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I'm a bit torn. On one hand, I'm a health advocate, I like to see folks take care of their bodies. If weight is a health problem, rather than a self esteem problem, I like for women to do what they can do to optimize their health. Which doesn't mean going from a size 22 to a size 6, more like a 22 to 18 or 16 or maybe forget size and just work out with some light weight training and do cardio, (you don't need to join a gym for that thank goodness) along with good nutrition. In fact, fuck size--it's about health.
On the other hand, I've met perfectly healthy "overweight" women who have had to live a life of rejection or feeling like shit about themselves because they don't fit the current idea of What Is Sexy. That's typical patriarchal bullshit.
I had a patient one time who had breast cancer, and needed a mastectomy. She nearly didn't get the surgery because of her weight. She was morbidly obese and had some cardiovascular problems related to it--but not as severe as you might think. What I noticed about her body, is it was, well, shapely. Every body part was rounded, and tapered, in other words she was proportional, her waist small in comparison to upper torso and hips, feet and calves small in comparison to thighs, forearms and hands small in comparison to upper arms. Her body was beautiful to me and obviously to her husband, and she had no body image problems. Not even after her mastectomy. She was an amazing woman.
I like the idea of fighting against false beauty standards.
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