I’ve noticed that as Carrie Underwood has gotten to be more and more popular, she has gotten thinner and thinner.  She’s become a bit of a red carpet darling, and I saw one headline referring to her weight loss as her “Hollywood Makeover.”

Thus, I wasn’t surprised to see the following article on iVillage.com: Carrie Underwood’s Struggle With Body Image. The article references the feature article in this month’s InStyle magazine, an in-depth interview with the singer.  The iVillage article offered some excerpts, and I found some additional comments at People.com.  I find her comments to be telling:

The singer also admits that she struggles with body image.”I think about what I look like probably more than I should. But I think everybody is her own worst critic,” she says. “Some days I step out of the shower, put my lotion on, and I’ll be like ‘Ugh, ew, ew.’ ”

She rarely goes out without makeup and keeps a food diary: “I’m OCD like that,” Underwood admits. “I count calories, fat and fiber – which is important in making you feel fuller faster – and protein, especially when I’m working out.”

Why is she so strict with herself? “If I put on five pounds, it’s noticed immediately,” says Underwood.

Still, she says, “I’m content with 90 percent of me. I like my teeth. Sometimes I wonder if my orthodontist realizes how important he was.”

The thought of Carrie Underwood (or anyone, for that matter) counting the nutritional content of every crumb that passes her lips is sad; what’s sadder is that her reasoning is correct–if she puts on even five pounds, the media jumps on it.  She’s content with her teeth–that’s the way we are taught to dissect our bodies and rate and grade the parts.  But even that has a qualification–apparently she wore braces, because she thanks her orthodontist.  Doesn’t it see tragic that the only part of her body that she can feel 100% fantastic about was “granted” her by someone else?