Women! Reject Twiggism!

Today is International Women's Day. I'll freely admit that I like this holiday more than I like Mother's Day, for what I suppose are obvious reasons.

Considering the topic that has appeared on a couple of my friend's journals, I think a holiday like this should be used somehow to effect change.
Why should the healthy bodies of women conform to an unreal "ideal"? We get confronted with this "ideal" when we get our first Barbie doll; we see this "ideal" when we see models on the catwalk; we are shocked to see anorexic "perfect" twigs in advertising; we are made insecure in ourselves and our eating habits by all the diet plans which appear with frightening regularity in all the women's magazines after the holidays. These days, girls and young women are already putting themselves through risky and above all unneccessary operations in order to look like this "ideal" woman in the hopes that it will bolster their self-esteem and their social life.

Don't get me wrong. Speaking as a larger woman myself, if a body is unhealthy or even obese, maybe it should change. But as long as you're healthy, why aspire to becoming a twig?
Yes, I know, ideals change over time. When there's little food, the large woman is the ideal of beauty; when food is in abundance, thinness is the goal. Which in itself feels slightly perverse. But this ideal of thinness is forced down the throats of western women until they become bulimic.

idahoswede had a very good idea. "How about writing to various advertisers and say, "I refuse to buy your product because you are using a toothpick to sell it." If there was no market, they wouldn't be selling this crap this way."

I'll start doing that; and the more of us do it, the sooner things might change.

And with this, I wish all the women on my friend's list, and all those who like women the way they are, a very happy International Women's Day.