In other relevant linkages, the New York Times had a piece about "bikini season" and the accompanying social pressures that had some good insights about how we use our appearance in swimsuits as a sort of index of self-worth, and it also has some good points about how body ideals have changed over time.
2 comments:
I love those diagrams - very true. The bottom one is especially useful for me to remember! On a long term basis I think I DO have direction, but on a day to day basis I am very guilty of refreshing facebook for hours when I could be doing a hundred other things...
The bikini article was like looking into a strange world that I'm glad not to be a part of. This might sound a bit weird, but being covered with scars from (long distant) self harm is actually a bit of a god send sometimes. I mean, I can't compete with people for the "perfect body" - I'm well out of the race, a hundred metres away, not even bothering to wish I could join in - because my body is permanently marked and will never meet any sort of ideal. I've given up caring really. I would still wear a bikini and I would probably feel just fine about that, because I'm used to getting weird looks and would automatically attribute that to my scars rather than my thighs or stomach. I also really do think there's a cultural difference - the UK has its moments of stupidity in terms of celebrities and thinness, but I've never experienced the sort of pressure to look a certain way that American friends of mine talk about. Or maybe I'm just completely blind to that sort of thing. Goodness knows...
Good lord that last one rings true, if only in the professional sense today. How can one be super busy and frustrated but completely bored with it at the same time? I find a way.
Thanks for those. For me, I wear any bathing suit I want in my backyard. That's about it, considering my skinny ass doesn't really go anywhere else where one is required--thank God.
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