Changing your looks
meboriqua at aol.com
meboriqua at aol.com
Thu Jun 14 21:41:13 UTC 2001
--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
Yes, you can definitely try out other looks without
> being motivated by a dislike of the way you look now, or a desire
for
> more acceptance/praise. Hermione's attitude seems to come very
close
> to this.
Hello -
This is my first post on the OT list. This is a topic that I could
talk about all day, so please bear with me while I try to express
myself, especially without offending anyone.
Whenever people talk about beauty, one of the biggest things (no pun
intended here) to come up is weight. Weight is something I deal with
daily, as mine has gone up and down several times. I am also in an
unusual situation because I am caught between two worlds who view
weight very differently.
I grew up in the suburbs where being skinny was the key to popularity
and beauty. A good friend of mine was anorexic for a time when we
were in high school. Even now, when I am with my family, or with my
sister and her friends, I am, by far, the heaviest female in the
group. I am acutely aware of this and often physically uncomfortable
with myself because of it. My sister is around a size 4. However,
when I go to work in the Bronx, I am complimented all the time on my
body. My students ask me why I want to lose weight. Why is that?
It's simple. When I go to work, everyone around me is African
American and Latino, where voluptuous women, not sticks, are
considered beautiful. I have been told many times by both students
and colleagues that I have a big butt for a white girl - and they mean
that with envy and compliments!
It's weird when I am with my family now because everyone is fat free
and exercise-happy. Even though I love my family, I feel less
attractive around them than I do when I am at school. Now, purely
from a health perspective, I should watch my diet and exercise more,
but when I spend so much time around other women with a lot of meat on
their bones, it's hard to care.
As far as men go, I get a lot of attention from African American and
Latino men (my boyfriend happens to be Puerto Rican), but when I
started to gain weight a few years ago, white men stopped staring at
me the way they used to. My point is, isn't it interesting how beauty
has different definitions in different cultures? I used to dream of
being skinny-skinny, but now, as much as I love my sister, she is just
too damned thin for my tastes.
Wow, that was a lot!
--jenny from ravenclaw*******************
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