Our Skinny Obsession

Who decided that being able to fit into size 2 jeans was a perfect female body? Oh wait, along with that size two hienie you need double D boobs. I don’t know about you, but how often does that happen in real life?



I was at my friends pool the other day and there was a couple there, both divorced, now dating, with their combined four children. He is a good looking guy, over six feet tall, broad shoulders, little bit of meat on his bones. She was a pretty, petite little blonde, late twenties, early thirties, very cute, but she was wearing a swimsuit that covered her basically from shoulder to mid thigh. The top came down to the top of the bottoms, loose fitting, and the bottoms were covered with a skirt, and every time she got out of the water she ran for a towel like she was naked.



We had a bbq, she didn’t eat anything, (while I had two hotdogs and all the chips I could fit in my gut), and we talked about girl stuff, I found out she is having a boob job next week, but feels she still needs to do something about her bottom and thighs. This woman has two children and is probably, at most, a size 4. What the hell crazy train is she on? She is funny, bright, articulate, beautiful, a good mom, but still, she is not perfect enough for society. Her boyfriend actually got a little offended when all of us, including the other men in the group, told her she didn’t need a boob job, or anything else, seems he likes the feel of fake boobs.


Are we meant to be thin, or are we fighting a losing battle? I’m not gonna lie, just like everyone else, I want to be thin, I want to look good in a bikini, I want to make my ex boyfriends eat their heart out when they see me, but is this the way we are supposed to be?

How did we get here? What happened to those curvy women that everyone loved? Marilyn Monroe was not a tiny woman, but no one denies that she was very sexy. How did we go from Marilyn Monroe’s version of beauty to today’s, eat nothing, purge, purge, purge, drink lemon juice, purge some more and maybe, just maybe you will be skinny. Not skinny enough of course, just skinny.


I know fat is not healthy, but I’m not talking about being obese. Isn’t being skinny by eating just enough to stay alive just as unhealthy as overeating?


Michael Jackson weighed 112 pounds when he died. Who would consider that a healthy weight for any 50 year old person over 4 feet tall? When can I get chubby and not care? When I’m 50? 60? 70? Dead?


I love food, all food, all the time. I’ve given up every liquid calorie, unless it’s alcoholic, I don’t even put sugar in my coffee any more, and I go to the gym 5-6 days a week for an hour and a half. Still, I’m on the chunky side of normal, seriously?

At the same time, we are a lazy society and we want instant gratification. We don’t want to work at weight loss by eating right and exercising, we want a magic pill, and sometimes one comes along, but them we find we are going to die from the heart problems it has given us.


I’m not a dieter, I’m much too lazy and too into self gratification. If I want chocolate, I eat chocolate, same goes for ice cream, cheesecake, chips, Big macs, and my biggest weakness, ju ju fish. I’ve just had to learn to really savor every bite, so that a little is all I need, oh, and I don’t keep those things in the house, so if I want them I have to leave the comfort of my home and seek them out. Somehow that makes them less appealing.


At work, someone is always on a diet. First there was Atkins, really, are we meant to live without potatoes? I think not. Then there was South beach, a little different, still not enough potatoes. Most recently it was the HCG diet, put some drops under your tongue three times a day, eat exactly what they tell you, which is less than 500 calories a day, and you will lose weight. Of course you will, that’s a freaking starvation diet!


I am trying not to care, I wear my bikini loud and proud, yes I have a little jiggle in my tummy, and a little bumbly on my hips, but dammit, I want to wear that bikini! I want Mo to see we are all beautiful, no matter what the package looks like, it’s our heart that shows our true beauty, not our six pack abs. I remember a time when I would look at overweight women in bikinis and think- What the hell was she thinking? Now I think,- You go girl.