What's Wrong with Average?

So I did the Crunch Fitness Abs workout video again today after my walk, and it really got me to thinking.

It’s so funny to watch the people in these workout videos. The girls are usually stick-thin and a little too muscley, then sometimes there’s your token gay guy thrown in there somewhere. In this particular video, however, they have one girl with a perfectly average body type, though she looks a little chubby next to all the other women.

This average girl is placed in the very back, and the camera never focuses on her. However, whenever they start doing something challenging in the video, the girl leading the workout will call out something like, “Ashley’s keeping the tap in, so if you need to do that, it’s cool.” We are never introduced to Ashley...we are merely meant to assume, I think, that the regular looking chick in the back of the room is the one that can’t do standing oblique crunches without touching her toe to the ground.

Sigh.

In addition, while all the other women in the video are wearing sports bras and tight-fitting shorts or pants, Ashley gets to wear baggy, unflattering capris and a high-necked, short-waisted sleevless shirt. Here's a screenshot of her:

and here's a shot of the whole group:

Thing is, most of the women watching the workout video probably look more like Ashley than the other ladies in it. And as far as I'm concerned, six packs are just not attractive on women. I don’t know. To me, Ashley has the best body of the bunch. I think the video could do with two or three more Ashleys, and closer to the front, please. Oh, and why can't she wear a cute matching outfit like everyone else? (click below to keep reading)
On a similar note, it’s really strange to me that so many commercials advertising diet foods, like Special K or Multigrain Cheerios, feature women who don’t look like they need to lose weight at all. Some are even rather thin. Take this video...it's actually British, but it's the same idea.

I'm sorry, what? That woman needs to "get into better shape"? Just because she can't get into her size 0's? It just seems so ridiculous, as the target audience probably doesn’t look anything like the actress they use. I see these commercials and I just shake my head in bewilderment. The message they send is that women, no matter how skinny they are, should be in the perpetual state of trying to get skinnier.

So I have to ask. Why is is it okay to look like this:

but when you look like this,

people start throwing around the F-word? (“fat,” of course!)

To me, the women in the second set of photos are infinitely more attractive than the emaciated looking ladies in the first set (though pretty much 100% of guys my age would disagree with me on Megan Fox, the girl in the middle). Why must attention be called to the fact that the women in the second set are “curvy” or “plus-sized”? Why can’t they just be gorgeous no matter what? To me, this is incredibly frustrating.

I know this is a topic that has been hashed out over and over again by the media, magazines, blogs, etc. I just thought I’d have my say on it. This whole weight loss journey has really got me thinking about body type and what my ideal one will be. I’ve decided that I have no interest in looking like the women in the first set of pictures. This is not to rag on skinny people...if that’s your natural body type, then that’s great. But when women resort to starving themselves and spending hours at the gym to the point that their ribs stick out, that’s where the problem arises. For me, healthy is key. I’m excited to get rid of all the excess and figure out what body type will work for me. But I really have no intention of getting rid of my “curves.”

In the meantime, I think it would be very useful if the producers of film, television, and fashion magazines, made an effort to rethink what beautiful means. I think some networks, especially those geared mainly towards women, have begun to do this, such as Food Network (Aarti Sequeira and Nigella Lawson come to mind) and Lifetime (Drop Dead Diva), but most still have a very narrow definition of ideal body type. Or sometimes, like on the show Glee, there are two extremes...super skinny (Britney, Rachel, Santana, Quinn, Emma) and obviously overweight (Mercedes, Lauren). I suppose you could argue that Tina is pretty average looking, but she doesn’t exactly get a lot of screen time.

Anyways, I guess my point is that there’s more than one way to be beautiful. And that average-bodied women are seriously underrepresented by the media. And that it’s okay to view women who wear a size 10 as perfect just the way they are.

I suppose it all just confirms for me that being skinny isn’t what matters — it’s being healthy that really counts!

I’ll be back for a real post later tonight. I just wanted to get this down since it was on my mind!