Ladies: Small Waist or Bigger Brain

[Blessed]

Salaams,

 

I'd like to get the Xaliimo perspective on this. Please answer the poll Q and share your thoughts.

 

Thanks

 

Most women would rather have a small waist than a big brain

 

By Maxine Frith, Social Affairs Correspondent

Published: 09 January 2006

 

 

The majority of women would prefer to be slimmer than have a higher IQ, instant wealth or a date with the celebrity of their dreams.

 

Nineteen out of 20 of the female population say that they place a higher priority on having a smaller waist than on their intelligence.

 

From a wish list that included never having money worries again, dating the A-list star of their choice or a genius-level IQ score, 51 per cent of women still plumped for a slimmer figure, according to a survey for the website tescodiets.com.

 

At a time when one in three women is overweight and a further one in five is obese, experts said that there was still too much pressure on the female population to be slim.

 

Barbara Wilson, head of nutrition at tescodiets.com, said: "Women's role models tend to be models and actresses, so there is more emphasis than ever placed upon physical perfection.

 

"These statistics reveal just how much pressure women feel there is to be slim in today's society."

 

The website has identified today as the most popular date in the year for starting a diet following the excesses of Christmas.

 

One in three women admitted that they spend more time worrying about their weight than their finances, jobs or families. And while 29 per cent said their biggest dread was going to the dentist and 16 per cent cited looking for a new job, a massive 40 per cent admitted their worst fear was having to try on clothes in a shop's communal fitting rooms.

 

One on three had lied to their friends about how much they weigh and one in four had tried to deceive their partner about their size.

 

Separate research by the magazine LighterLife has found that nearly half of women give up on their New Year diet within just a week of starting it. One in five female dieters admit that they have hidden food and eaten it in secret while pretending to maintain their new regime.

 

Bar Hewlett, founder of the LighterLife company, said: "Our survey reveals the extent of women's desperation.

 

"There have been women who hide food in the washing machine, under the plastic bag inside a cereal packet and even up their sleeves.

 

"The secret of losing weight and keeping it off is resolving the emotional issues that encourage you to overeat in the first place and having support from people in the same position."

 

The extent to which British women are confused about what the kind of female body they believe to be attractive and what they want for themselves was also revealed last week.

 

Singer Beyoncé Knowles was voted by women as having the sexiest figure, alongside other curvy stars such as Charlotte Church, Dawn French and Nigella Lawson.

 

The survey for the Ann Summers retail chain found that 87 per cent of the female respondents believed that society had an unhealthy obsession with diet and dress size.

 

Deanne Jade, principal of the National Centre of Eating Disorders, said: "Women are inconsistent about how they really feel about their bodies.

 

"They may be able to accept curves on a star, but on their own bodies it just seems like fat."

 

 

 

Source

[Naden]

What is the point behind these polls? Is there a similar one that asks men if they'd rather have a couple of inches added to a certain appendage than have IQ points added to their 'brains'?

 

I can't comment on this ludicrous survey without seeing how the questions are phrased and who is the main target (seeing it was done by a retail store :rolleyes: ). These are the questions that make psychosocial surveys fodder for second rate talk shows and opinion editorials. Blaaaaah.

[Blessed]

^Spoilsport! :rolleyes:

 

I hate long articles, but it has to be done!

 

 

Dying to Fit In- Literally! Learning to Love Our Bodies and Ourselves By Christine Hartline, MA

 

Today in America you can be whatever you want to be - any dream can be accomplished as long as you pursue it. We have economic security and we live in a peaceful and prosperous nation! We live in the land of opportunity, rich with culture and diversity, the land of the free! The question I pose is - "is America the land of the free, especially for women?" With all the freedom and prosperity we enjoy women still remain prisoners. "Prisoners", you ask, what do you mean? Women are enslaved to a beauty myth, chained to the false belief that our value is based on our appearance alone.

