I'm too sexy for my blog...

Read through any newspaper and you're bound to be come across several full page spreads of slim women, several before-and-after photos, a celebrity or two endorsing the effectiveness of the product, some testimonials by highly-satisfied clients, not forgetting the promise of a more beautiful you. You know what I'm talking about: slimming centres.

While I have nothing against slim women (they are rather pleasant to look at...), but I sometimes wonder why there is such a pre-occupation with slimness. Sure, being slim is supposed to be synonymous with being healthy. But I suspect that's not the whole or even the main draw of being slim for the many who opt to undergo the slimming sessions to reveal the 'true, new, you'. There seems to be a strong undercurrent of negative culture that says if you're not slim, even if you're slightly on the bigger side, you're not beautiful. Anything more than a certain size, then that's not what you're meant to be, and you need to do something about it. Need I say that such an obsessive outlook of body size has spawned cases upon cases of people with eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia?

The mass media doesn't help as well. How many of the so-called reality shows, showing supposedly you average person, have a bigger person as one of the participants? From the little that I've seen, I don't remember any. How about in magazines? Any advertisements showing off the beautiful curves of a person other than that of slim one? Can't recall any as well.

I know this topic is rather passe, but I think it's still relevant because we're still being fed the same images, the same ideas, day in and day out, and because of that, there'll always be the danger of the whole idea of being slim becoming an obsession - even to the point of death.

My take - no one size fits all. Health is prime, not beauty.

Here's something I wrote some time back about the topic that I'd like to share.

Ode to a Supermodel

Shall I compare thee to a supermod'l?
Thou art in truth more skinny and more vain.
How strange the manner they stride down the aisle,
And those stilettos; are they not in pain?
Sometime but a morsel is on their plate,
And often is their dress size less than eight;
And tho' fair from fair naturally decline
Thank heavens for Botox - spare not a dime;
But thy utter sticklikeness shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that gait thou hav'st;
Nor shall Health brag thy fine physical shape;
When quite plainly, thou look'st sorely listless,

So long as men will see that waif's lovely,
So long lives this - this skewed philosophy.