight loss programs and products. Being healthy, happy and fit are much more important than trying to have a so called perfect body.
Life is Not A Stress Rehearsal