The United States is #1 in obesity. We aren't #1 in many things anymore. Being #1 in obesity means that we have the highest prevalence of overweight adults in the English-speaking world. Obesity is also starting to trend highly among young adults and children. As a nation, we should care more about this.
Michelle Obama cared. She started the Let's Move campaign as a first lady when Barrack Obama was in office. Let's Move focused on childhood obesity. Michelle Obama wanted to encourage children and their parents to incorporate exercise into their daily lives.
First Ladies have traditionally taken up various causes from literacy to art and culture. The two first ladies that strengthened the role were Dolley Madison (given an honorary seat in Congress) and Eleanor Roosevelt (politician and activist). There is a National First Ladies' Library located in Canton, Ohio that contains a lot of information about all of the first ladies. Of course, who could ever forget the "Just Say No" to drugs campaign from Nancy Reagan? It meant well, but unfortunately, the execution of the idea wasn't ideal.
For as long as I've lived on this earth, as well as in recent history, thin skinny people have been revered. Thinness and skinniness is equated to rich, desired, well-heeled, famous, and beautiful people. It is essentially, all of the pretty, pretty white people. A famous quote from Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor is "You can never be too rich or too thin." (Yes, that is the woman that Edward VIII abdicated the British throne for in the 20th century.)
That doesn't describe the rest of us who are not deemed beautiful, rich, skinny, or desirable. Before news stands go away, do yourself a favor and survey all of the covers of the popular magazines: Vogue, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Vanity Fair, and People. They all have photos of thin white people. Apparently, the rest of us don't live or exist on this planet.
The most egregious offender is Sports Illustrated. Every year, the magazine publishes an issue devoted entirely to swimsuit models most of which are white and thin. The first time it started publishing this was in 1964. It is a very popular issue of the magazine and it sells very well. The magazine rarely strays outside of its formula of thin white women for the editorial. However, in 2016, they diverted and shook the swimsuit world by featuring Ashley Graham, who describes herself as a "curvasexilicious" plus-sized model who normally wears a size 14-16.
In case there is any doubt in your mind, there is a difference between obesity and curvy. It's something that we can all identify when we see it. In fact, there are a lot of opinions about it.
This observation and discussion has been a long time coming. I'm surprised it hasn't happened before. Over 50% of American women wear a size 14 or larger. It is an $18 billion market. Ms. Graham, herself has her own $1.6 billion dollar lingerie business with a Canadian retailer. The fashion industry as a whole has been quite slow to realize that not all of us are a size 4 or less.
A body-positive movement has been forming for a while now. Ms. Graham is an advocate of such a mindset. It's taken a stronghold in social media, as well. Instagram has a number of people that post body-positive messages. They are slowly influencing others and changing the mindset about what beauty is. It definitely isn't about size, shape, or color. Something else that goes hand-in-hand with this is the backlash against photo retouching.
All of these things add up to many mixed messages that women have to navigate on a daily basis. We are constantly assailed by images of pretty, pretty white skinny people, or as I like to call them the "skinny minis." It starts when we are young and continues as we age. It adds fuel to all of the feelings that many women experience about a lack of self-worth. These feelings fuel the $160 billion beauty industry. These pots of promise supposedly help women feel prettier, sexier, and more confident in how they look.
You can't really escape your body, your age, and your attitude. In the end, you must come to terms with how you look and how you feel about it because there are very few things that can alter either of them. Unsurprisingly, the older one gets, the less one cares. Now, that's something good about becoming older!
In the meantime, let's love all of the beautiful, plushy, and curvy women. We need something more to hold on to besides white boney flesh.
Women that are comfortable with their plushy bodies.
This sculpture is a work by Marianne Lindberg De Geer outside of the Konsthallen art museum in Sweden. It displays one emaciated and one obese woman as a reaction to body fixation. It is a demonstration against modern society's obsession with how we look.