I just read a statistic that says the average young woman (ages 12-25) spends 100 minutes a day thinking about her body image. For example, spending 5 minutes in the morning deciding if her skirt makes her butt look too big, spending 3 minutes deciding to eat breakfast or not, spending 5 minutes deciding between the salad or the cheeseburger (quick shout out to the blog Eat A Cheeseburger!) for lunch. And speaking as someone older than 25, it doesn’t get much better after 25 (just add wrinkles and gray hair to the mix).

100 minutes a day–that’s the length of a feature film. We run our little fat-horror movies throughout the day, every day, wasting precious mental energy.  Can you imagine what we could accomplish if we could spend that 100 minutes a day on something, anything, productive? And not just as individuals, but with the combined brain power of all of those men and women who nickel and dime their mental energy away worrying about whether they should eat the bread on a sandwich?

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?

Here’s a link to a great article, Fitness for All, Not Just Fat People, on The F-Word.org blog about the misconceptions still prevalent in the news media about fitness, fatness, and health, particularly the false assumption that all fat people:

eat all the Krispy Kremes we want, throw out our sneakers and kick back and watch as our waistlines expand.

Every time I speak to a group (or write on this blog, for that matter) about health and body image, I feel like a broken record: “Sedenatry lifestyle and poor diet kill people, not weight. Thus, there are fit, healthy fat people, just as there are unfit, unhealthy thin people.” Yet, there is always someone who wants to dispute this. And no wonder, given the way the news media covers these issues.

Rachel does a great job here of addressing the bias in media coverage of obesity and health in reference to an article on MSNBC.com.  I love this quote that she found by, Samuel Preston, a professor of demography at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, regarding the notion that the overweight children of this generation will have shorter life spans than their parents:

“It’s extremely unlikely that today’s children will have shorter life expectancies than their parents. From everything I see, we continue to make rapid progress at extending life as a result of improvements in medical technology and personal health practices,” such as smoking less. Yes, we are fatter than we used to be but the implications of that have not been nearly as severe as has been popularly assumed.”

Thanks to Mariellen/vesta44 at Big Fat Delicious for her post on the Blog Talk Radio show The Overweight Date - Fat or Phat?

The cultural and racial perceptions of body image and weight, and how such perceptions translate into romantic desirability for single men and women will be the focus of Sucka Free Dating – The Smart Relationship Talk Show (http://blogtalkradio.com/askheartbeat) with host Deborrah Cooper on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. Pacific. The live, call-in show will feature two guests active in the body acceptance movement; Dr. Lisa A. Breisch is a Licensed Clinical Psychotherapist who specializes in working with plus-size individuals. Breisch also owns Club Round, which sponsors activities such as speed dating nights for plus-size teens and adults and their admirers. Laurie Toby Edison is an internationally exhibited photographer “Women En Large: Images of Fat Nudes” and body image activist, who blogs at Body Impolitic (http://www.laurietobyedison.com).

Dr. Lisa A. Breisch and Laurie Toby Edison were phenomenal in their discussions on issues of weight and beauty. Of course, in the midst of all of this positivity, some guy just had to call in and play the “health” card–’Men don’t want to date fat women because we’re worried they’re unhealthy and will not be able to bear us unhealthy children.’ [Oh, please, the health of your future babies I'm sure is the foremost consideration in your mind when you offer to buy a girl a drink. She's got to present you with her cholesterol and BP before you f*%# her.] Once again, you can’t even hint at anything positive about “fat” without someone feeling compelled to point out that our cultural discrimination against fat people is because they’re unhealthy.

I was already a fan of Edison’s work, but I was also very impressed with the message and demeanor of Dr. Breisch. When she said that the motto of her size acceptance group, Club Round, is: Every Body is a Good Body - No Matter the Shape, Size, or Weight. I just wanted to cheer. She made me smile all day.

