Mariah's weight loss (kind of weight loss opinions in general)

[superbadgirl]

I saw a snippet of an interview with Mariah Carey yesterday,(gawd, those entertainment "news" shows are hard to avoid completely) during which she was asked about her recent miraculous weight loss. She started out commenting about how America is SO obsessed with size and figures, etc., and explaining that wasn't why she lost weight. She just feels better at a size 2 than a size 8.

Okay, I'm sure that last bit is valid. But making a big deal out of this woman going from a perfectly acceptable size and figure to a much smaller size and figure doesn't exactly help with America's obsession about size and figures, does it? Demurring about how it wasn't the basis for the weight loss doesn't ring believable to me.

Suddenly size 2 Mariah is "hot" again, like she wasn't hot for those years she was an 8. The impression it leaves me with is that size 8 is apparently intolerably large, and we should all be in awe for this great accomplishment. FCOL, they even outlined exactly what Mariah did to lose the weight, so we all can jump in a pool for 1.5 hours a day to do water aerobics, and then follow it up with another hour or two of weightless strength training and/or Pilates. How many of us really have this much time to work out? And how many of us have a nutritionist or personal chef to make sure we're eating the right foods in the right portions?

I just get incredibly frustrated when a celeb's weight loss is glorified. Part of me wishes they'd simply promote themselves as just fine and healthy at their starting weights.

/rant over

Comments

[ldyanne.livejournal.com]

Gah, I agree. Our society is so body conscious. And I *know* I need to lose weight for lots of really good health reasons. But to have it celebrated that someone went from a size 8 to a size 2 just makes me want to sit down and eat a tub of chocolate chip cook dough in protest! But I won't because I lost 2 pounds last week and I'm trying to encourage the trend ;-)

[superbadgirl]

Not just body conscious the way gawky teenagers are, but to the point anyone outside the media-biased representation of beauty is made to feel unattractive and wrong. It's ridiculous. I sometimes wonder if the hurdle I have to jump over with weight loss (mine is just because I don't want to re-buy my wardrobe, hee!) is this contrary reaction to the "woman must be rail thing with long legs" beauty model foisted on a population of whom 90% cannot dream to achieve.

LOL, sorry. Rant!

If she were 4'11" and a size 8, that might be one thing, but the woman is 5'9". Size 8 is slender.