As a former anorexic, body image has complicated connotations for me. While anorexia is not really about being fat or thin, it does manifest itself through body image. The body becomes an easy way to express your self-hate and to punish and hurt yourself. And you sure see some strange things when you're anorexic. At 178 cm and weighing less than 6 stone, I compared my body to that of a sumo-wrestler.
While I am lucky enough to be completely recovered from anorexia, I do, as a woman, get more affected than I'd like to by hating my hips or stomach or cellulite. Thankfully, I normally catch myself moaning to friends about it and wondering why on earth I am wasting my and their time on this while there are lives to be saved and kids to be educated and communities to be built. However, while I am lucky to know a lot of incredible, intelligent, thoughtful, balanced women, doing great things with their lives and making a difference to people around them in small (and actually quite large) ways, not one of them is free of those same mental messages and time wasting doubts.
And that is what they are: time-wasting. Enforced on us by a society that values the wrong things and, one could conclude, likes to keep women occupied with things that disempower them. A friend of mine, after confiding how miserable she felt about her body, shared an article about a woman called Taryn Brumfitt who has started a body image movement. It brought home a few points. Firstly, and I quote Taryn: 'Women are always being told to change or be different -- lose weight, fight aging, smooth your skin, get rid of cellulite, I mean really, women are such amazing and dynamic creatures can we please change the conversation from this bullsh*t to something with a little more substance?'
In an interview embedded in the article she makes the following points:
So next time you find yourself worrying about that wobbly bit, just ask yourself what else you could be doing with that mental energy and power.
While I am lucky enough to be completely recovered from anorexia, I do, as a woman, get more affected than I'd like to by hating my hips or stomach or cellulite. Thankfully, I normally catch myself moaning to friends about it and wondering why on earth I am wasting my and their time on this while there are lives to be saved and kids to be educated and communities to be built. However, while I am lucky to know a lot of incredible, intelligent, thoughtful, balanced women, doing great things with their lives and making a difference to people around them in small (and actually quite large) ways, not one of them is free of those same mental messages and time wasting doubts.
And that is what they are: time-wasting. Enforced on us by a society that values the wrong things and, one could conclude, likes to keep women occupied with things that disempower them. A friend of mine, after confiding how miserable she felt about her body, shared an article about a woman called Taryn Brumfitt who has started a body image movement. It brought home a few points. Firstly, and I quote Taryn: 'Women are always being told to change or be different -- lose weight, fight aging, smooth your skin, get rid of cellulite, I mean really, women are such amazing and dynamic creatures can we please change the conversation from this bullsh*t to something with a little more substance?'
In an interview embedded in the article she makes the following points:
- Women have been anchored down - they don't realise the power of not hating their bodies.
- We need to wake up to the crazy messages that we receive - have a filter and not let the messages infiltrate.
- My body is not an ornament, it is the vehicle to my dreams.
- I was incredibly fit [as a body builder] but I was very unbalanced. There was so much sacrifice. I want women to stop striving for that and to focus more on their accomplishments and what they can contribute to their world. If women can stop focusing on their body they can start focusing on all they have to offer the world.
So next time you find yourself worrying about that wobbly bit, just ask yourself what else you could be doing with that mental energy and power.