As someone who has struggled in the past with
BDD( http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/body-dysmorphic-disorder/DS00559 )
and eating disorders, I ask you to please take a moment to watch each short, yet powerful video.
Even after therapy and many healthy years of living a healthy lifestyle, it can still impact me, but only as it does every other girl/woman that I know. My dear mum, who never meant to and was horrified later in life to see my struggles, encouraged starvation, excessive exercise and purging as a means of controlling weight. She never meant to destroy my ability to see myself, something which I still don't seem to do well today, and for the most part, other than making sure that things are all where they should be, I just kind of shrug it off and don't worry too much over it. My younger daughter, a couple of months ago, saw me stretch and through my sheer shirt (we were just at home) she could see each rib quite clearly. And I was scolded soundly.
Me...I honestly didn't realize. I plan out a menu when I know it's going to get hairy and stressful and go with it from there. It isn't a struggle for the most part, I work on feeling good in my clothes and when I move, which is pretty normal from what I hear from my friends and other women.
But we are each of us affected by this media crap. Bigger eyes, bigger boobs, nothing sagging, no scars, no bumps, no freckles, tiny waist, long legs, thin thighs, etc etc etc etc etc etc. My reality? I'm 49. I sag from the things I've written of before. I have lines and wrinkles, so many freckles that you could die trying to count, on and on and on. But it isn't who I am.
We are each of us bigger than this. So much more to who we are, to what we offer, to our lives and our meaning in this living thing we do.
I wonder...do men feel the same kinds of pressure? The men in the magazines, they look so completely fake to me. The photos, the ads, the pinups...those aren't real men. Not even close, not to me. Ken dolls, maybe. And absolutely no appeal in the least. Men, if you read this, even you male vampire blogger bots, don't believe it. You're gorgeously male just as you are. That's how we like you to be.
Anyway, two very good video clips...and a song.
g=2http://www.upworthy.com/5-minutes-of-what-the-media-actually-does-to-women-8?g=2
http://www.upworthy.com/see-why-we-have-an-absolutely-ridiculous-standard-of-beauty-in-just-37-seconds?c=reccon1
Jon McLaughlin
Beautiful Disaster
deeply personal, for myself and my darling daughters.
this song has done so much good...
She loves her mama's lemonade
And hates the sound that goodbye's make
She prays one day she'll find someone to need her
She swears that there's no difference
Between the lies and compliments
It's all the same if everybody leaves her
And every magazine tells her she's not good enough
The pictures that she sees make her cry
She would change everything, everything, just ask her
Caught in the in-between, a beautiful disaster
She just needs someone to take her home
She's given boys what they want
Tries to act so nonchalant
Afraid they'll see that she's lost her direction
She never stays the same for long
Assuming that she'll get it wrong
Perfect only in her imperfection
She's not a drama queen
She doesn't want to feel this way
Only 17 but tired, yeah
She would change everything for happy ever after
Caught in the in-between, a beautiful disaster
She just needs someone to take her home
'Cause she's just the way she is
But no one's told her that's okay
She would change everything, everything, just ask her
Caught in the in-between, a beautiful disaster
She would change everything for happy ever after
Caught in the in-between, a beautiful disaster
She just needs someone to take her home
She just needs someone to take her home
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