I Need to Rant
Okay, so I can't sleep. And when I can't sleep it makes me grumpy. More grumpy than I already am. And there's a couple of things that are bugging me right now. So if you would be so kind to indulge me I shall share what's bothering me. And feel free to comment and see whether you agree with me or not.
I was talking to an acquaintance the other day. A girl of slim figure and sleek blonde hair. We engrossed ourselves in debate about various things going on in the world and it was all well and good. She annoyed me alot less than the average person does. Well done her.
Until... (Yes, she had to go and spoil things.)
I politely offered her a sweet from the pack I had just opened, and she immediately refused. This didn't annoy me one bit. Not one iota. It was what she said next...
"I'm too fat to eat sweets and I'll just get fatter if I eat chocolate."
This annoyed me. It immediately got my back up. At first I didn't know why. Maybe I just come from a culture where it's common courtesy to accept anything offered to you, like in South American or African tribes? No, this couldn't be why.
And then I got to thinking. What really annoyed me was the way she continued to moan about her weight. She is definitely a size 8-10, which is considered very fashionable and healthy in female culture (correct me if I'm wrong, ladies), if there is such a size that qualifies a human as 'acceptable' or 'fashionable'. Folly it seems that we're now in a day and age where weight classes us and distinguishes us from those who would appear on the front cover of magazines from those who supposedly sit lonely and have 'nothing to offer'. Folly indeed.
Now, I don't want to have a go at said person, she obviously has self esteem issues, but does she not realise she's very healthy looking? With not one ounce of fat on her? Well, maybe a few ounces of fat, but we all need fat to live. That's why our bodies store it. But surely she knows she's the right weight for her age?
I'm constantly coming across girls who have what todays society would call 'perfect figures' who constantly moan about being overweight. And then they say they want and NEED to lose more?!
I'll tell you what it is. And yes, it's that culprit again: Media.
The media has installed the need for a perfect figure, size zero, and parades it on their front pages for girls to know exactly what they should look like. And then they sprall out countless articles in the middle pages about how to get this figure, like it's a requirement, and those who don't comply will simply be tossed onto a back shelf, like a forgotten book.
Is it just me or does anyone else see the gross misconduct in this? Promoting an unhealthy self image and even an obsessive mandatory compulsion to be a certain way.
You wouldn't see an article in a magazine showing women how to lose weight fast by taking heroine, would you? Yet it's perfectly acceptable to publish an article about the 'nothing but water' diet, which many a doctor has spoken out against as being dangerously unhealthy.
Now I start to think, who am I more angry with? The girl with low self esteem, moaning about her weight when she needn't be - when there's others with medical conditions who weigh more than her - or the people who blot down words and images in papers and magazines who made her that way?
I'm angry with the girl for being so naive, and getting sucked in to the media hype. But I'm more angry with the editors of so called 'health' magazines who pray on the worries and issues of teen women who will blindly flock to read their covers in a bid to become 'acceptable'.
Confound the media. Chastise the naivety.
Do they know that women of a slightly larger size were once revered over anyone else? That they were seen as a sign of health, purity and fertility?
What the bloody hell has changed?!
And in no way am I just picking on women here - the Perfect Figure has started to sneak its way into men's magazines aswell - it's just more prominent and important among women it seems, and it always will be.
But on the flipside, some people of the larger variety have their moments aswell.
If I ever hear an obese person, in a shop, complaining of being ill due to their weight after cleaning out an entire shelf of scampi fries again, I'm going to pelt them with their change.
At the end of the day, we're all fine as we are. We're all human. And I accept that. But if a perfectly healthy person can complain to me about being overweight, or an overweight person can complain to me about being ill when it's CLEARLY through their own doing, then by God am I going to have a moan back.
Signing off...
Your Author.
I was talking to an acquaintance the other day. A girl of slim figure and sleek blonde hair. We engrossed ourselves in debate about various things going on in the world and it was all well and good. She annoyed me alot less than the average person does. Well done her.
Until... (Yes, she had to go and spoil things.)
I politely offered her a sweet from the pack I had just opened, and she immediately refused. This didn't annoy me one bit. Not one iota. It was what she said next...
"I'm too fat to eat sweets and I'll just get fatter if I eat chocolate."
This annoyed me. It immediately got my back up. At first I didn't know why. Maybe I just come from a culture where it's common courtesy to accept anything offered to you, like in South American or African tribes? No, this couldn't be why.
And then I got to thinking. What really annoyed me was the way she continued to moan about her weight. She is definitely a size 8-10, which is considered very fashionable and healthy in female culture (correct me if I'm wrong, ladies), if there is such a size that qualifies a human as 'acceptable' or 'fashionable'. Folly it seems that we're now in a day and age where weight classes us and distinguishes us from those who would appear on the front cover of magazines from those who supposedly sit lonely and have 'nothing to offer'. Folly indeed.
Now, I don't want to have a go at said person, she obviously has self esteem issues, but does she not realise she's very healthy looking? With not one ounce of fat on her? Well, maybe a few ounces of fat, but we all need fat to live. That's why our bodies store it. But surely she knows she's the right weight for her age?
I'm constantly coming across girls who have what todays society would call 'perfect figures' who constantly moan about being overweight. And then they say they want and NEED to lose more?!
I'll tell you what it is. And yes, it's that culprit again: Media.
The media has installed the need for a perfect figure, size zero, and parades it on their front pages for girls to know exactly what they should look like. And then they sprall out countless articles in the middle pages about how to get this figure, like it's a requirement, and those who don't comply will simply be tossed onto a back shelf, like a forgotten book.
Is it just me or does anyone else see the gross misconduct in this? Promoting an unhealthy self image and even an obsessive mandatory compulsion to be a certain way.
You wouldn't see an article in a magazine showing women how to lose weight fast by taking heroine, would you? Yet it's perfectly acceptable to publish an article about the 'nothing but water' diet, which many a doctor has spoken out against as being dangerously unhealthy.
Now I start to think, who am I more angry with? The girl with low self esteem, moaning about her weight when she needn't be - when there's others with medical conditions who weigh more than her - or the people who blot down words and images in papers and magazines who made her that way?
I'm angry with the girl for being so naive, and getting sucked in to the media hype. But I'm more angry with the editors of so called 'health' magazines who pray on the worries and issues of teen women who will blindly flock to read their covers in a bid to become 'acceptable'.
Confound the media. Chastise the naivety.
Do they know that women of a slightly larger size were once revered over anyone else? That they were seen as a sign of health, purity and fertility?
What the bloody hell has changed?!
And in no way am I just picking on women here - the Perfect Figure has started to sneak its way into men's magazines aswell - it's just more prominent and important among women it seems, and it always will be.
But on the flipside, some people of the larger variety have their moments aswell.
If I ever hear an obese person, in a shop, complaining of being ill due to their weight after cleaning out an entire shelf of scampi fries again, I'm going to pelt them with their change.
At the end of the day, we're all fine as we are. We're all human. And I accept that. But if a perfectly healthy person can complain to me about being overweight, or an overweight person can complain to me about being ill when it's CLEARLY through their own doing, then by God am I going to have a moan back.
Signing off...
Your Author.
