So, yeah, I took a two week hiatus. Don’t worry, this will be a good post.
The whole Rex Reed debacle (for those who are unaware, look here: http://www.themarysue.com/critic-reviews-melissa-mccarthy/ )
has had me thinking a lot about weight.
When I was a kid, weight was an issue everywhere. I remember being complimented on losing weight in 8th grade, being placed on Vegan Diets in the summers with family members at age 12, worrying, worrying, constantly worrying, about what size I was. And I have to be completely honest, I’m still not done worrying.
Sometimes I wonder if this is a Southern Thing, but I know it’s not. Sometimes it just seems like the standards of beauty in the south are so strong. Especially in Texas, where being a blonde, big-haired, skinny bombshell is the highest standard (one that I will not prescribe to.)
So it’s absolutely wonderful when we get female role models 
like Adele, Melissa McCarthy, and Jill Scott. It saddens me when women like Jennifer Hudson lose so much weight so quickly. I understand that she’s happy with the weight loss and that she’s gotten a lot more work recently (unfortunately, probably because of the weight loss), but it doesn’t sit well on her. She’s too skinny. It’s not her.
And now I’m watching even more weight loss commercials, this time with Octavia Spencer.
I understand, I completely do. We need to lose weight for health reasons. We need to lose weight because, lets face it, chubby girl clothes are hard to come by. And, logically speaking, it’s hard to have weight on you and be in theater – especially musical theatre. But you know what? We do not need to lose weight to be more beautiful.
A friend of mine pointed out that it’s just another form of oppression. Oh, so women can now work and become CEOs and have just as much power in the work force as I can? Let’s hold them up to impossibly high standards of beauty in order to make them feel more inadequate.
And this is only concerning women. As someone with little money, it’s just as hard to lose weight. Food for poor people has a lot of fat and starch in it in order to help the food to go a long way. Just take a look around in your local grocery store: the cheaper it is, the more fat, starch, and sugar there is in it.
The whole point is is that we need to stop holding people up to high standards. Sure, I do want to lose weight, but only a couple of pounds because, in all honesty, I cannot continue buying more clothes to fit my body. I don’t want to lose an insane amount. And the more these celebrities go on these diets that make them lose a ton of weight, the more young women feel they need to do so as well.
To all the girls that think you’re fat because you’re not a size zero, you’re the beautiful one, its society who’s ugly.
~Marilyn Monroe
The Straw Feminist 