Came across a November 2011 article by Amy Bloom on Oprah's website about self esteem and the way women view themselves and their bodies. As I agree with what the author has written I wanted to share the article and add some introductory comments of my own.
Ms Bloom paints a realistic picture of why the women of today think as they do and how women can change these beliefs and opinions. As a woman born in Western Europe thirty years ago, I too faced peer pressure and pressure from myself through society and the world around me to 'look good' and change the body I was born with to suit society's and others' norms.
Raised on a diet of Playboy Bunnies, Baywatch Babes, liposuction, fake tans and Photo-shopped magazine covers (just to name a few), it took me years to let go of the belief that I wasn't "good enough" or "desirable enough" to modern males simply because I did not and do not look like most models and actresses.
Even writing this article, I feel the need to "defend myself" by explaining my looks to possible readers of this blog. That is how ingrained the importance of the exterior has become to me and to many women like me, even after learning to let go of - a lot of - society's views on how women 'should look' and how I personally should look.
I hope to one day raise my child or children in a different society than the one I was raised in. I hope to raise them in a world where their brains matter more than how their bodies looks and where education means more than the latest in fashion.
A quote from the article:
~ From the November 2011 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine
Ms Bloom paints a realistic picture of why the women of today think as they do and how women can change these beliefs and opinions. As a woman born in Western Europe thirty years ago, I too faced peer pressure and pressure from myself through society and the world around me to 'look good' and change the body I was born with to suit society's and others' norms.
Raised on a diet of Playboy Bunnies, Baywatch Babes, liposuction, fake tans and Photo-shopped magazine covers (just to name a few), it took me years to let go of the belief that I wasn't "good enough" or "desirable enough" to modern males simply because I did not and do not look like most models and actresses.
Even writing this article, I feel the need to "defend myself" by explaining my looks to possible readers of this blog. That is how ingrained the importance of the exterior has become to me and to many women like me, even after learning to let go of - a lot of - society's views on how women 'should look' and how I personally should look.
I hope to one day raise my child or children in a different society than the one I was raised in. I hope to raise them in a world where their brains matter more than how their bodies looks and where education means more than the latest in fashion.
A quote from the article:
"The tabloids produce crap, but people (mostly women) buy it: pictures of the overweight (they've let themselves go!), the enhanced and shapely (you, too, can look like this if you eat garlic and grapefruit!), and the shame-on-her-for-getting-too-skinny (as if no tabloid editor can imagine how a six-foot starlet came to think 130 pounds is obese). The beauty industry sees opportunity and shoots for it. The question is, how do we keep ourselves from being the opportunity, from seeing the mirror — and food, and other women — as the enemy? And how do we make all this stuff less terrible for our daughters, our nieces, the 19-year-old who feels her life will be ruined without breast implants?"
~ From the November 2011 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine
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