I love Edison’s book “Women En Large: Images of Fat Nudes,” but I had somehow missed one important story relevant to the creation of the project. She told of a respected male colleague who made the comment that he would never visit a nudist colony for fear of seeing ‘a 300-lb woman with an appendectomy scar.’ Even though I’ve been thinking/researching/writing about body image for years, I never made the connection that there is a fear of large naked female bodies (a disdain for, yes, but fear…). Edison determined that if culturally we could move past this fear and see large female nudes as beautiful, then we could embrace the greater beauty of all. This is why I love that book. She has a great blog that is worth checking out as well.

I wasn’t surprised that 22% of the young women in this survey wanted to be a size zero (UK size 4); honestly, I’m surprised that this number wasn’t higher.  However, I was surprised that women thought that size zero women were actually larger in size.  So basically, our eyes have become so accustomed to images of size zero women that we think they are more like a size 6 or 8.

More than one in five women (22%) aged 18 to 24 want to be size zero, according to a survey.

A body image poll also found that women struggled to identify a size zero model from a line-up of six differently-sized women, with only 3% getting it right.

Three-quarters (75%) of more than 1,200 women surveyed said the size zero model was a size 8 to 12 [US 4 to 8].

I had a great time with the evening class this week, and I’m sure that we are going to have an interesting discussion on Tuesday. Here are some links and resources that I thought you might find interesting:

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A friend of The Curvy Life sent me this item from Post Secret. Body loathing has become so normal that to even think that you like your body qualifies as a “secret.” (See the Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters post for more on this.)

“I love my body and think it’s perfect, but I pretend not to because that’s what Normal girls do.”

I love that this picture is from an episode of America’s Next Top Model where the models had to pose as plastic surgery “victims.” The cut lines marked on this idealized body make for an interesting visual commentary. (I spent several weeks addicted to the re-runs of ANTM on MTV, but that’s a story for another time.)

I often use the term “body loathing” to refer to hatred on one’s own body; however, there is a category of body loathing that is directed outward, particularly toward fat bodies, that I refer to as “fat loathing.”

Here is an example from Post Secret of fat loathing:

“Every time I am around my friend, I fight the urge to tell her that her kids are fat because she is a bad mom.”

Wow, could you strike a woman any more severely that to attack her children AND her parenting skills? There is an underlying viciousness toward fat people that I never seem to see elsewhere. Why all the hate?

First: Forgive the vanity of this exercise.

Second: Apologies to the guy I met last week who hates it when people turn nouns into verbs. If he thinks “Google” shouldn’t be used as a verb–as in, “I Googled it”–then he’ll pass out if Spanx becomes a verb.

Am I a sell-out if I wear Spanx? I rarely wear them–I figure, I’m curvy and cinching in my gut and my hips an inch or so isn’t going to make a difference. However, I do have the occasional outfit that I believe looks more refined with the addition of some shapewear underneath.

At the Clinton Kelly event, he really pushed the idea of shapewear, so I decided to conduct an experiment. I wore the same dress (3 part construction–defined bust, defined waist, and a skirt that flows away from the body–à la What Not to Wear) two days in a row, one day with Spanx, one day without. The Spanx clearly takes away some of the width of my hips, but does it really matter? What do you think: Spanx, No Spanx?

Spanx/No Spanx

Clinton Kelly (cohost of TLC’s What Not to Wear) is Macy’s ambassador of Special Sizes–Plus and Petite. Clinton was in Atlanta today at Macy’s Lenox Square to host a fashion show featuring Spring trends as available in Macy’s Plus Size department. I used the opportunity to Twitter. (If you aren’t familiar with Twitter, it’s a type of IM/blog. You can see my Twitter text in the far right sidebar.)

There were several hundred curvy women in the audience, all anxious to see Clinton Kelly and his suggestions for Spring. He hit the stage like a rock star–his presence and energy were impressive. He spoke frankly and honestly about What Not to Wear and about the state of plus size fashion. Here are a few highlights of his presentation. I’ll save my take on the clothes for another post.

Behind the Scenes at What Not to Wear

“Looking good is not easy.”

