In my twenties I had shoulder-length brown hair, an attractive face… and I was a size 12/14. I was buxom in every sense of the word but I just don’t think I’d be attractive if I was 20 nowadays. Women in the 60s were beautiful specimens: curves in all the right places and proud of it! Now I see thin girls everywhere and it is so different to what was sexy back then. Flat chests have replaced big breasts and ribcages are the new tummy fat!
As the clipping says, men wouldn’t look at me when I was skinny! We had products to make us gain weight instead of lose it. Don’t get me wrong – I know we are an obese nation and gaining weight is not always healthy, but there is a happy medium in between. The average Australian woman is 71.1kg according to ABS, but where are these girls and why aren’t we showing them off more? 71kg is a perfect weight yet I’m not sure if everyone believes that. The front covers of fashion magazines show size 6 girls – what happened to sexy? These girls are all bones and straight up and down.
I saw a retouched photo of a model in a pool this week and, incidentally, her father is a body image expert. She is a size 8 (still a bit small in my eyes!) yet she was still photoshopped/image altered to be even thinner. Her dad fostered a positive body image in her, which is absolutely fantastic…more fathers need to be telling their girls that they are beautiful. It means a lot. I also think it’s great that Meghan Kausman spoke out about the photoshopping. It wasn’t fair and it certainly wasn’t necessary!
As a nurse before I retired, I saw a few young girls (and one young man) who came into the hospital with extreme dehydration and malnutrition from anorexia. It’s a mental illness but it is borne from unrealistic standards that we place on ourselves to be beautiful or desirable. I was raised to be happy with my beauty…sure I wasn’t a “knock-out” bombshell, but I wasn’t unfortunate-looking either, but I don’t remember ever minding one way or the other. One of my idols, Marilyn Monroe, echoed my sentiments: “Frankly, I’ve never considered my own figure so exceptional…I seldom gave it any thought at all”!
Magazines and media these days really don’t help women with their body image (as I mentioned) but that’s something we can’t really avoid or change, as much as people advocate for it to.
Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor had it right with their curvy bodies – they embraced their rolls and lines and cellulite, and my gosh were they sexy. Their confidence was what made them who they are and they didn’t want to change. But now I see women who desperately want to change and kill themselves doing it! Going to the gym excessively or eating very little, or not even eating at all. Where did we go wrong? Do we need more men to express their love for curvy and not skinny? I know there are plenty of men out there! Women like Sofia Vergara (Modern Family) and Susan Sarandon are stunning and are famous for their womanly bodies and confidence. They are wonderful role models for any girl who doubts her natural beauty and size.
It’s all about how you carry yourself and how you feel. Love yourself and it doesn’t matter what size you are, I say! I’m now a size 16 and my husband and I couldn’t be happier.
What do you think? Are women these days less sexy as they shrink? Or is curvy still sexy?
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