Body images and Barbies

So I was looking at some gossip things (hey, don't we all?), and I noticed some particularly disturbing criticisms of women. The first was of supermodel Gemma Ward, stick thin as you would expect. Since her rumored boyfriend, Heath Ledger, died last year after filming as the Joker in The Dark Knight, she spent the last year off the runway and recovering with her family and friends. She gained a little weight, and suddenly she is fat. The girl looks like she could be no larger than a size 6 now, used to be a small size 00, and if that is considered fat, all I have to say is ... wow.

Another is Kristen Bell. She is super pretty, but was recently put on a "worst beach bodies" list in a magazine for the smallest bit of cellulite on her thighs. Come on! Ninety-nine percent of women would kill for her body in that picture. I don't understand this, especially when they praise her figure in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", where her ribs were prominently on display.

One last observation. Megan Fox said she had never been fatter than she was on "Transformers". Hello, still tiny!

These scenarios call into question the body figure that is popular in Western culture today, and how healthy it is (or isn't). Barbie is case scenario number one. Here is what a normal, small girl (she's only a size 4) looks like with Barbie proportions. Some students at Vanderbilt University created a life-size Barbie that is true to her proportions. And to include men in on this conversation, take a look at, over the years, the bicep difference alone on G.I. Joe.

No wonder girls are doing drastic things to lose weight and look like that blonde-haired floozy they played with as a 4-year-old. There are even girls who are now drunkorexic and diabulimic. It's no wonder many girls know the calorie count to nearly everything, thanks to dieting websites and the need to lose weight. Playboy doesn't help, showing girls who have, for the most part, fake bodies.

In less Westernized nations, it's better to have a little meat on your bones, because it means you can survive in hard times where food is short, you can bear children with normal-sized hips... instead of being 21 and looking like you're 13.

Having gained 15 pounds in the last year has convinced me that curves are much better than fitting into little girls' Abercrombie jeans. Instead of prominent hipbones and ribs, a bit of a butt and chest isn't too bad. Plus, ice cream is tasty. So is fat. Haha.

This is why my honors thesis, 40-page paper and presentation is going to be on these issues, centered around anorexia. Some of the research I have dug up so far is astonishing. Who knew these diseases were more than just refusing that cheesecake in front of you at dessert or Karen Carpenter?'

If the definition of beauty gets any smaller, no one will fit.