Weight is also a cultural bias.
Fat women used to be the most desirable - especially fat wives - fat husbands showed off their wealth, decorating their wives like floats. Ask Rubens.
Ever since Twiggy in the late 1960's, really thin was in. You may say models were always thin, that's not exactly true - we'd call them fat today. Flat chested was fashion. Big breasts were for Hollywood and pin-ups. Big breasts came with a bit of meat. Though thin was always considered svelte since Coco Chanel, the standard was never as bad as when heroin chic came along. And now androgynous boy models keep the anorexic movement going.
It's always something.
Kat's on a diet and preaching against the dangers of obesity. That's fine. People recovering from smoking or alcoholism do that stuff too. Nothing wrong with that. However, there is fat, obese, and morbid obesity. All of which gets condemned and fat people are scorned ... (Doctors like it because they can offer bi-pass surgery or lipo, - it's a lucrative industry - shame people into medical intervention.)
Except! Wait!
Fat fashions for fat girls here. It's a huge market that has been pretty much overlooked until recently. (Pun intended.) Fat people help the economy - dress them up and make them feel good about themselves - build profits for the overseas textile industry as well as Chinese manufacturers.
Oh! Oh! And guess what is sexy to women now? The dad's bod! Normal guys with a bit of a tummy... go here.
So here's my Jennifer Fulwiler quick take on all this.
Quit obsessing about your body - it's a bit narcissistic and can be a form of idolatry. Vanity is the devotion of self. It is the main idol of body culture. Always has been. We lose weight and get in shape for better health, yes. We look in the mirror, like what we see, and va-va-voom! The mirror has two faces!
I know guys who get in shape and trick out because they are now 'gorgeous'!
I know women who left their husbands after losing a ton of weight and got a make-over.
I know women who found live-in boyfriends after getting shape.
Take care of the interior first - the exterior will start looking better before you know it or even care.
Thin fat people are always fat on the interior - you have to take care of your selfish self-seeking first. Catherine of Siena writes about that. Nowadays she is reputed to have been anorexic - but we miss the point on that because we are eating-disordered and obsessed with weight and appearance. Catherine wasn't. She was fixated upon her Beloved, her Christ. Her heart was single, unencumbered. It is the self which weighs us down.
And she was definitely thin...
What?
As a lifelong overweight woman, I relate to this in all ways possible. Interestingly, now that I'm getting right with God and really pursuing Him, I'm losing weight. Feed the soul and the body will be satisfied with just enough.
ReplyDeleteAquinas was called the Ox. Now his father was Italian but his mom was Germanic I think ...so that could have made him taller than other Italians....but OX? Weight comes from mental work unceasing which Aquinas had but modern man often has too if he does not exercise after work. Prior to c.1960, many people still had very physical jobs. Now...not so much. Now even farmers ride large harvestors all day much like sitting in a Silicon valley cubicle. Uber drivers sit all day. Truck drivers no longer unload but have hilos zoom up and empty them or they have electronic elevating fold down lifts. So many jobs now do not use calories. Cops used to walk a beat. Now they drive all day. Men used to lug beef with hooks but now hilos probably do it.
ReplyDeleteWhat may look like gluttony...might be Aquinas Ox syndrome: mental work with no eercise.
Love this post :)
ReplyDeleteMe too!
ReplyDelete