Britney, Body Image, and the Evil Media Machine
Man, I am so thankful someone in the mainstream media wrote an article like this one.
The truth is I have had no interest in anything related to Spears until this time. Yesterday, when I heard someone on the news refer to her as paunchy, I thought I was hearing things. This was not the case. Media outlets all over the western world have referred to her as being fat, and have thus projected a very messed up body image to women (and men) everywhere.
This comes right on the heels of a conversation I had with my 8th grade son this weekend. We were watching TV when a bra commercial came on that featured women of all shapes and sizes talking about how much they loved that particular brand of bra. When the commercial went off, he shuddered and said, “Did you see how fat that last one was?” I was a little confused at first, because she was actually very curvy and sort of hot, but “fat” was not at all what came to mind. As we talked about this some, he told me that as far as he was concerned anyone curvier than Jessica Alba was too fat. Alba is very cute, but also very skinny, so it goes to demonstrate the warped perspective.
What do I expect? The media inundates us with these sorts of messages. They are everywhere, and they have a far reaching effect on people. From eating disorders that kill people to a distorted view of human sexuality that urges us to select that which looks pleasing (a societal construct in deed) to that which feels pleasing, these irresponsible (and yet pervasive) comments continue to be offered up in spite of the known damage they do.
Filed under: music
What really saddens me is that my daughter went off to high school last week and she is neither Jessica Alba or the curvy bra model. Currently I am trying to embed a mantra of “Smart and funny beat out pretty and popular any day of the week.” It works for looking at one’s self and the geeky boys of the ninth grade as well. She’s pretty well grounded but it’s hard when you stand in front of those floor length mirrors and compare yourself to all the beautiful size 3 models in the magazines.
Jessica Alba isn’t fat. I should know, I’m fat…
The opposite of this is true as well. What passes as thin these days used to be considered overweight. People tell me I’m thin….yeah, right. Just two sizes larger than I used to be.
Look at movies of the Kennedys and the rest of the government people in 1960. They were normal then, but they look skinny compared to the average now days.
The real problem is that the media and society in general is telling us that what we look like is what matters most. It simply isn’t true (thank God) and until we collectively get over this f*&%ed up mindset, we will continue to have young women killing themselves to be thin and young men encouraging them.
PS one can be healthy at any size. that’s the message we all need to internalize. thin might be healthy or it might not be. likewise, there’s no use judging someone by how much fat they appear to have on their bodies. I’m not saying use “health” as a cudgel to beat on fat people. I’m saying true health can happen at any size.
I bring that up because I just came from the grocery store and the tabloids tell me which actors are too fat and which are too skinny and I start thinking they can’t win. Unless they’re airbrushed.
as for beauty, I think we have to be an alternative voice for our kids. so the media says jessica alba is beautiful and britney spears post two babies is fat. I point to the curvy black woman across the grocery store aisle and say to Kizzy, isn’t she beautiful? And isn’t she beautiful over there? And isn’t she beautiful? The point isn’t to vilify thin people, either. In my world, all kinds of women, all shapes and sizes are beautiful. Including me. And that’s the real key. I think the impact of the media pales by comparison with how a child’s parents–esp. their mother–feels about her body.
Healthy at any size…sometimes I hear that when people talk about having a better self image, not being ashamed of oneself because of some fat. So are we talking about mental health or physical health?
Quite frankly, many many younger people, ie younger than 35, are really really heavy. I thought that was just around here, but I’ve seen it on TV and in some travels in recent years.
What younger people don’t realize is that: 1) It is much harder to lose weight the older one gets. 2) Weight, ie fat, puts a strain on all the organs and joints and body systems. 3) Problems won’t just magically go away just because the weight is lost at some mystic time in the future.
I’m not overweight in most people’s visual estimation, HOWEVER, I have 15 - 20 lbs that are detrimental to my high blood pressure and my slight disability from arthritis. And it is really hard to lose the weight once there is arthritis.
It is WRONG to pin self worth on weight or fitness. And I think the media is wrong to pick on people. But society, ie the food industry, advertising industry, and we ourselves when we try to gloss over the problems that extra weight brings, needs to get more honest about the health problems of extra weight. Our society says we can have it all. In this case it means eating a lot, walking less because that is built into communities these days, and still thinking that there won’t be consequences.
