So much has happened since my last post and again I'm sorry dear readers for not getting back on track. Work and looking for a new job as well as being sick once again, it's like it's never ending being sick with these colds and flu symptoms. I guess such is the life of working in a call center. This time, and as I write this, I'm still ill with a chest infection and no voice. I have a major cough that comes and goes and is right into my chest and it sometimes hurts to even take a breath. I did go to the doctor and they told me the basics, sweat it out, get rest, use vaporub and take Advil, although I am also using a cough syrup for the mucus and phlegm which is helping significantly. Ginger ale is helping as well along with lots of chicken soup. It's interesting how chicken anything seems to help when one is ill.
Onto other topics of this week's entry, I'd like to address media, bullying and female body image this week. Yes I've addressed it before and I'll keep addressing it especially since it's in the media so much. In fact I think part of my addressing it so much is because I'm addressing my own image, my own self esteem. I personally have been the subject of bullying and yes I admit that I bully myself. It's not right and I have to get out of it but how? Well hopefully with support and with writing this I will eventually.
Body shaming is a topic that has been brought up in the media especially of late concerning the show "The Biggest Loser". Now I admit I've never watched it. I've never been inclined to do so nor buy the games or work out videos. Why? Because it's called "The Biggest Loser", why would I want to buy something or watch something that makes it sound that you're a loser if you're big? I have heavy friends and none of them are losers in any sense of the word. Why do we subject ourselves to this nonsense? It's not about losing weight in a healthy manner, it's about winning a game show by losing the weight the fastest and in an unsafe or unhealthy manner. The winner this year admits that perhaps she lost the weight too fast and personally after looking at her before and after, I feel that she could actually benefit from gaining a few pounds because her frame was built for it. You need some flesh on your bones. Now admittedly this also goes to the flip side too, because I also have friends who are super thin who can't gain any weight at all. But I feel that their body structure and genetics have determined this and that doesn't make who they are inside, they also aren't losers.
It annoys me too when we're watching tv and these "reality" tv shows, which aren't "reality" at all because they aren't realistic, even my father agrees with this in general discussion and feels annoyed by them, and those people that are heavy themselves are doing the shaming. I was sitting one day with colleagues and there was a show on tv about these people who are 600 lbs overweight and have gotten surgery and their success in keeping it off or not. It follows their life and diet a while before and after the surgery and how they are doing. Ok so some of them do well and some of them needed it because otherwise they wouldn't have lived much longer if they hadn't but some go into a slump, some don't know what else to do with themselves. I've read and seen people talk about this and how they went from "fat" to "slim" and found themselves looking at someone new in the mirror. They don't know who they are, they feel they've lost their identity. So they go into depression, they have people complimenting them on their new figure and such but then they just feel that the outside is what made them and that's all that's important. Why do we do this? Here my colleagues are laughing at these people that can't make it, that go into this slump and laughing at them because they're fat or heavy, and here I'm listening to them thinking, this shows what kind of people you really are to make fun of what some would consider a weakness.
It's not just shows, it's also advertising, we think for example that to be sexy we have to wear said perfume and to get the guy we have to have perfect hair and make up and clothes. Do we? We are independent women. What are we teaching our daughters? What are we teaching our sons? Here are just three articles that I found, one about bullying another about the "mother wound" and another about how sexualized ads are affecting us. Also too why are we playing around with the idea of a "fat" barbie? This annoys me too. Barbie was meant to be a doll, exactly that a doll, not a role model, a play thing. Our mothers and fathers should be our role models. Yes I played with dolls, yes my sister played with them, heck even my brother played with dolls! There is nothing wrong with it! We used to dress up, play with make up, dress like clowns, dig in the dirt and build forts, climb trees, help mom in the kitchen and help dad in the backyard. It didn't matter if it was a "girl" thing or a "boy" thing to do! We looked to our parents to guide us not Barbie. Barbie wasn't my perfect figured woman in the first place when I looked at her, sure she was pretty and stuff and had cool clothes,but that just inspired me to make my own! My sister and I used to play around with fabric with our own bodies and our dolls, we used piece things together. We didn't watch a lot of tv growing up. So why are we now having it so that we're playing with the notion that Barbie is such a role model that we have to make her look "fat" or "slim" or just the right proportions? Yes she should perhaps be a normal looking person and when you actually were to put her dimensions in real life she's unrealistic to a T but should we be like her? No. Here is the debate. And here is more about the Human Barbie whom I feel needs some serious counselling and is in delusions. She really needs help! Please feel free to weigh in with comments below.
Now here is a media spark that I loved and I loved this reporter for doing this response, see the video here. Sometimes someone else just says certain things better than I or yourself can so I thought I'd share. I'd also like to share this lady's response as well to this media epidemic here. And lastly to end this on a good note that there are good Samaritans and that out there we do not approve of bullying as a whole, and though this happened back in October, it's still a good thing that people can still stand up together. Here is the article and this is what we should be doing.
I end this entry now with hopes that this will spark some discussion. If you're a friend on my facebook feel free to post comments on the facebook post or feel free to comment here. :) Otherwise have a good week and if I don't write next week well, keep on the look out for at least two entries for March! Take care friends!
No comments:
Post a Comment