I'm Sexy and I know it: Then & Now

Long before the days of lap band, diet pills, and Spanx women with CURVES were sexy. Up until the 60's around the time Audrey Hepburn graced the big screen in Breakfast At Tiffany's, companies could be found advertising their weight gain products. "Women would you like to gain 5...10lbs... try our product."  A full figured woman was sexy. A full figured woman was a sign of health and money. Rail thin women wanted to gain weight to be like full figured women. There were no diet pills or weight loss surgeons. What is considered "fat" today, was beautiful and sexy then. So, what happened?

To be honest, I can't answer that factually, but I can somewhat identify where I think we went wrong. When Audrey Hepburn came on the scene people were in awe of her beauty. People wanted to look like her and started defining sexy as looking like her. Thin body, small waist, never more than 103lbs. (According to her biography, "Audrey Hepburn: An Intimate Portrait", she made a vow to herself never to exceed 103 pounds. With the exception of her pregnancies, she succeeded.)

Now, believe me when I say, I absolutely think Audrey Hepburn is quite possibly one of the most beautiful women to have graced the American big screen but to hold her up as the standard of what is sexy and what we and daughters should strive for is ridiculous. Before anyone gets their panties twisted and thinks I'm blaming Audrey Hepburn for the unrealistic ideal of sexiness, hear me out. I'm not blaming her. She didn't say, here I am at 103lbs and everyone should look like me or you are fat, but the media did. The film and entertainment industry did and people started to believe it. Men started to believe it and we all know it's the man's opinion that really matters right? (I hope you sense the sarcasm there). But when was the media, the film industry, and those men going to tell you that during WWII Audrey Hepburn was severely malnourished? She was so malnourished and hungry that she attempted to bake grass and ate tulip bulbs.

My point here really isn't about Audrey Hepburn at all. It's more about the idea that the average woman (size 12) is looked at as fat these days. The idea that ourselves and our daughters are attacked day in and day out with weight loss gimmicks, a media fueling the fire, and men that have a warped since of what a woman should be. I am not a size 0, hell I'm not even a size 9, but I am beautiful. My husband thinks I'm sexy. At times I think I'm sexy. So why should I have to be ashamed to put on a swim suit?  If we were still in the 50's, back when Marilyn Monroe in all her size 13 glory was sexy, I'd be ideal. But we aren't. I think the lesson in all of this is we have to learn to love ourselves the way God made us. We have to accept that with age and child bearing, our bodies change. Most of us will not be what we were in our early 20's before kids. That doesn't mean give up and let yourself go. Our weight and health is more than important and we should exercise and keep fit but we should not obsess over it. We have to learn to love ourselves not only for our own happiness but for the sake of our children. If you don't love yourself how can you expect your daughters to love themselves?

Live well, Laugh Often, and most importantly Love Yourself!!