- woke up early for an appointment and a stop at the cupcake shop! it's this little cupcakery that i was told about and it has delicious cupcakes! they are a tad too cloyingly sweet for my taste (shockingly enough) but the actual cupcake is great--the icing needs to be eaten in small doses, though.
- worked more on the suicide paper--it's turning out better than expected! and just lazied around the apartment. didn't want to (and couldn't) be outside sunning and couldn't gym today either. that is the plan for tomorrow, though.
- got wholly absorbed in a new book! i'm already on page 98 and i started only around 1.5 hours ago. the secret history is the title and i have my father to thank for the suggestion. i absolutely love being sucked into a new book. i mean, harry potter and narnia and a few other books suck me in every time but they are so familiar. new and exciting books are always welcome!
perhaps off a bit of inspiration i also found today, i think tonight is a good night to talk about weight, body perception, societal expectations, and wimmen (translation: women). it is so surprising to me, still, how much women are affected by their weight, body shape, and society's pressures. the average woman is a size 12 in america. however, 1/4 people in america are obese. i'm not saying that size 12 is obese or too fat or anything like that. i'm not here to pass judgment. just to start a conversation about women and their weight. there are some women out there who are unconcerned about weight and body shape. these women often appear on TV shows for the same reason that the baby sea turtles are shown fighting to make it into the rough surf on the beach--both are RARITIES. i am entirely unconvinced that any woman on this planet is satisfied with her weight or shape. i just refuse to believe that we would all give up one of our favorite bitching topics so easily. something can always be altered, corrected, improved. we are conditioned from birth to see ourselves in a critical way. some women, certainly, cling to this idea more than others. a lot of women are happy with their bodies, but whether it is expressed or not, i think that all women feel at least a tiny ounce of dissatisfaction with their bodies. my research on this topic (okay, "research") has supported my claims. there is just such pressure for females to look a certain way (which is different based on culture and race) and the pressure is felt all the time. all you have to do is look at the cover of a magazine in the grocery story to see headlines about bikini season and getting in shape for the new year and not overindulging during the holidays. it's endless! mix that with any inherent need a woman has to prove herself and to find a mate and to be at her best and you've got a stewing cauldron of self-esteem and body size issues to eat up for supper. what is considered average is by no means considered desirable, at least from the media bombardment i'm facing. but even the skinny women aren't satisfied! some want to be skinnier, or have more curves, or longer legs, or who the hell knows. it's crazy to me how it's impossible to be satisfied with body size/shape/appearance.
its just like guys being told that being an athlete is the only way to be cool (other than peer pressure to do drugs)...the difficult part is just that, peer, societal, cultural, and self inflicted (falling prey to madison ave.) influences bombarding the mind, conscious and sub-conscious, w/ expectations of how to look.
ReplyDeletei feel the best guideline is perhaps medical, body mass index, etc., and then tweaking that down a bit to be on the lighter side.
with all that said, eat correctly and exercise and generally it will take care of itself. but what do i know?