Thin is Perfection

I feel a seriously righteous anger as I witness women hate themselves and punish themselves in pursuit of THE LIE that “thin is perfection.” Slick magazines with their photoshopped thighs and fashion week runways with their leggy waifs have somehow convinced people that their weight is a measurement of their virtue, their righteousness, their worth. The skinny propaganda machine has spoken and we all chant along: “Food is the enemy. I am a traitor.” 

I am sick to my stomach as I read pro ana blogs where girls exchange helpful tips on eating fewer than 400 calories a day. 

A motivational poster tagged as “fitness” is a photo of a young, slender woman overlaid with black text reading: 

• “Hunger pains are fat leaving the body.”
• “Tell yourself: This is forever. I want to be thin more than anything.”
• “If it tastes good, it’s trying to kill you.”
• “I don’t care if it hurts. I want to have control, I want to have a perfect body, I want to have a perfect soul.”
• “It is always better to fade away into nothingness than to have a cheeseburger clog your arteries.”
• “An imperfect body reflects an imperfect person.” 

So, dear women of the world, please hear me when I say

DO NOT BELIEVE THE LIE. 

You are not your weight. You are so much more than a number. You are relationships and laughter; you are dance and exploration; you are achievement and grace; you are thoughts and words; you are expression and possibility; you are created and loved.