Queensize!

[go_team]

Next time, on Sick, Sad World, body issues! Maybe you already read the fabulous Chiara (amperlj if you like reminders, or you can subscribe to her handy email notification list) or maybe you saw triath plugging this entry about body issues, but if you don't or you haven't, you totally should. It will make you better appreciate the following lines from a Marie Claire article entitled "Anatomy of a Pigout":

Be aware that friendship is a dieter's enemy. A study by Pennsylvania State University found when people ate among friends or family, they consumed about 50 percent more than if they were alone or among strangers...

Oh my friends and random LiveJournal readers, let it be known that I will gladly be your diet's very worst enemy except or until the word "diet" means nothing more than the wonderful food you eat every day to sustain your fabulous body, which is a miracle plain and simple (both the simple existence of your body and the magic that is the way you literally are what you eat and when I say "you" I mean "all of us".)

And but so once upon a time pants_of_doom and I talked about creating something we wanted to call Queensize, or maybe Queenzsized, with the premise or slogan or subtitle "Take up some space". And Chiara's body post has me wanting to resurrect that project and that's where all you readers and friends come in again. If you've ever written or drawn or collaged or otherwise created anything about your body, or wanted to, I want to see it and/or read it and love it and share it with the world and maybe make a sexy print version of it because bookbinding is way fun. All you have to do is make something and share it with me and I will do the other stuff because that's what obsessive-compulsive tendencies are good for, yes? Yes.

Let's rock. queensized at gmail dot com.

And now the chamomile tea has kicked in and I MUST SLEEP. But write me if you want to play this fun creative game pretty please!

Comments

[triath.livejournal.com]

Yup.

It's scary how common body issues are among women. I can't count the number of times I've been around someone who's constantly on a diet, and spends much of their spare thought cycles thinking about calories and such. You really can't have much fun if that's the background music in your head.

Many of the stereotypes of women have drastically changed over the years (e.g., what jobs are appropriate, who should cook, etc.). Do you think that stereotypes of how a woman should look will change? Both whether the waif look will fade out of fashion but also whether men will prioritize body lower on the "requirements" list.

[goteam.livejournal.com]

I wrote Chiara last night about how I think at least part of the reason I'm so determinedly happy with my body is to rebel against my mom, who seems to always be on a diet or measuring her health purely in terms of "good" or "bad" eating habits or whatever. True. Other contributing factors: I think of constant dieting as girly and I tend to revel in being a non-standard girl, and related to this is I'm a big cheapskate and a lot of girly stuff like makeup and stylish clothes are really expensive... which brings me to the sad fact that I think I brought up when we saw Nomy Lamm at Scripps back in the day (remember? so awesome!) More and more men are developing body issues. Fashion is a growth industry! If the revolution (or the apocalypse) doesn't come, there could be twice as many people buying diet pills and makeup and all the other stuff I listed in response to drunkpotato's comment. Now that is scary.

[triath.livejournal.com]

Totally!!! Have I mentioned recently that you're SO much better than Barbie?

[pants-of-doom.livejournal.com]

Dude. My mom spent the last, I dunno, tenish years before the second round of cancer fighting 5-10 lbs. With the weight she was the same size I was at the time, which is not large at all. I'm not going to do that. I'll see what I can come up with for you, but bug me about it, please, because school takes over everything.

[goteam.livejournal.com]

I figure it's probably safe to bug you now? My mom is usually obsessing about 10 pounds or less, which may have directly led to my strategy of pretty much only buying clothes that will fit plus or minus ten pounds. Which is what percentage of my body weight again? Damn.

[clairebaxter.livejournal.com]

I think that's funny mostly because I think I have fewer weight worries than a lot of women because my mom was so confidently large all my life (also make-up-less and unshaven) and the fact that she's gorgeous really brings the message through to me.

[iainuki.livejournal.com]

My depressing speculation on this point is that while the waif look might pass out of fashion, male interest in female appearance is here forever, or at least until humans can change their essential nature. I'm not entirely sure I buy the evolutionary psychologists' reasoning why, but obsession with body type (examine the many depictions of the female form from the Venus of Willendorf on) and the size of certain parts of the body (skulls among the Inca, necks among the Pa Dong Karen, feet among the Chinese, breasts in the contemporary United States), or other aspects of physical appearance (make-up and hair styles in most Mediterranean and European cultures from Egypt and Rome onwards, with it mattering more for women than men) seems to be a strong cultural tendency.

(The theory I've heard about the waif look is that thinness is mark of status in develop countries. I further speculate that the reason is because the foods that taste as good as the more fattening processed foods cost more money and take more time to prepare, regular exercise requires a certain amount of free time, and education helps with the task of maintaining a particular weight through diet and exercise. None of these factors are decisive, but money and education certainly help if one wants to be thin.)