Posted by honeybee on May 31, 2006, at 16:51:23
In reply to Full Exposure NY Times essay about body image, posted by Dr. Beth Steinhauer on May 31, 2006, at 10:59:08
Toward the end of my own struggle with eating disorders, I went through a metamorphosis of sorts, wanting to learn to expose myself and my body instead of hide it. This amounted to my merely considering and discussing (with one artist) the prospect of my modeling. Though I never went through with it, I decided that there was something utterly healthy about being able to expose myself in that way, without shame.
Since then, I've made an effort not to accept and release my feelings of discomfort at the gynecologist's office, getting a massage, even once, while I was getting an echocardiogram and the clinician's sensor moved around my breast. This culture isn't kind to its women vis-a-vis their bodies and, though I still struggle with my body image (though my anxieties seem to have morphed to health anxieties instead of aesthetics), I strive to learn to accept its imperfections, its flaws, the kinks of its machinery.
But that's *enough* about my thoughts. What did *you* think? I'm curious why you posted it. For the record, I might just as well have responded to the prior message. This culture denies its citizens their humanness. Bodies come in a dazzling and beautiful array of shapes and sizes. That our media and each other would only reflect and support that idea...
hb
poster:honeybee
thread:650971
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/eating/20051009/msgs/651118.html