Rocko402003’s Weblog

We started watching the documentary Thin this week, and despite all of the disturbing things that I saw, one scene definitely stands out. 

Polly and another patient at the center got a pass to leave for a few hours in the day.  Even though it is against the rules, they use that pass to go get new tattoos.  They each choose to receive the symbol for recovery for eating disorders to be inked on their skin.  Despite the fact that it was obvious that Polly was making progress to better her health, the conversation she had with the artist obviously showed that she was still fighting against her eating disorder.  However, despite knowing that the two girls suffered from anorexia, the tattoo artist not only encouraged their illness with comments of “don’t get fat”, but offered advice as to how they could maintain their thin physique by eating in a way that could still speed up their metabolism.

Pardon my french, but WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!  It amazes me how many people talk about how eating disorders are serious issues, but at the same time, there are still those who reinforce the ideas of achieving a perfect physique, despite the fact if it comes borderline to death. 

It is absolutely insane to think about the values put on body image, especially when they are reinforced by some of the most unlikely characters.  It makes me wonder if I had gone to the same artist, had made a comment about my weight, and how he would have replied.  Not only do I cringe, but I think I would have walked out with an unfinished tatt.  Ironically, because of how they feel about themselves, the two girls think nothing of it, because his remarks only help them to think that their mentality behind their weight is ok in other peoples eyes.

There is such a constant pressure on women specifically to reach the ideal weight not necessarily to be healthy but to achieve the impossible image of what is perfection.  Any time obesity is associated to women, it is in some way spoken about or related to their image in some way shape or form.  Then you have the backlash about how the media shapes the perception of what we are supposed to perceive as perfect.  I spoke a lot in class about my personal experience as an extremely overweight child and teen.  However, because I was also a female, I felt that my battle against the bulge came under bigger scrutiny than those around me. 

One item of interest that I had thought about, was when we talked about how women perceive weight loss.  You loose weight, and feel better about yourself because you are taking steps to make your life better, but for some reason women don’t focus on how healthy their weight loss was, rather, they focus on how it makes them feel because of how it changes their appearance.  So because of this what happens when you gain a couple of pounds back.  Even if there was a significant total weight loss, when looking at women, there is a focus on whatever weight they gain, despite the fact that the person could have lost significant amounts of weight previously, there is a microscope on the 10 or 12 pounds that could have come back on in a couple of years.  It drives me insane because this is what happened to me.  I was incredibly overweight, and lost close to a total of 55 pounds over the course of  my high school years.  Despite the fact that I lost a ton of wight, when I got into college the only thing that loomed over me was the possibility of the freshman 15, and was crushed when I gained close to 10 pounds in 2 years.  I could only focus on that extra weight, and it seemed like the other people in my family did too.  I was constantly badgered with comments of the fact that I was “getting a little pudgy”. 

This idea of perfection, has been stretched to it’s limits so far that self reflections of beauty in women are completely distorted.