Body Perfect?

According to our culture, the perfect body type for a woman is thin and toned. Even when the media says they appreciate a woman’s curves, it is a thin woman’s curves that are on display. We can’t all fit the naturally thin body type. Those of us that don’t fit feel inadequate, not as good as those that do, because our bodies are curvier and naturally heavier. We attempt to make our body fit by dieting and exercise. Every diet under the sun is tried. We deprive and starve. We work out excessively and the ones who are the most toned are admired for their efforts. We take laxatives and make ourselves sick to our stomach. We beat up on ourselves for being “pigs” at the table. We starve and obsess about food – what can we eat next and next and next. What food will we allow to pass through our lips and be absorbed? We often don’t enjoy the meal, only worry about its effects on our body’s shape. We demonize foods – sugary foods, foods with wheat, fatty foods, etc.

We have forgotten how to eat, how to naturally nourish our bodies. I still struggle with feeding my body healthy nourishment. In fact at 8 am, I polished off last evening's tiramisu. In college, I would begin the day with a doughnut perhaps topped with a dab of ice cream. Mid-morning snack was a Snickers bar and a Diet Pepsi. Lunch, if eaten, was the healthiest of the day and at times included a salad, while dinner, again if I ate anything, would often be a blizzard from the local Dairy Queen. After work, it was off to the dance club to have rums and diet cokes. So, between binging and purging and a sugar-holic diet, I am surprised my body is still with me!

Photo by Dylan Lu on Unsplash

For those of us who attempt to control the shapes given to us by nature, our appetites grow out of control. We hunger constantly but deny our hungers. Finally, we can’t tell if we are naturally hungry or just want to eat for the delight of eating, even though we don’t often take much delight from it. Food is the enemy even when it is the sustenance of life.

We have taken the process of nourishing and sustaining ourselves from gathering and hunting, to growing and harvesting our own food. Now the process includes fine dining, banquets, fast food, frozen foods, gorging, additives, artificial flavoring, frozen dinners, etc. We spend money on dining out, having others prepare our foods and serve our foods to us. We have anorexia and bulimia in stark contrast to the innate nourishment of self. The diet industry is worth billions – supplements, books, exercise … Ironically, starvation and obesity coexist in our world. We have addictions not only to alcohol and drugs, but to sugar, chocolate, and other pleasure-inducing foods. We are vastly out of touch with even our own bodies and how they interrelate to the natural world. If we are vastly out of touch with our natural bodies, how can we even begin to be in touch with our identities? If we believe our first identity is of the physical.