Oh the drudgery of it all– the absolute cruelty! Daily, in gyms around the world, women, whirl away on treadmills, bikes and gliders, all in a narcissistic effort to lose weight. Yeah–right!
Renowned feminist and author Naomi Wolf, who crafted the idea of The Beauty Myth, would have you believe that dieting to look thin is yielding to the carnal desires of a masculine world. Wolf’s famous work, The Beauty Myth, hinges on the idea that men actually desire women who look like the models we see in magazines and commercials, and that women are pressured to emulate the movie starlets of the day.
Yet, these images of skinny women are used by women to market to women. For example, oftentimes women serve as the editors for popular woman’s magazines. Plus, slender models are used in commercials during shows that are watched largely by a female audience, such as soap operas. If women were frustrated with being barraged with images of skinny women, they’d stop buying magazines or watching shows or movies that promote images of skinny women.
But what is happening now? Programs that idealize anorexic women and women who go to extremes with plastic surgery are so popular that these shows are copied and showcased in one way or another on every major television network! Men and the media are not to blame for the worshipping of the beautiful thin woman.
Women have just convinced themselves that men and the media are to blame because women are not taking the time to define what beauty means for themselves. Until women define beauty on their own terms and support their definition of beauty with their actions, the media will continue to offer its blatant interpretation of the word.
You will only make your diet three times as hard if you buy this propaganda, “Diets force women to suffer.” Author Sara Halprin, who penned Look at My Ugly Face, pouts, “Women suffer extraordinary regimes of diet and exercise in order look like the lean models in magazines and movies…”
Compared to what? Where’s the reference point? Did women used to “suffer” in factories and fields? Did they suffer collecting meals for their families? Are we suffering with our newfound positions on battlefields?
The Women’s Rights Movement has taken us far. With each new freedom comes new strife and controversy. Women are now trained alongside men in basic training in the United States Army. Are women suffering there?
As a member of the armed forces, a woman is now entitled to carry a 25-pound backpack while securing a 20-mile parameter with rifle in hand. Yet, for her to march 60-minutes a day on a Stairmaster, in a controlled climate while watching soap operas is somehow “suffering.” The comparison is preposterous.
My grandpa says, “You got to take the good with the bad.” I’d rather sweat on a bike in an air-conditioned gym for 90 minutes while reading a book or listening to a tape than crouch in a field for four hours on end picking cucumbers.
Physical activity is a natural part of life. Even a bit of strenuous activity is helpful occasionally. These women who refer to “sufferers of exercising” have no idea what exercise is. It’s all armchair speak. Sure, there are women who take exercise to extremes, but they are the outliners and body experimenters that provide the rest of us detailed information about what our bodies are capable of doing, looking like and tolerating. That is commendable, not threatening.
We argue that challenging the mind is commendable. So why has testing the physical capacity of the female body become so heinous?
Dr. Bob Arnot exposes the truth when he writes: “Our approaches to diet and exercise are so timid that it’s a wonder we’re not all hopelessly overweight and out of shape” in The Biology of Success.
Women who sustain their dieting weight loss burn an extra 3000 calories per week. This is in excess of the calories they burn just maintaining their bodily functions. That averages to about 430 calories burned a day by exercising.
Harvard Women’s Health Watch