Women And Weight Loss

Why do women feel such a strong need to become thin? And for the men answering this that do have an issue with over weight girls, what is it that makes you turn your nose and treat bigger girls badly? Besides a few extra pounds... there is no difference between a bigger girl and a skinny girl.

I think it is because all your ads are geared toward thin women. If you think about it ads and things don't show heavy set women. I my self am overweight and it is a little over whelming when you turn on the television and the ads all center on thin women. Why don't the advertisers realize that not all women are going to be thin? But I think that is why women feel such a strong need to become thin.

If you look back in history there is an ebb and flow to beauty standards that aligns with several other social values. Where there is "plenty" meaning food, jobs, healthy children; the standard tends toward forcing women into unnatural thinness. This is accomplished through not eating, purging, and historically through clothing such as stays pulled so tightly that a women could achieve an 18 inch waist.

In societies and cultures where the lack is the norm you will find that women run to larger sizes and the larger the better. In some societies women of girth are valued and young women are "fattened" up by their families before their marriage as a sign of their parent's wealth and to insure that their daughters will bring respect to their home and name.

In today's society where many women buy into the media machine and the need to be thin to the point of emaciation those that do not are outcast. This is true not just by other women but by society in general. The woman who is larger than a size 12 has difficulty finding clothing in today's fashion industry. If she is larger than a 14 forget it.

The larger woman will find herself confronting bias in the workplace as well. There is a tendency to believe that the woman who doesn't fit the "norm" is of less value. She might even be lazy, of low class, of low moral character, without standards or self-control. All of these and more get applied to the woman who is of normal weight or over-weight. Yet most people never stop to ask what might be the underlying issues of that woman's life.

I am personally appalled by society today. I was once thin. Now I am not. There is a reason for it. It took me years to accept that I will never be thin again. I was at one point suicidal because of my loss of body control and my loss of societal acceptance. Now I am not. Now I am just angry that individuals are forced to feel this way.