After a great weekend with my sweetie and his cutie pie daughter, I headed to Penn Station to head back to Long Island. As I waited , I strolled through the magazine store when the cover of the latest issue of Life & Style caught my eye. The headline screamed Desperate to be Skinny with several photos of Angelina Jolie along with a photo of Bethenny Frankel (a rear shot of her in a bikini, spine protruding) and Leann Rimes (looking even skinnier in skinny jeans)
The entertainment industry watches weight like stockbrokers watch the Dow Jones. It's on constant alert for a surge or loss of weight when it comes to female stars. I won't say that they don't talk about men but it doesn't compare to women in Hollywood. In fact Entertainment tonight nearly devoted its entire show to Hollywood Weight Wars http://www.etonline,com/gallery/featured/116240_Hollywood_Weight_Wars/index.html with a gallery of stars with a luminary like Oprah (who's struggles with her weight have been front and center for years) to Jennifer Hudson. Oprah is the richest woman in the world, Jennifer Hudson is a Grammy and Oscar winning actress, Angelina Jolie is another Oscar winning actress and Bethenny Frankel (love her or hate her) is a business and branding success story. Is it any wonder that women of all ages struggle with what they see in the mirror? More importantly, we need to send a message to young girls so they will aspire to do more than try to land a man, modeling gig or reality show by being the prettiest girl in the room. Why not show them women who are engineers, architects, professors, doctors or lawyers? What's wrong with that? What's weight got to do with that kind of success? Don't forget, pretty fades but no one can take your degree away.
From the time we are little girls (Barbie dolls and the like) the unsaid message is all about being pretty. Then as teenagers when we're already fighting hormone changes and breakouts it's all about being one of the it girls. No one asked the average size girls out because they were considered fat. In fact I know women (including me) who would give their eye teeth to go back in time and tell their younger selves they were not fat, they were hot. Because damn it, I was and I didn't know it.
Now that I am north of forty, I've become more comfortable with my body. I've been through a few physical challenges that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy but it taught me valuable lessons about the fragility of life.
The life you knew can change on a dime with a reading of test results. Just this morning I read that Guiliana Rancic will undergo a double mastectomy after her lumpectomy didn't remove all the cancer. Here is a woman who's the epitome of an American success story. She has a great job on E, a great husband, a show on the Style network, access to designers and celebrities all before the age of forty. Yet her life has been touched by cancer and she's had to make adjustments. As a cancer survivor, I feel for her. I truly hope she gets a clean bill of health.
Moreover, being thin doesn't make you less likely to have personal problems (love life, marriage, dating or cheating significant others ). I'm not saying that full figured women have it any easier in that area, but love and heart break are equal opportunity.
However, I believe change begins with one person and sets off a chain reaction. I am all for being healthy and doing what you can to promote better health but I would love to challenge the morning shows to one week without a weight segment. That means no stories on how much a celebrity has lost (with Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers etc) or gained. Instead focus on well adjusted women who are living their lives in a healthy matter with no focus on tag or scale numbers because as women we are more than the sum of our parts
In terms of doing my part, I am teaming with Sheri Collins to write Down That Aisle: A Celebration of Romance & Style for Curvy Brides. We recently launched a search for curvy brides to be in the Tri-State area to help curvy brides shop for their wedding gowns without trauma. We are doing a companion we series which we pitched the series to WE TV, Oxygen, Style and Bravo. We are waiting to see which one of them will take a chance and actually put two average size women (size 14 and 18) on television without a treadmill in sight. I will keep you posted
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