BIKINI BODY
Beach season is open in the Northern Hemisphere! Our family had our first jump in the sand this past week on a holiday to Cyprus. What a beautiful part of the world.
The visit to The Nutritionist got me thinking a lot about what it means to be healthy, and how much a number on the scale is an accurate indicator of wellness, or for that matter, happiness.
So for some light beach reading I ventured into Health at Every Size, by Dr. Linda Bacon. Perhaps because I was surrounded by people in bathing suits I honed in on her discussion of societal beliefs about fat.
Dr. Bacon offers a quiz to test how much we may trust certain ideas because they are pumped in by the culture around us.
How often do you…
Talk negatively about your own weight?
Choose clothes based on your perception of whether or not they make you look fat?
Assume that someone wants to lose weight?
Assume that someone should lose weight?
Make negative comments about someone else’s weight?
Encourage someone to lose weight?
Admire someone for having lost weight?
Admire someone’s ability to control his or her eating?
Admire someone for burning calories through exercise?
Assume someone is doing well because he or she lost weight?
Admire someone’s slenderness?
Assume that being fat is bad?
Disapprove of someone because of what he or she weighs?
Make comments to a heavy person about losing weight?
Smile or laugh at fat jokes?
Compliment a fat person on his or her appearance?
Compliment a fat person on his or her personality traits?
Actively oppose anti-fat comments?
Challenge someone who conveys a myth about body fat?
To this list I add my own visual quiz. Check out three of the many, particularly on Instagram, challenging the beauty and fitness status quo:
I WEIGH: (@i_weigh, iweighcommunity.com) a community founded by British actress Jameela Jamil, ‘about radical inclusivity, so that no one feels alone’
Tess Holiday: (@tessholiday) model and founder of @effyourbeautystandards
Jessamyn Stanley: (@mynameisjessamyn, jessamynstanley.com) yoga teacher and body positivity advocate
In my experience, if you can answer the questions honestly and not get caught up in judging yourself for your reactions OR judging the people in the pictures, you will learn a lot about what you believe that you may not know that you believe.
For example, I realized that I almost always choose clothes based on my perception of whether or not they make me look fat (#2) and I almost always assume someone is doing well because he or she lost weight (#10). Even as I recall that the times I have weighed the least have coincided with a significant lack of energy and even illness. God knows how many times I have participated in a conversation about #12.
As I look up from my beach reading and ponder a glass of wine and a plate of fries, I study the people around me. Bathing suits are such a tender issue for so many women. For me, wearing a bikini has always been the ultimate indicator of body confidence. Which means that for most of my life, I have not worn one. I am delighted to find that at this beach in Cyprus, women of all ages and sizes sport bikinis. While I do not know how they feel on the inside, their apparent confidence is inspiring.
Then there is my ten-year-old, dolphin diving repeatedly in the sea, enjoying every movement of her bikini-clad body.
It is not lost on me that by most standards, I am a skinny white woman. Suddenly my self-consciousness about not being a skinnier white woman seems completely ridiculous.
