No, You Are Not Fat

Can we just get this straight? There is a cultural obsession with body image and I am convinced it goes hand-in-hand with the feminism problem. And I don't mean that feminism can solve it, I mean that modern expectations of/for women exacerbate it. Women around me lately seem totally obsessed. I, too, am guilty of said preoccupation from time to time.

Granted, circus girls look a lot like this, which is to say circus bodies are not traditionally feminine nor particularly skinny. And that's a big change for some. But other women around me seem even more singularly-minded. Today alone (it's noon) I've heard one woman, weighing maybe 90 pounds soaking wet, say she was having a "juice" for lunch "because I have to watch my calories" (?) while another of similar proportion told me, "All I do is eat. Look at me." I wanted to say, "I can hardly see you."

Unless you are suffering from morbid obesity, which is an entirely different physiological problem, don't even ask me, because no, I don't think you are fat and, no, I don't want to argue with you all of your dissatisfactions with your body.

To be frank, that kind of discussion is incredibly punishing to all of the other women around you.

~ Postscript: the picture above is of Laverie Vallee née Cooper, bka Charmion (1875-1949), an American vaudeville trapeze artist and strongwoman, best known for her act during which she disrobed on the static trapeze (down to her leotard). You can see the act here, in a short film made by Thomas Edison (1901).