Definition for Ladies Spring 2014 Issue 001 April 2014 | Page 59

sports not fun but an obsession. Running mile after mile, starving day after day and purging
meal after meal makes them feel relieved and victorious over their own hated body.
To be fair, not all women are susceptible to the media-promoted brainwash. The ability to resist
‘thinness-mania’ largely depends on the environment we grew up in. African American women
have a much better self-image and higher self-esteem than do white American women and are
less likely to feel pressured to attain the ‘thin-model’ body image. Asian American women are
even more dissatisfied with their appearance than their white American peers, because their
characteristic facial features are not incorporated in the Western beauty ideal.4
What about those who were not lucky enough to grow up in a thinness-resistant
environment? In other words, an environment that does not consider being bigger as a bad
trait and where more positive than negative feedback about their appearance was given? How
should women, who are on never-ending diets to conform to an idealized beauty image, deal
with the permanent pressure to be thin?
If you belong to those who are dissatisfied with their own body and try to lose weight over and over
again, please read on. Most important, ask yourself: “Is the body image I try to achieve natural?”

those who are
strong survive
If you were sent back thousands of years ago, would you survive? Would the skinny fashion
model survive? Let’s examine the properties necessary for survival.
If you ask me, it is health, strength, endurance and the presence of energy reserves that help a
person survive. Yes, exactly - fat reserves! Statistically, the healthiest women do not have low
body fat; they are within the normal body mass index (BMI) range. BMI under the normal
range (18.5-25) has a negative effect on health and reproductive potential.5 The reproductiv