Under My Thumb

Good morning, GOOD morning, Or afternoon; Whichever you prefer. Today is Tuesday, and there are only 2 days left of this year, and what a year it was. I'm positively enthused and excited to see what 2010 brings. It'll definitely be better than this past year. 

   So, I was looking through my notes of 2009 and thought I would finish a segment I started writing :)

A Retouched World

Look inside a magazine, at a TV commercial, a billboard and what do you see? What kind of image is the media throwing at you? A picture of a smiling, exceedingly skinny yet extremely curvy woman with long legs, definitive muscles and an unnatural glow of a tan, staring back at you, coercing you to buy the product she’s flaunting. Maybe she is even accompanied by an equally gorgeous man, with broad, ripped shoulders and a six pack that makes every woman (and guy for that matter) stare with envy. Photo retouchers for magazines spend over 12 hours on a photograph, fixing each and every minor imperfection that connects the photo to its reality. No wonder 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner. At such a young age, has this appearance obsessed society corrupted and stolen their youth? Maybe. Just maybe. Astonishingly enough, 1 out of 4 women, this doesn't include men, have some type of distorted eating patterns. Now, this must not be good for our culture that is trying to focus on our health rather than our weight. 

  Recently, many famous celebrities have "come out" with tales of their own experiences with ED,(Their eating disorders). Whether this is good or bad, what can we do to prevent the terror of every parent, having their child develop some sort of mental illness, is to focus on our positive qualities rather than the negative, living each day as a walking and talking positive example of health. 

~Carolyn Thorn