I was visiting one of my favorite news/gossip websites, Jezebel, and came across an article on a study that shows about half of girls in the U.S. ages 3-6 years old feel fat.
WHAT?!?!?!?!?
How unbelievable is that? Reading the article made me sad and worried about how these girls will feel about themselves when they hit puberty, or are teenagers, or if there will ever come a time when these girls truly value themselves just as they are (without any "improvements"). I don't know if those girls can do it on their own. At least not if their friends, their parents, and their teachers - their inspiration for building realistic opinions of themselves and others - are also not happy with their bodies. And especially not with the media reinforcing that being critical about others and yourself is makes you a normal women and that there is a body-size value system.
I began to think about when I was a little girl and how my body hung on to its baby fat until I was about 12 (puberty). One time, when I was about 8 years old, and sitting with some friends at recess, a boy, who had overheard something I said about him, yelled at me in front of everyone, "Thunderthighs! No wonder there are cracks in the street!" I was utterly humiliated. He had bested me. I had been branded by him as fat. To this day, I often comment that I dream of the day when my thighs don't touch. Can you believe that a comment about my legs when I was 8 made by an insecure boy, could have such a lasting impact on me that I have carried the wish to have thinner thighs for 20 years?! It's ridiculous, and proves that this kind of treatment of others and oneself has been happening a long time.
What was news to me is that girls as young as
3 years old
are worrying about their weight!!!!
Here is my impression of the modern day 3 year old girl:
"Wut I doo todayy? Welw, I cood draw wit ma craaayuns, owa I cood pway wit ma teddy beyah, owa I cood get in a good 45 minnuts uff cawdio on dee ewwipticul."
Yeah... That doesn't sound right.
3 year old girls should not care how they look.
Leave that to the tortured pre-teens going through puberty!!
If I try to think of what could cause these thoughts to originate (pardon me while I deduce..), the 3 year old thinking she's fat is not her original thought. I see a mother of that girl feeling fat (or worse, ugly because she feels fat) and vocalizing it, thinking "there's no way my itty bitty baby 3 year old daughter can understand any of this" but WHOOPS, the girl thinks this is normal behavior and believes all girls are suppose to say this about themselves, because mommy said it about herself and mommy is always right.
And mommy thinking she's fat is not her original thought, either. She read somewhere that this celebrity is "overweight" when in actuality she looks a lot thinner than mommy. Or she sees models in every ad of every magazine/commercial/billboard that look so unbelievably different from every other woman in her life, but mostly herself. And she reads articles about how these thin models and actresses "don't like to work out" and "eat whatever they want", but when mommy does that, she gains weight, making her confused and unhappy. She must be doing something wrong. She must be the wrong size. Her size is wrong. She is fat. And being fat makes her ugly. She should find a way to change herself.
And the media that edits and photoshops and advertises these models and celebrities the way they do, do it so they can make money and this is where the thought originates from. Mommy bought the cellulite cream, and the shoes, and make up because the model in the photo was tan and slender and mommy wanted to look like her. The media makes us feel bad about ourselves; makes us fear we will have droopy, saggy skin, will never fit into size 2 pants, will never look like a super model BUT for a price you definitely could try!
I, for one, have been sick of the games the media plays for a while. But after hearing that 3 year old girls are caring about, not just how they look, but the size of their body - the fact they even know what the concept means! WTF?! - has pushed me over the edge.
This thought stops with me.
Though I am just one person who is pledging to stop this thought from being inherited by my children, I hope that it will be stopped by other women as well. And stopped by the men who love women. And the fathers who love their daughters. And by the teachers who teach our children. And maybe, eventually, by the media, who have done us all a huge disservice by inspiring us to treat ourselves with hate and disgust.
Maybe one day, we will all love ourselves, just as we are, no "improvements", because the concept of improving ourselves will seem impossible.
WHAT?!?!?!?!?
How unbelievable is that? Reading the article made me sad and worried about how these girls will feel about themselves when they hit puberty, or are teenagers, or if there will ever come a time when these girls truly value themselves just as they are (without any "improvements"). I don't know if those girls can do it on their own. At least not if their friends, their parents, and their teachers - their inspiration for building realistic opinions of themselves and others - are also not happy with their bodies. And especially not with the media reinforcing that being critical about others and yourself is makes you a normal women and that there is a body-size value system.
I began to think about when I was a little girl and how my body hung on to its baby fat until I was about 12 (puberty). One time, when I was about 8 years old, and sitting with some friends at recess, a boy, who had overheard something I said about him, yelled at me in front of everyone, "Thunderthighs! No wonder there are cracks in the street!" I was utterly humiliated. He had bested me. I had been branded by him as fat. To this day, I often comment that I dream of the day when my thighs don't touch. Can you believe that a comment about my legs when I was 8 made by an insecure boy, could have such a lasting impact on me that I have carried the wish to have thinner thighs for 20 years?! It's ridiculous, and proves that this kind of treatment of others and oneself has been happening a long time.
What was news to me is that girls as young as
3 years old
are worrying about their weight!!!!
Here is my impression of the modern day 3 year old girl:
"Wut I doo todayy? Welw, I cood draw wit ma craaayuns, owa I cood pway wit ma teddy beyah, owa I cood get in a good 45 minnuts uff cawdio on dee ewwipticul."
Yeah... That doesn't sound right.
3 year old girls should not care how they look.
Leave that to the tortured pre-teens going through puberty!!
If I try to think of what could cause these thoughts to originate (pardon me while I deduce..), the 3 year old thinking she's fat is not her original thought. I see a mother of that girl feeling fat (or worse, ugly because she feels fat) and vocalizing it, thinking "there's no way my itty bitty baby 3 year old daughter can understand any of this" but WHOOPS, the girl thinks this is normal behavior and believes all girls are suppose to say this about themselves, because mommy said it about herself and mommy is always right.
And mommy thinking she's fat is not her original thought, either. She read somewhere that this celebrity is "overweight" when in actuality she looks a lot thinner than mommy. Or she sees models in every ad of every magazine/commercial/billboard that look so unbelievably different from every other woman in her life, but mostly herself. And she reads articles about how these thin models and actresses "don't like to work out" and "eat whatever they want", but when mommy does that, she gains weight, making her confused and unhappy. She must be doing something wrong. She must be the wrong size. Her size is wrong. She is fat. And being fat makes her ugly. She should find a way to change herself.
And the media that edits and photoshops and advertises these models and celebrities the way they do, do it so they can make money and this is where the thought originates from. Mommy bought the cellulite cream, and the shoes, and make up because the model in the photo was tan and slender and mommy wanted to look like her. The media makes us feel bad about ourselves; makes us fear we will have droopy, saggy skin, will never fit into size 2 pants, will never look like a super model BUT for a price you definitely could try!
I, for one, have been sick of the games the media plays for a while. But after hearing that 3 year old girls are caring about, not just how they look, but the size of their body - the fact they even know what the concept means! WTF?! - has pushed me over the edge.
This thought stops with me.
Though I am just one person who is pledging to stop this thought from being inherited by my children, I hope that it will be stopped by other women as well. And stopped by the men who love women. And the fathers who love their daughters. And by the teachers who teach our children. And maybe, eventually, by the media, who have done us all a huge disservice by inspiring us to treat ourselves with hate and disgust.
Maybe one day, we will all love ourselves, just as we are, no "improvements", because the concept of improving ourselves will seem impossible.
well said :-)
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