Scientists don’t study eating disorders among black women. I guess they don’t think they exist in our community. The truth is, I know more black women with body dysmorphic disorder and food issues than I do white women, and more and more are jumping on the “I hate my body” train the older I get.
A story in the Raleigh News & Observer points to recent hip hop videos, which showcase ever-skinnier models and dancers. For the first time, someone is wondering how that might affect black women.
Although a thicker body is definitely prized more among blacks than whites, there was really no way that the impossibly thin trend in Hollywood would not trickle down to the faux celebrities in rap videos, and then further down to the regular girls out there watching the women on television and in movies.
The article points to the success of Esther Baxter and Buffie the Body as signs that thicker women will end up back on top of the video scene. I doubt it. Those women are portrayed more like freak-of-nature novelties than anything else. Plus, I don’t know anyone who would actually want the (probably unhealthy) dimensions of Buffie the Body. If they do, they are striving for something as impossible to attain naturally as Michael Jackson’s dimpled chin.
Can we find a healthy, happy medium — somewhere between the way-too-proud-to-be-obese Mo’Nique and paper-thin Nicole Richie — and stop either struggling to look like movie stars and video girls or reveling in our morbid obesity?
[RNO]
A happy medium is certainly needed. Buffie the Body is more of a fantasy rather than something I would want to be with everyday (or am I fibbing?) Anyway, I don’t even see how the Nicole Richie look would appeal to any man, although I did hear the homie Busta Rhymes said he got it a few years back.
Nevertheless, a healthy diet and exercise are important and something that we all should make a part of our daily lives. My diet could certainly be better (too many fried foods…stereotypical I know), but I do get to the gym at least three times a week which has allowed me to stay in shape. We should exercise even if we aren’t trying to lose weight…it’s just the healthy thing to do. The sad fact of the matter is, a lot of black women have the same attitude as Buffie in that they won’t work out. Can you imagine what that “Body” will look like in 5-10 years without exercise and a diet of junk food? It always catches up to you in some way or another. It won’t be pretty for whoever decided to settle down with her. Guess she better milk it for what it’s worth while she got it. But it’s probably chocolate milk.
If ‘Buffie the Body’ and music video chicks are what black women strive to look like then we’re all doomed.
I agree with blkmale that women like these are going to more than likely be obese when they get older. There’s no way you can keep that kind of ass up at 40 or 50 years old. Sorry. However the reality is that most women fall between the spectrum of Nicole and Mo’Nique. The media plays up those two idiots, but the reality is that most of us aren’t starving or happy to be fat, gross pigs. We’re somewhere in the middle. Mo’Nique, IMHO, does more of a disservice to black women…perpetuating the loud, fat black woman stereotype, but whatever.
blackmistressdiva says:
“Mo’Nique, IMHO, does more of a disservice to black women…perpetuating the loud, fat black woman stereotype, but whatever.”
I agree! I wonder why they chose her to host Charm School on VH1?
or the BET Awards tonite? lol
Why, in 2007, is a WOMAN’S BODY still viable public discourse?
Consider this: shutting up.
Tabloid weight speculations, ‘reputable’ magazine’s diet secrets, obsessing over the physique’s of famous women (whether it be Monique or Nicole Richie). ENOUGH ALREADY.
Is it not time for society to grow up?
Let women weigh what they are going to weigh and allow them - as grown up individuals - to sort it out. Allow them to come to real conclusions about health and beauty. Stop setting public ’standards’.
Do you know why BODY ISSUES for men - though not non-existent and in our present ‘culture’ apparently on the rise - are less of an issue comparatively?
Because men’s bodies are NOT physically scrutinized so heavily, so publicly.
Enough please. From a recovering [black] bullimic.
The constant discussions, as speculatively useless as they are, do no good.
And the whole ‘oh-we’can’t-chnage-it-that’s-just-the-way-society-is ‘excuse does not fly.
Who is society anyway? WE ARE.
Who put us in the present situation? WE DID.
Like all body issues, the reason people don’t know it exists in black women is because we don’t talk about it. Most of the black women I know, young and old, have major body issues. Some have eating disorders including nearly all the women in my damn family. It’s not a “disease” in their view. It’s learned behavior that they bond over in the privacy of their home. Signs of eating disorders like cutting up food into tiny pieces, chewing 50+ times before swallowing, drinking cups of water between bites, restrict-binge cycle, chewing and spitting, smoking and excessive dieting were all learned behaviors in which every girl and woman in my family takes part in at least when the family gets together. If it’s normal for you and your mama’s doing it, why would you consider it a “disorder” and expect scientists to study it??
Women scrutinize women’s bodies in a more critical way than men. When I see people discussing celeb weight gain and loss, it’s almost always women and in great detail. Women set the unrealistic standards of beauty. The models in Vogue are size zero and those in Maxim or GQ are four or six which while not average is certainly healthier. Women created the rail thin standard of beauty that has never really been very popular with men. Girls who aspire to look like Nicole Richie aren’t doing it to be sexy or to attract men. They are doing it to fit a standard that’s been set by women.