More good reading

I saw a girl last night at church* that I grew up with who has what most would consider a perfect body. She is petite but with nice curves--probably a size 4 at the most. One would probably think that she came by it naturally, but I know she is very, very conscious of what she eats, how she exercises, etc, and her natural body type is really quite a bit heavier.

Kind of makes me sad. All the time spent on how we look...when it's so little a part of who we truly are (in my opinion).

Anyway, ran across this interesting book review at one of my favorite blogs, Junkfood Science. My local library hasn't received the book yet, but I am already on the "request hold" list.

I'm off to read the author's article in Bitch magazine. This is promising to me:

Her personal essay appears in the Spring issue of Bitch, discussing the internal struggles women deal with over food and body weight, from feeling guilty about choosing a bagel instead of fruit to whether to go to the gym or get some sleep. “We are not our bodies,“ she concludes. “Our souls are not our stomachs. Our brains are not our butts. A lot of women have lost track of the truth that how we feel about our bodies does not have to be indicative of how we feel about ourselves....[T]he quality of your life is diminished if you think about food and fitness obsessively.”

She also makes an important point that:

It would be truly radical in society for women to stop settling for self-hate, to come to terms with their bodies and try to heal our self-images. And realizing that perfection is unattainable and in fact, uninteresting. There’s no global political prescription. You can’t take to the streets to change this. If people can individually come to terms with their own body, that’s huge. Besides, the quest for perfection is joyless and boring.

Amen.

*Might blog about the whole church experience at some point, but it's a little raw now--plus, I know certain people who read my blog would be hurt/angered by it.