1. It takes one hour of filming to produce one minute of the show. He and Stacy usually spend 30 minutes per mannequin just explaining the rules.
2. The featured contributor spends 2 full days trying on clothes. S/he will try on hundreds of garments to get 7 outfits. Sheer volume creates successful outfits.
3. Every woman gets a bra fitting. Clinton’s suggestion: if you have maintained your weight, a bra fitting once every 5 years should suffice; however, for every 5 pounds gained or lost, a new bra may be needed.
4. The secret of the participants’ success? shapewear and tailoring.
5. Regarding tailoring–no one can expect clothes to fit off the rack. And (painfully for most of us), you may need to go up a size to fit your largest part and have the rest of the garment downsized. (And though I know size is arbitrary and should mean nothing–it does.)

Fashion

1. Color, texture, pattern, shine–try to combine these in every outfit, which includes accessories and shoes.
2. Any given season there are numerous trends–there are currently 20 trends in fashion right not. If you want to follow trends, choose one (or a few) and pair them with classics.
3. Jacket tailoring tip: if you have broad shoulders, have the sleeves of jackets narrowed from the elbows to the wrists to create a sleeker look.
4. Clinton described plus sizes as “marginalized” and said directly, “If you are on the ends of marginalized sizes, your SOL, if you know what that means.” [Yes, Clinton, we do.]

Philosophy

Clinton shared his own experience as feeling like a gawky teen–tall and skinny. He became interested in clothes because “clothes are the great equalizer.” He encouraged the audience: “quit comparing yourself to other people,” because, “you are perfect in your imperfections.” Lovely sentiment that is good for everyone.

Victoria, Australia has created a “Voluntary Media Code of Conduct” through its Department of Planning and Community Development Office of Youth.  The Media Code of Conduct was released in July 2007, but I’m only hearing about it now (Aussie state moves to stamp out unrealistic body imagery, TV3 News).

The mission of the Code of Conduct:

The Code is designed to encourage the fashion, media and advertising industries to place greater emphasis on diversity, positive body images and a focus on health rather than body shape.

The Code presents four key recommendations (complete report here):

Altered and Enhanced Images
The use of unachievable and unrealistic digitally manipulated images of people in the media is discouraged. If such alteration has occurred, digitally altered images should be disclosed and accompanied by a ‘tag’ stating that “this image has been digitally altered” to help young people make a balanced appraisal.

Diversity in Shapes
Consideration should be given to the inclusion of a variety of body shapes, to provide fair representation in both editorial and advertising images.

Fair Placement
Consideration should be given to the editorial context in which diet, exercise or cosmetic surgery advertising is placed.

Modeling Health
Glamorisation of severely underweight models or celebrities is potentially dangerous; effort should be made to depict people of healthy weight and size.

Unlike the French proposal (to ban glamorization of  thinness), the code is strictly voluntary and provides no penalties for failure to conform to the rules.

I find these recommendations much more in line with my own philosophy, particularly the goal:”to place greater emphasis on diversity, positive body images and a focus on health rather than body shape.”

I also think that it’s a great idea to “tag” altered images as “digitally altered” (or perhaps “objects may be fatter/wrinkly-er/shorter/older than they appear”).  Even knowing that an image is altered doesn’t change its power to influence; however, the reminder of the plastic nature of the image is something.

Related to this issue, The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) announced changes to the Advertising to Children Code, so as to ban the “sexualization” of children ages 14 and younger.

In the post about Chloe Marshall (the size-16 British beauty contestant), I touched on the notion that positive articles/images about women who are anything other than stick thin are often accused of “glamorizing obesity.” I exclaimed:

One kind word about loving even a “normal” body and that’s glamorizing? Then what do you call the media treatment of thinness? Idolizing thinness? Deifying thinness? Canonizing thinness? I don’t think we have a word in our vocabulary.

Apparently someone in France heard me.

French lawmakers try to outlaw skinny propaganda

By DEVORAH LAUTER

PARIS (AP) — In image-conscious France, it may soon be a crime to glamorize the ultra-thin. A new French bill cracks down on Web sites that advise anorexics on how to starve — and could be used to hit fashion industry heavyweights, too.

The groundbreaking bill, adopted Tuesday by Parliament’s lower house, recommends fines of up to $71,000 and three-year prison sentences for offenders who encourage “extreme thinness.” It goes to the Senate in the coming weeks… (Click here for the rest of the article).

