A delicate matter

Statue of the Venus of Willendorf, courtesy of http://www.northernsun.com

Bodecea's blog today has really got me thinking (http://bodecea.blogspot.com/) Women's body image. Where do you stand on it? How do you feel about yourself? Me, I am neither fat nor thin. However, I am not, as my father would say, going to blow over in a strong wind (I should hasten to add he hasn't said this directly to me but about the rounded in general). And as my mother would say, I have never been a small person. Cartman on South Park may even suggest that I am 'big-boned'. For years, I have wanted to be my very anithesis - a blonde, waif-like creature about whom people would say "Oh, isn't she delicate!" I am not delicate. I am healthy looking. Robust even (at least, I was until I did my back in). True, I have never done anything to actively achieve waifness. I've never dieted and even now, in early middle age, I eat what I like. This, I suspect, will catch up with me soon and I may have to start being a bit more tuned in to what I consume and how I exercise. But this will be for my health, not because I am trying to match some sort of image fed to me by society of what a thirty-something woman living in Australia should look like.

But why did I ever want to be a blonde waif? Where did that come from?

Last night, on a tv program called "Inside the Great Magazines", the narrator said "Women's magazines can tell you how to be female." And it's true. Female identity is largely a construct of the media. It simultaneously dictates and feeds off society's desires. The whole thing reminds me so much of Posy Simmonds' cartoon, "The Seven Ages of Media Woman":

Little Miss Sunshine
Pretty Blonde Teenager
Bra-Burning Libber
Attractive blonde housewife, mother of 2
45 year old Super Mum
Battling Granny
Lonely Pensioner

A couple of years ago, I was shopping in one of the major chain stores here and I overheard the shop assistant saying "Oh yes, size 14 is extra-large!" Size 14 (equivalent to about a European 44)?? Most women in Australia are size 14 or larger. So what does that suggest about society's understanding - or acceptance - of the average woman?

As I grow older, I am happy to say that I becoming more accepting of myself. I am almost...gasp...pleased with how I look. But why wasn't this always so? Why have I bought into society's criteria for so long? Where do these ideas come from? Where do they start? Why just a few weeks ago did I feel the need to say even on this blog that a photo I'd posted of my shadow looked 'chubby', to somehow explain myself to you.

I am me and I can do little more than that. Indeed, I want for little more than that.