Letters to the Editor

• Expanded standards of beauty: good. Advocating a return to obesity because you can't be bothered to live a healthy lifestyle: not so much

  [Read the article: Mo'Nique's F.A.T. revolution]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  I'm all for a limitlessly wide standard of beauty - one that is inclusive of all hair colors, skin colors, heights, and body types. I'm all for eliminating the ridiculous idea of women accepting our 'imperfections'. For heaven's sake, an uneven skin tone is normal! Freckles are normal! There is nothing 'wrong' with a big nose, or cellulite, or bony hands, or small eyes, or thin lips. These things are just normal! Men don't obsess "my hair is too thin, I have split ends, my complexion is uneven, my hands betray my age" ad infinitum...because they accept that how they were born is GOOD ENOUGH, the way they are is, quite simply, reason enough to love themselves. Women need to get this message too. If the media doesn't promote the message, tune out the media.

  I stopped wearing makeup when I realized how stupid it was to think "boy, I look tired without mascara". Not one single man in the history of mankind has looked in the mirror and thought "wow, what I need is some lengthening thickening mascara, some lightly smudged eye liner in a not-too-dark color, some brow pencil, a tri-tone eye shadow that deepens the crease and highlights the brow and maybe a touch of pearlescence in the inner corner of my eyes for brightness." If they can think they look great without putting on an artificial mask, I thought, then I can too. And guess what - they're right. I do look great. And I never had to worry about looking a mess when waking up for the first time next to a new love. I looked just like I did when we went to bed, which was fine with him, and is now fine with me.

  So I'm glad Mo'Nique likes herself and wants other fat women to feel good about themselves. But the idea of advocating obesity - as in her call to Oprah to 'come back to us!' - is just plain stupid. People who are obese are out of control -plain and simple. They are taking in far more calories than their body needs for their caloric expenditure. They do it despite the significant healthy risks of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. This is not rational behavior.

  I think it's fine and good to believe that everyone has something to offer beyond a narrow standard of physical beauty. I think everyone - thin, tall, obese, whatever - should find something to love about themselves. But advocating that obesity is fine, and beautiful, is no different than advocating that alcoholist or meth addiction is just a lifestyle choice with as many perks as drawbacks. No one would accept an alcoholic saying "Why can't the rest of the world change and see the beauty in the way that I am?" No, we expect the alcoholic to get control of the self-defeating behavior. Food addiction and an inability to control your intake despite clearly understood threats to your healthy is a problem. It doesn't negate all the good things about a person but it *is* a problem, and one that should be addressed. By all means feel good - great! - about yourself while you address it. Beauty is more than skin deep. Of course it is. But that doeesn't make the problem of food addiction and obesity beautiful, or an un-problem.

  Permalink Monday, July 10, 2006 11:57 AM

• Good Lord, who cares?

  [Read the article: She loves the knife life]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  Why is this woman, so consumed with self-hatred that she willingly and repeatedly risks life and limb for 'improvements' that are uncertain, subjective and not measureable, getting column inches devoted to her paranoid mania? It's bad enough that she wrote a book on it - - what ever happened to embarrassment about your mistakes and lack of judgement? -- but why does Broadsheet have to promulgate the focus on her bizarre and self-destructive self-absorption?

  Permalink Tuesday, July 11, 2006 05:01 PM