According to the article, the fashion industry is not the only target of this legislation. The law is also aimed at pro-anorexia websites that teach readers how to become anorexic.

While I agree with the intention behind this legislation, I really have problems with this approach:

1. Who decides what “too thin” is? How is this decision made? It is just as unfair to penalize the naturally thin, or even “underweight,” model as it is to penalize the naturally larger, or even “overweight,” model.
2. If depictions of underweight bodies are outlawed, how quickly will depictions of overweight bodies be outlawed?
3. No way is this really going to happen anyway. Even if French government “outlaws” ultra-skinny in France, how do they control the images and ideas generated beyond their national boundaries?

The Curvy Life advocates size inclusion and body acceptance, no matter the size. Further, I believe that health and fitness should be the goal, not the attainment of any particular weight or size. Sedentary lifestyle and poor diet harm our bodies. It is a myth that somehow an observer can look at a person’s outward appearance and judge that person’s health, or lack thereof (this would render most medical testing unnecessary).

Banning one type of image or another is not the answer. Allowing for a diversity of images and a broad definition of beauty is a better solution.

And, while I shouldn’t be amazed by this consequence of the discussion, I am: in places where I have read general comments about this article, the responses have been full of fat loathing (See the comments at ajc.com for an example). So, somehow, fat is always the villain, no matter how body image is discussed.

Finally, I’ve got to include a link to Matthew Krell’s article Fat-Bottomed Girls, Make the World Go Round at StreetProphets.com. He provides some nice commentary on French attitudes toward free speech, but you’ve got to appreciate his shout out to the curvy girls. (As for the video in the post, I can’t decide if I’m amused or just disturbed.)

I had a great time tonight speaking to Dr. Anne Rosenthal’s class in Gender Communications at Oglethorpe University (Atlanta, GA) about body image as it relates to gender issues. There were many thoughtful and provocative comments, and I’m looking forward to hearing more from these students and anyone else interested in the topic.

We discussed many subjects, but one that we kept returning to was the notion of the “male gaze.” Here’s an excerpt from some research that I did on the topic in 2003 that is, to me, my personal experience with gender and the media portrayal of body image:

[The current media standard of beauty's] connection to the idea of feminine perfection is directly linked to Laura Mulvey’s “male gaze” [Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema]. Mulvey describes two sides of scopophilia, “circumstances in which looking itself is a source of pleasure” and “pleasure in being looked at” (835). These two sides have been split into the male/active viewer and the female/passive image. According to Mulvey, filmic images encode female erotic and sensual appeal as a function of a woman’s “to-be-looked-at-ness.” In other words, to be feminine is to be looked at, with sexual desire, by a man. And what constitutes “to-be-looked-at-ness” in modern Western media? [The media standard of the ideal female body].

Some researchers suggest that modern mass media, particularly the film industry, has begun to produce a female gaze in opposition to the male gaze. Thelma and Louise is often cited as an example of women using “the gaze.” However, I contend that turning the male gaze back on men is not the same as developing a counter female gaze. Women’s magazines, created by women for women, still use the male gaze to sell magazines—“[Women’s] magazines have a larger audience among women age 18 to 49 than do TV shows” (Wellner). [Wellner, Alison Stein. “The Female Persuasion.” American Demographics 24 (2002): 24-29.]

I look forward to your thoughts and ideas on the subject.

Aly Hoag, founder of Authentic Beauty and dear friend of The Curvy Life, is embarking on a magnificent quest to bring beauty and healing to the women of New Orleans. For the price of a couple of lattes or a bottle of nail polish, you can provide makeup and hope to a woman in New Orleans. Here’s the pitch:

Click Here to be a SUPERLOVE HERO

Are you still shuddering from images of Hurricane Katrina?

Do you wish you could do something more for women in New Orleans whose lives were shattered in 2005-and still are in a million pieces?

Well now you can. Easily. And there’s no dealing with FEMA.

Volunteers by the bus load are trekking down to the Louisiana Superdome on April 11-12 to care for almost 5000 Gulf South women at V TO THE TENTH, the 10^th anniversary of V-Day, the international event inspired by Eve Ensler’s seminal play Vagina Monologues.