 

In the United States approximately 10% of girls and women (numbering up to 10 million) are suffering from diagnosed eating disorders. Of these at least 50,000 will die as a direct result! Recent data reported by the American Psychiatric Association suggests that of all psychiatric disorders, the greatest excess of patient mortality due to natural and unnatural causes is associated with eating disorders and substance abuse. How did this problem reach such epidemic proportions? Why are we dieting ourselves to death, literally dying to fit in? When did we become so ashamed of our bodies, when did we learn to hate them so much? While eating disorders claim lives and significantly impact the health and well being of sufferers, as we investigate further an even more disturbing picture emerges. An amazing 80% of women are dissatisfied with their appearance. These numbers are staggering! Surely they cannot be correct! How and why could we have learned such contempt for our bodies and ourselves?

 

Eating disorders are complex and understanding their etiology requires complex interventions by professionals. In this article I want to examine eating disorders in the context of the questions I posed above. Why are women attacking their bodies? Where did we learn that our self worth is measured by external factors - by numbers on a scale? The answer lies in constant, subtle attacks on our bodies. These attacks wear us down, shake our confidence and esteem. We loose our sense of self, individuality and fall victim to narrow definitions of beauty defined by the media. The media acts as a propaganda machine determined to shake our confidence, remind us we aren't good enough, we haven't made it, that we just simply do not measure up. In a recent poll by People magazine 80% of women reported that the images of women of TV and in movies, fashion magazines ad advertising make them feel insecure about their looks. In addition, the poll indicated that women are made to feel so insecure that they are willing to try diets that pose health risks (34%), go "under the knife" (34%) and 93% indicated they had made various and repeated attempts to lose weight to measure up to the images. Why is the media bent on making us feel so down about ourselves? Why do they go to such lengths to make us feel "less than?" The answer is quite simple - pure economics. The media machine is economically driven as billions are spent on items such as cosmetics, new diets and clothes. This "beautifying" empire is dependent on our disempowerment. They count on us buying into their myths and misrepresentations: "we will never fit it, we can never be happy, thus we can never end the pursuit." Alas, the pursuit is endless, the products are endless, the damage to our self-esteem is endless, and the body hatred created is devastating. The assault is unrelenting! The images everywhere. How could it all happen, right under our noses? It is a subtle, continuous bombardment of images of beauty, images defined by profiteers, images that are not real, not authentic, and not attainable. The impact that these images have on women is profound. The financial, social and psychological and physical damages of a woman's lifetime pursuit of thinness are impossible to measure. Depression, despair, depletion of self-esteem, the withering and wasting away of physical, psychological and financial resources are unbelievable. How can we begin to make changes? How can we assess our damage report? We must all take a personal inventory of how our lives have been impacted by these images and how we have fallen victim to these lies and misrepresentations of beauty. By examining how these images have impacted your life you are better equip to avoid falling victim to these myths. You will learn to measure yourself by intrinsic qualities that are of far greater value and are far more beautiful than any image manufactured on a movie screen.

 

I was a victim of these attacks on esteem, on women's power, on our self-worth. I was a prisoner and almost a casualty of this war. If I did not wake-up and take a personal inventory and examine my value system I could have easily sunken into the prison of repeat diets, repeat failure and lifelong contempt for my body. As a prisoner I had to ask myself some tough questions: when did I start to hate my body so much? When did I begin to measure my self-worth by numbers on a scale? When did I fall prey to the idea that beauty is external and success is measured by factors that have little to do with personal strength and spirit? We must be aware of the images presented to us and unmask these images for what they truly are - destructive, superficial and unattainable images. These images do not value our uniqueness, they do not honor our wisdom and our spirit, and they do not measure us. We must reclaim and redefine our bodies as ours. They are miraculous, we all know this! Our bodies perform wonderful feats every day. We are physiological and biological masterpieces. Our bodies are not our enemies - they put us in motion, they create and sustain life. The functions our bodies perform for us are too numerous and varied to list. Vow that you will not longer fall victim to these images and help those around you to the road of self-love and acceptance. Advocate for freedom from body hatred and fight the billion dollar advertising, cosmetic, diet, entertainment and fashion industries - let's stand up for ourselves, our values, our bodies, our lives. We must challenge ourselves, our culture and our children. The stakes are too high to back down. Lives are lost each year as beautiful, healthy young women starve themselves to death. Millions of us are suffering from depression and anxiety as we are bombarded with images of our "faults." It is time to change, change begins from within and radiates out- let's begin.

