What Type of Woman Do You Want to Be?

In a random miscellaneous and time eating web search, I came across some comments written about Jillian Michaels, one of the trainers on the TV show The Biggest Loser. What I found really interesting was the fact that most of the men commenting on her appearance, posted negative comments questioning her femininity and gender. Now, let me state upfront, I have never watched one episode of this show in its entirety and have not bought any of Ms. Michaels’ workout DVD’s, T-shirts, or books…so my knowledge of her is rather limited to the spam emails I get fairly consistently in my inbox advertising her products and the research prompted by this post. These marketing emails show several images of her, and as a woman, I have never thought to question her sex. It has also never ocurred to me to see her as anything else than a fit looking woman. Then, again, I am into fitness and women’s empowerment 100%. I also feel that it is unnatural and denigrating to expect women to look and behave like porn stars and strippers as a rule of thumb. Someone with a 24” waist will never have a DD rack naturally…just doesn’t happen that way! And guess what? This IS a good thing.

But yet, men are naive enough to buy into this fake look. It’s the distortion of reality that can only be achieved by watching way too much porn. But, this is what is meant to happen. I mean, why is it that the porn industry has been around for so long and WHY do they make so much money? They bank on the fact that men are easy to manipulate visually. The sad part is that this wide net has also managed to convince women that the porn star look is the ideal standard of sexiness. Then, we have the fashion industry drilling into us that we have to be a size 0 or we are just overweight unattractive heffers that don’t deserve the priviledge to breathe, much less to *gasp* wear designer clothing.

I know women do not live in a fishbowl and that they are exposed to, surrounded, and influenced by men and their opinions every single day, but at some point, we need to take charge of our own self-image. What type of woman do YOU want to be? Does the current YOU not fit the bill of what you consider an adequate female represenation? Does IMAGE and appearance really matter this much to you?

I only pose these questions because I am not so invested in what others think of me as a person or as a woman in general…then again, I am 40 and wanting to please others all the time has not been a goal for me since I came out of my 20’s. As a grown woman, I want to be fit and healthy of mind and body. If this means, that I make some men feel inadequate because they cannot own up to their own insecurities…so be it. If it makes other women think I am gay…so be it. The truth of the matter is that not everyone is going to like me and no matter what I do, that will not change. The only person that needs to like me is ME!

As far as Jillian Michaels is concerned, I don’t find her to be the most attractive woman in the world face-wise, but then again, I doubt that this is what she’s going for anyways. She obviously has the money to get every part of her body done if she chose to. I do admire her ongoing efforts in motivating others to lose weight and keeping it off; that alone is enough for me to view her as pretty awesome. That she has a killer bod…more awesomeness points in my book. And that she can kick ass because she actually has a solid background in mixed martial arts…sky-rockets her awesomeness even more!

No offense, if you don’t find her attractive, so what? It’s not like she’s going to drop dead tomorrow from your hurtful comments or stop making money because you think she’s not frail and submissive enough for your taste. The fact is many other men and women do find her extremely attractive and want to emulate and believe in her methods.

Now for the women, I have another question: would you rather look this like this?

Or like this?

Think about the messages regarding women’s sexuality, sense of worth and value, and the current and historic role of women that these images and the ones below them promote. Are they pushing for women to be viewed as smart, strong and healthy, and independent? Or are they advocating that women are only as good as what is between their legs and how much saline or silicone the surgeon has pumped into their implants?

Fit and natural

Not so natural.  And while we're at it, will she be riding the bike or preparing for a vaginal exam?

If you prefer, muscular, sexy and packin' implants!

or, please help me get this bottom off because I can't figure it out all by myself...tee hee!

Let’s wake up ladies. Do we really want to be valued exclusively for being sexual objects? It’s not like it takes a whole lot to be able to have sex – newsflash: women have been doing it for thousands of years and yeah, even the ugly and fat ones can do it, too. So why should that be the ultimate measure of our female sense of self-worth?

As far as the men, I don’t believe the fashion industry is doing you guys any favors either:

Case in point!

I don’t want an overly waxed pre-pubescent looking man-child or a man who looks as if he spent way too much time in front of the mirror to impress me. What does that say about HIS own self-esteem? The same way that men don’t find women with self-esteem issues attractive, we don’t find men with these same issues attractive, either. For me personally, I would rather bag yummy Hugh Jackman:

or Eugene Cussons

any day over that new Armani Exchange model:

Maybe if I was a gay male and was looking to go on a cruise to Greece and kick that skinny bitch off the side of the boat? Sure!

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I found an interesting article entitled Athletic Aesthetic, which despite some blatant type-o's and an urgent cry for a final proofreading, sheds a lot of wisdom regarding the attitudes toward the constantly evolving standards of beauty.