Damnit, Oprah. I used to really admire her, but the more publicity she gives to weight loss, the more I find myself losing respect for her.

B) There is a small, cyncial side of me that does wonder if weight struggle is part of Ms. Winfrey’s product. We are discussing an incredibly intelligent, and people-savvy woman.

“…researchers noted that it is the norm for American women to be dissatisfied with the parts of their bodies which are affected by weight gain as they age. The percentage of body fat generally doubles by the time women reach age 50. Weight also tends to be redistributed so that breasts become larger, waists thicken and fat increases on their upper back. While it is natural for midlife women to change shape in these ways, the U.S. standard of attractiveness remains a youthful and slender body which creates anxiety about aging and pressure for older women to disguise what are otherwise normal changes.”

I have come across two articles on body image recently that, like this one, were unfortunately illustrated with standard issue, airbrushed, slim, young models in a complete contradiction to the text. Even when mainstream publications write in a reasonable way on the issue, the art department never gets on board.

Which made me think when reading this line: “With the media constantly portraying young, thin, beautiful women as the ‘ideal’ and with growing pressure on aging women to remain youthful, regular women are pushing themselves to achieve the unrealistic goal of holding on to their youth, in the belief that youth equals beauty.”

We always say that media portrays young, thin women as “ideal.” (The word “beautiful” that they put here is fairly loaded as I don’t think beauty as an ideal is a problem if the concept of beauty is wider and more inclusive) But I think this is actually not the problem. It’s not that they portray an ideal, it is that it is all they portray. Looking at television and women’s magazines you would be hard pressed to see a woman who seems to be over 30 or more than a size 10. It is as if they do not exist at all. It makes the normal seem absolutely freakish. If, at 200 pounds, Oprah is one of the largest people on tv, then there is something wrong with the tv! The set needs adjustment.

I hope you’ll come back and visit often. Shapely Prose is a wonderful, supportive community of people who will help you on your journey to knowing you’re truly beautiful and fabulous, EXACTLY as you are.

I am over 200 pounds and when I hear someone like Oprah promote her shame on gaining weight to that point, I can’t help but to feel a bit hurt. I work hard on accepting my weight and just as I felt a bit better about it I actually hear Oprah declare shame, like it had undone all the things she has done in life, on weight that is less than I weigh…well it made me shake my head in disappointment.

Respect people’s minds, respect what they have done, don’t whipe off your mind and deeds with your outer shell. In ideal world this would happen. People wouldn’t treat each other like crap just because of how they look, they wouldn’t hurt each other etc…but we are not living in a perfect world so…don’t make it worse by actually sounding like you were a lesser person because some people can’t handle normal weight gain and body fat. Just, not the way to go. Especially when you are a great influence on sooo many people.