One day when I was 13 years old, my gym teacher lined up all of the girls in my class and weighed us.
It has been many years, but I remember two numbers from that day. I weighed 128 pounds, but according to the gym teacher’s chart I was supposed to weigh 110 pounds.
Yes, you should be sickened by my inherent fatness and ugliness. I’m not sure why you’re still reading this. I’m a fatty and shouldn’t have a voice in our society. Just by writing about it, I am glamorising obesity.
I was not fat. I know this because I weigh about the same now as I did then, and I am not fat. This is easy for me to say now that I don’t have someone staring at me and judging the numbers on the scale, but if I could reassure my 13-year-old self that it’s OK to be curvy, I would.
I am truly sickened by the insults that have been thrown this 17-year-old beauty queen’s way. I really don’t understand why newspapers feel they have to be so nasty. The bikini she’s required to wear is not good for her body type, but she’s a very pretty girl.
I do not like beauty pageants anyway, but this is really going over the top. How can it possibly be OK for a medical professional to insult a teenager for saying “All I wanted to do by entering this pageant was to send a message out to young girls that it is fine NOT to be a size zero”?
Somehow I doubt that anyone is going to look at Miss Surrey and decide to eat extra hamburgers to get to the same size. But young women who feel they can never be a size zero might see her as a role model.
Again, I hate beauty contests. They are degrading. And yes, she has put herself out there to be judged on her physical appearance. But I just can’t agree that shuddering and calling her fat is an acceptable way for a dietitian to react to Chloe Marshall's win in Surrey.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Shoulder to the wheel for someone else’s selfish gain
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8 comments:
Wow, what a shocking story. What a disgusting thing to do to attack someone simply based on appearance. Give the girl a break, I say. She's only 17. I don't find here overweight at all. Methinks this the person who wrote that newspaper article has brain rot from all those rainy London days.
I know if I was a female, I'd be a size zero. Its NOT cool. Trust me.
Come off it! I'm in no way in peak physical condition, but I accept this is a flaw, caused by my own lack of will, and will result in an untimely death. I don't think anyone would be rooting for her to win if she was going around with a bottle of scotch in one hand, and flaunting her nicotene-stained teeth. It's just not a good thing to be looking up to. Bottom-line!
Wow is right! Right or wrong, the writer of that article was an ass. How many different mean ways do you need to call that girl fat and lazy. I bet that writer of the article is perfect in every way though, no flaws whatsoever to judge.
I love how at the beginning the writer says "I don't take any pleasure in attacking Chloe". Whatever!
I think she is gorgeous!
Interesting isn't it that no one was screaming that Marilyn Monroe's BMI was over 20... She was also a size 16. The truth is there are different body types in the world. Not everyone is a size 0 and thank God for that.
Her comments are very self serving. With seven books on dieting to her name, I imagine she feels a need to become defensive when encountered with someone who does not subscribe to her ideas. I mean, this stuff could hurt her in the most sensitive spot there is - her wallet!
Besides, I think Chloe looks stunning in comparison to the absolute majority of of so called beauty queens!
Oh dear you inadvertantly led me to read an article in The Daily Mail. It'll take me a week to recover. Terrible rag!
I think that what happened to you when you were 13 was truly awful and cruel and those things stay with you and haunt you longer than you want.
I'm not so sure about the Beauty Queen. Like you I think beauty pageants are degrading. If you enter a competition of whatever type, you are standing up to be judged. The Mail writes rubbish and on this occasion as is often the case it is unkind rubbish, but nonetheless, if you do not fit the usual mould you will be criticised. She is doing what she said and getting people to think about the size issue - I just hope she has a thick skin.
There are different body types and as long as you are happy as you are and not unhealthy, then it is everyone's individual choice. But it is hard for young people to stay slim these days (and most people do not wish to be overweight) - sedentary lifestyles and the easy availability of cheap and tasty junk food. But being size zero is not healthy or attractive in my opinion.
So, dieting and being anything under size 8 is healthy, huh?
What a stupid lady.
That Bikini and that pose sure as heck don't help Cloe, nor should any 17 year old (old?) be put under such pressure.
:(
I'm going to have to agree with the capitalist on this. That writer may be malicious and mean spirited and the girl may or may not be beautiful, but that does not change the question of whether or not she is at a healthy weight.
I agree that the writer of that article is not qualified to over-rule the judges of a beauty pageant on the question of aesthetics. However, it is also true that the judges do not over-rule the nutritionist in questions of nutrition!
If your doctor or nutritionist tells you that you are overweight and that it is unhealthy, than you probably are! However, this does not mean that you are ugly or unattractive. Those are separate, though commonly related, judgments.
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