One Good Thing and Catching Up With Life

All taken from:  http://www.sirc.org/publik/mirror.html

''Among women over 18 looking at themselves in the mirror, research indicates that at least 80% are unhappy with what they see."

"Standards of beauty have in fact become harder and harder to attain, particularly for women. The current media ideal of thinness for women is achievable by less than 5% of the female population."

"All research to date on body image shows that women are much more critical of their appearance than men – much less likely to admire what they see in the mirror. Up to 8 out of 10 women will be dissatisfied with their reflection, and more than half may see a distorted image."


"In 1917, the physically perfect woman was about 5ft 4in tall and weighed nearly 10 stone. Even 25 years ago, top models and beauty queens weighed only 8% less than the average woman, now they weigh 23% less. The current media ideal for women is achievable by less than 5% of the female population – and that's just in terms of weight and size. If you want the ideal shape, face etc., it's probably more like 1%."


"By 13, at least 50% of girls are significantly unhappy about their appearance. By 14, focused, specific dissatisfaction have intensified, particularly concerning hips and thighs. By 17, only 3 out of 10 girls have not been on a diet – up to 8 out of 10 will be unhappy with what they see in the mirror.'


"Childhood

Teasing factor: If you were teased about flaws in your appearance (particularly your size or weight) as a child or teenager, your body image may have become permanently disturbed.

Touch-deprivation factor: People suffering from extreme body-image disturbance report a lack of holding and hugging as children."

    I intended to write a bit about what I find disturbing about pinterest, the constant barrage of images of perfectly fit women, exercise guides, MORE images of perfect women, then a buttload of fattening recipes.  I wanted to find out how many women actually have some form of body view disorder but what I found was worse than I thought.  I am 6' tall and am up to 280, mainly because I am not able to exercise, or walk more than 50 feet due to slipped disks and other problems in my back.  I've always been "big" but I really don't give a shit.  I am Amazon, hear me roar.  My daughter gained a bunch of weight when she started taking anti-depressants and it's killing me.  She's so hard on herself but not NEARLY as much as any of my former friends were.  She's ok with it and knows we will change it.

    What scares me are the images going around the above mentioned website.  The constant barrage of pictures of perfect women.  They're all over the popular boards as well, so this is not a singular thing.  I dug up the information above and am appalled.  Can't write much more, arms and back giving out.  

    Take a look at yourself.  Do you want to change something?  Is it reasonable to change that and who are you changing it for?  How would your life change if you changed that?  Just thoughts pouring out of my gob :)