From what I’ve read, overweight is happening in many places around the world.
I am overweight and I know it’s not healthy. My plan is to get more exercise and become more fit. Will I lose all the weight that I should. Maybe. Maybe not. But hopefully I can stick to a regimen that will make me healthier.
Does the media promote a warped sense of body image? You bet it does. It was gratifying to hear, a few years ago when Kelly Clarkson won American Idol, that she wasn’t planning to starve herself or knock herself out trying to attain some kind of show-biz standard of what her body should look like. Let’s just say she’s a lot bigger than Jessica Alba and probably bigger than “tubby” Britney. I wondered how long it would be until Clarkson caved and started trying to look like all the other stars. Good for her, so far she hasn’t. I think she’s a pretty good role model.
Are people in our society in general too big. Probably. I’d like to be thinner just because it would be healthier. I’m not embarrassed by my size and weight but I like too much junk food and too little exercise. That’s what the Western/Northern world is like.
There is a woman in our congregation who eats right, runs 10k races two or three times a year, and works out three days a week. She is healthy…but she looks like she is 30 pounds overweight. I would say she is a great example of someone who is healthy “at any size”. She has the resting pulse rate and the blood pressure of an athlete and no known health problems.
Several years ago I was skinny as a rail. Of course, I was also partying like crazy, chain smoking, not sleeping etc. Thin? Yes. Healthy? Not even close.
Even when I work out regularly I never get skinny. The only skinny person in my family is my terminally ill brother.
It is entirely possible to be healthy at different sizes. Some women may be a size 2 or 4. But they may also be a 14 or 16 or higher. All of these people can, in fact, be healthy.
My concern here and the reason for the post to begin with this is to simply question the messages that we not only receive but that we completely ingest and internalize. If you look at Britney Spears now she is certainly bigger than she was when she was, say, 16 and just starting out in her career. But is she fat? And what about all the people who read reports that she is fat? What message does that communicate to them? Will my son (and later daughter) accept these media messages as truth and continue to perpetuate this type of harmful behavior? I really hope not.
This isn’t about justifying unhealthy lifestyles. I, like a lot of other Americans, am overweight. In the past 3 years I have seldom gone to the gym and I tend to eat on the go a good deal. I recognize this. But as i have gotten older, my focus isn’t to get thin: it is to be healthy enough to see my kids grow up and one day get to play with my grandchildren.
I think we have a warped view of what is thin and what is fat. When women who are a size 8 or 10 are referred to as “plus sized” in the modeling world - especially when the average woman is somewhere between a size 12 and 14 - that’s a problem. The Gap, by the way, defines a size 8 as 36-28-36. Also, the average woman right now is 5′4” and weighs 144 pounds. The average model? 5′8” and weighs 108-120. For a medium framed woman who is 5′8”, height/weight charts typically recommend a weight between 136-150. Even a small framed woman’s weight starts at 126 in the chart (126-139 for the record). What’s wrong with this picture?
I used to teach middle school, and I worked in youth ministry for a time. I used to watch these skinny, skinny girls obsess about getting fat, when really, they were just developing breasts and hips, like a normal woman does. When they are confronted not only with images of underweight women being idealized in the media, but also with boys who say they are fat if they are not built like Jessica Alba (big boobs and stick thin everywhere else), it’s no wonder they obsess about these things.
Good for you, LP, for discussing this with your son. I wish more fathers would do so, rather than encouraging their sons to put down women who are not the model ideal.
As I prepare to welcome my daughter in the world, I am horrified at this obession that rail thin=beautiful=worthy. It is painful to watch in women and girls the affect this has.
Having tuned out pop-culture the last few weeks, I would have missed this story entirely. Thanks for bringing it up.
thank you LP. That is exactly what I meant by health at any size.
And I completely agree with you about britney. the comparison between her now and when she started is ridiculous. She is a grown woman and mother of 2. no, she doesn’t have the body of a 16 year old and there’s no reason she should.