Photo by Suat Eman
I recently read an article in O magazine, where they had taken identical twins and compared how they aged, and then let us lucky readers in on the secrets of what really causes wrinkles and sagging (I'll just save you the suspense): Sun, cigarettes, both normal weight and extra pounds, antidepressants, and stress.
That pretty much summarizes every woman’s magazine, yes? Whether it’s geared towards teens, single women, married women with families, career women, retired women, the message is the same— Everything will age you, and age is bad, because then you will not be desirable.
You’re left to decide which will age you more, antidepressants or stress/depression? Losing a few pounds or gaining a few pounds? Put on sunscreen so I don’t get wrinkles or will the free radicals in the sunscreen age me anyway?
I was able to laugh at these studies years ago, when I was in my early 20’s. Bwa ha ha, aging isn’t that bad, my mother has great skin, I’m sure this extra weight is just left over baby fat and I’ll slim down in no time. But now that I’m firmly entrenched in my mid to late 20’s, the mention of how keeping your makeup before you go to bed ages you 17 days each night (how do they calculate that?) puts me in a fetal position. Oprah’s profiles of courageous women who quit their jobs to start a charity and oh, they are gorgeous is enough to drink 4 glasses of wine on a Tuesday evening, while crying quietly. I can’t do it all! I feel lucky when I have clean clothes, and please keep your screaming child out of Banana Republic if you ever want this generation to have children, because it is a deterrent, we realize we are barely coping as it is.
Going into the holidays this gets even worse for me. I worry about buying the wrong present for someone, and not looking tan, and eating too much, and performing at work when all our clients are stalled for the holidays. But then I found three pieces of very encouraging information.
Very Encouraging Piece of Information 1: Curvy Women Have Significantly Higher Cognitive Test Scores
This study was done in 2007, and was all over the internets again, but has recently resurfaced as “new” news for reasons that are a mystery. It’s spawned all sorts of blurbs with mildly insulting titles such as “Curvy Women May be a Better Bet,” but the basic message is the same: Women with wide hips and low waist-hip ratio scored better on tests, researchers point to lower body fat as the answer.
Very Encouraging Piece of Information 2: People are happier eating carbs than not eating carbs.
The two test groups were people on a low fat diet, and people on a low carb diet. * You know what? It didn’t matter, in terms of weight loss, there was no significant difference. But the people on the low carb diet were not as happy as those who were able to eat bread, lovely bread.
And finally
Very Encouraging Piece of Information 3: This Article
It’s on how people can be overweight and healthy. And this article, on how overweight people can be better off in some cardiac arrest situations. Fat Acceptance groups are also making noise about how fat discrimination is one of the only socially sanctioned open discrimination left in the country, (Excellent work, other minorities!) and studies support that, especially when it comes to women.
Why, you ask, did these three pieces of information make me so happy? Because I feel that in life, especially in dating, we focus on what we need to change about ourselves so that we can attract someone. We say things like “If only I weren’t so self conscious about my legs we could have had a great time white water rafting!” or “I hope his mom doesn’t think I’m too fat.” And that mentality needs to change.
It’s not that I’m bagging on thin women. But let’s face it: if you’re naturally thin, you have a better chance of staying that way through your life, and if you’re naturally bigger, you’re going to stay bigger (we can’t shrink our shoulder or hand bones ladies). And if you’re curvy…apparently you score really well on cognitive tests.
Going into the holiday season, I interpret the above news blurbs to mean: eat what you want, especially gingerbread or mashed potatoes. It will make you happier, smarter, and if anyone rejects you because you aren’t slender enough, it’s discrimination. **
*Who participates in these studies? I could maybe participate for one day before calling up the research representative and telling him “I’m hungry…can I have some pretzels or will that mess up your research?”
** Was my article too focused on speaking to the women in my audience? Here's an entertaining infograph. Enjoy.
Comments
I don't mind bigger women at all. In fact, I think sizes 0-2 are way too skinny. The fatter girls, you know, sizes 3-5 are fine with me.
First off, Chauvinist Pig, that was pretty funny. I hope that was meant as a joke...
Second, People are so wound up about how they look, when they should be more concerned with how they feel. Do you feel attractive? I mean REALLY feel attractive. I know most women have something that they don't like about themselves, but overall do you feel like you are an attractive person? If you do not, then try to narrow down why. Don't let the media tell you why you don't look good. I am attracted to many larger women, and many not so large women. Women are all attractive for different reasons physically. In the end it's all about the personality, and how you feel as a person.
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