The Superdome is being renamed SUPERLOVE just for this weekend. Wow.

SUPERLOVE performers include Jane Fonda, Oprah Winfrey, Salma Hayek, Jessica Alba, Faith Hill and now YOU. And all you have to do is pick up a pen (keep reading).

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Sophia Dolls - www.SophiaDolls.com

I admit it - I loved Barbie. I received my first “Barbie” (a “Skipper” in fact) when I was 6 years old (a gift from my aunt). Devastated when our family dog carried her off for a few weeks, I was delighted when he dragged her dirty, chewed, gnarled plastic body home again. I just washed her off and kept playing.

I quickly graduated to real Barbies (and Kens), and from there every penny of my allowance went to Barbie clothes, the Barbie Dream Home, The Barbie Corvette, and even the Barbie camper (epiphany: I don’t know if Barbie affected my sense of body image, but she clearly set me up to have expensive taste). By the time I was 11 years old, I thought that I was “too old to be playing with dolls” (alas, I hit adolescence just before the action figure movement hit–now, young and old, male and female can play with dolls). I particularly enjoyed dressing my Barbies to the nines and enacting elaborate adventures.

So, I am quite delighted by the prospect of playing with Sophia Dolls (www.SophiaDolls.com), Barbie-style dolls with more realistic body proportions (from sizes 4 to 16) modeled after ancient Greek goddesses. Not only do the dolls represent real female bodies, each doll is connected to an empowering personality type (based on psychology and mythology). Thus, instead of “Cheerleader Barbie” (not that there’s anything wrong with that) you get “Goddess Athena-Teacher of Leadership.” (See the entire collection by clicking here.) The dolls are designed for both children and adults.

To help you choose your doll(s), SophiaDolls.com provides a “Sophia Woman Goddess Quiz” so that you can match your personality to the right goddess. My Goddess Style is Aphrodite - Creative Woman. Among her qualities: Comfortable in her body no matter what her size, shape or color. Right on, Aphrodite! I can imagine that Aphrodite could have far more exciting adventures than Malibu Barbie (though Barbie still has a better wardrobe).

Only 3 dolls in the collection are available currently, but the rest are on the way. They’re not cheap at $99.00 each, but each doll is a limited edition (only 1200 dolls each).

If nothing else, check out the Goddess Quiz. I’d like to hear: What’s your Goddess Style?

In a previous post I mentioned Chloe Marshall, a size-16 contestant in the Miss England pageant. Of course, it was bound to happen–London’s Daily Mail (a tabloid-style newspaper) criticized Chloe as “fat, lazy and a poster girl for ill health.” (Click here for a link to the ABC News article Backlash Against Big Beauty Queen.)

OK, that’s to be expected. Of course, the Daily Mail doesn’t rail against Kate Moss as being the ”poster girl for ill health” as an extremely underweight drug abuser. But, again, anytime a woman who is even slightly larger than the acceptable media standard makes any effort at all to publicly claim her beauty, she’s attacked for promoting an unhealthy lifestyle (all of this ignoring the damaging effects to the body of yo-yo dieting and the stress associated with low self-esteem, among others).

But this is the bit that galls me. One female reader, who described herself as 5″ 8′ tall, size 10, who struggles to maintain her weight by running 5K each day and avoiding junk food, wrote in support of the vicious attack on Chloe by saying:

“It makes me mad when people like Chloe are allowed to glamorize obesity, and even worse, make it look like a mentally and physically healthier alternative to watching your weight.”

What gets me about this is two things:

1. “Glamorize obesity?” Really? Come on, now. This always seems to be the charge against any positive media coverage of size acceptance. One kind word about loving even a “normal” body and that’s glamorizing? Then what the hell do you call the media treatment of thinness? Idolizing thinness? Deifying thinness? Canonizing thinness? I don’t think we have a word in our vocabulary.
2. We, the average women of the world, we support, and in fact, enforce, the hatred against ourselves. I feel sorry for this woman–no doubt, she lives under constant pressure to maintain her weight. And that, is sheer torture.

So, I conclude with: Kudos, Chloe. Hang in there, you gorgeous girl.