Thanks for all your comments on the post about "American Idol" Jordin Sparks and some skinny blonde anti-obesity lamebrain's comments about her being a bad role model for teens because of her weight.
I was particularly struck by Sheena's remark that Jordin is a size 12, and I just had to laugh and shake my head.
When I graduated from high school back in "the day" oh so long ago, I weighed 130 pounds and wore a size 12. I thought I was a hippo unfit for human society and had by that point been put on every diet known to humankind by my misguided but well-meaning mom who feared I'd end up like my dad's side of the family. You know, "big" people. I starved, exercised to distraction, sneaked food when I couldn't stand it any longer, and could never get below 130. In the process I set up a lifetime of binge eating and bad habits and metabolic resistance.
And now I'd kill to weigh 130, or anything close to it. I look back at photos of myself from that time and think, "I wasn't fat at all--how could I have thought I was?" And I don't know, except even then a size 12 made you a "big" person in terms of what we saw on TV, in magazines, and praised among the "popular" kids in school (as opposed to my geek-pals). If only we could protect our daughters and nieces from buying into what society says they should look like and just reinforce the positives of letting them be who they are.
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