Hefty, Hefty, Hefty!

The issue of weight control is evident in Hollywood more than ever. In the 60s and 70s, curves abounded; no one cared if you were a size 5 or size 15. Body image in entertainment was more on the mesomorphic side because that's what the average person looked like. However, culture is looking at body image in a inversed mirror--the fatter normal people get, the skinnier are the people who represent us in media. In turn, the number of plastic surgeries (mainly in the areas of liposuction) has increased exponentially. What does this say about our self esteem? Not just women either; the slimmer jeans designed for males (i.e. skinny jeans) have made guys self conscious about their bods too.

So what happened to people just losing weight to be healthy? Recently, I became more aware that my mother was obese. Not to the point where she needed a Hoveround or anything, but where her knees and back were aching after less than an hour of standing. The idea crossed my mind: what if that's not all that's wrong, but she's not telling me? And true to my brain's fashion, my psychoanalysis ran wild and ended at the idea of my mother having a heart attack in church on the offchance day that her bra and panties didn't match. And that's how people would remember her. In short, I told her I feared for her health. With my help she completely changed her meal portions, her workout plan, and her hydration levels. The other day she was deemed healthy by the doctor even though she wasn't a size 2.

Where does that leave all the models out there surviving on "the supermodel diet"? The one where one survives on celery sticks, water and cigarettes? Or at the other end of the spectrum--those actresses who burst onto the scene with a endomorphic body type, but now what to lose weight to get different, "non-fat-girl" roles? Today's culture is so instant, I-Want-Everything-Now...who's gonna be concerned with their lives, and bodies, twenty years down the line?

Star Jones before and after her gastric bypass. Ew.