 

The consequences of body hatred and the serious issue of eating disorders are far to significant and far reaching to be addressed simply by pointing the finger at the media machine. Eating disorders are complex and involved complex interactions of psychological, biological, sociological, and interpersonal factors and do require professional assistance. Further, eating disorders and body hatred impact the lives of millions of men and women.

 

 

www.EDReferral.com.

[Resistance]

I actually voted in the poll .. since it was the only way i could veiw the results .... i'd rather if my women has both ... otherwise i have a very complicated formula to work out exactly on what porportation of both am willing to accept...

[Blessed]

^Yaa kuu yeedhay :mad:

 

You say you like both, but looks are more important, right?

 

 

Anyways, tell me. How about you? Would you rather have a six pack or be a geek. Be honest.

 

The above question applies to every farax that chooses to mess up my poll.

[Mr.Faarax]

Dhex yareeey, dhuubaneey maxaan kaloo ku daraa!

 

I say both' she gotta have both'

If she got slim waist, that means she had the brains to keep it like that.

 

But if she swallowing down everything' Maskax meesha kuma heysee maxaa sheegeysaa!

 

Who said this geek doesnt have 8 pack

[Guhaad]

well, geek or pack, I will choose which ever will get me closer to the sisters. so i guess this comes back to the ladies. which one EXCITES you. that will be my choice, we will have to live with the consequences.

 

waist or brain? i will be the brain, she can be the waist. haha, 50%+50%= kaamil

[Ibtisam]

lool Blessed. The farahs seem to be invading you thread. i voted beautiful mind. beauty behind/ waist always disappears, you might get knock down by a car and loose all your teeth, get into a fight, have an accident, or just get old and wrinkly and then what your left with nothing.

 

As for the brains, if you’re smart you will figure out how to get that small waist.

 

On a serious note, i hate beautiful people with no brains, i always get the urge to slap them as soon as they open their mouth :mad:

 

But then again everyone is stuck with whatever they got, (although the gym works wonders) so I should not blame them.

[Janna]

Originally posted by Kafaaxiye:

well, geek or pack, I will choose which ever will get me closer to the sisters. so i guess this comes back to the ladies. which one EXCITES you.

A geek.

[Resistance]

I Like to think i have the brains to look decent .. well theres only so much change ur apperiance ...

 

but in reality no-1 wants a brainy nerd .. u need a good balance .. smart but street wise is what am after ..

[Arawella]

A beautiful mind has more to offer in life than a beautiful shape which can be achieved through cosmetic surgery.

 

I prefer to think that my actions are not governed by others view of my persona. We are what we make of ourself and although we are interdependent with others, we should appreciate and love ourself first.

[ScarFace]

I dont think you lot ever get out

[sheherazade]

Nineteen out of 20 of the female population say that they place a higher priority on having a smaller waist than on their intelligence.

 

What the article failed to mention was that these women's IQ also matched their waist size.

[Guhaad]

quote:Originally posted by Kafaaxiye:

well, geek or pack, I will choose which ever will get me closer to the sisters. so i guess this comes back to the ladies. which one EXCITES you.

 

A geek. [big Grin]

are you sure that is all you are ordering?

[LayZie G.]

What the article failed to mention was that these women's IQ also matched their waist size.

LMAO@SHEH the Brainer. One thing is clear out of the study, SHEH definitely ranks higher in the 100's IQ wise, just because of the above statement.(folks,you can take that to the bank, Layzie said so herself)