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Knees? Seriously?
Jan. 30th, 2011 02:10 pmToday I learned something new. Now that Princess-to-be Kate Middleton has been photographed in dresses that show her knees, all women are apparently obliged to have attractive knees. Chubby or saggy knees, according to a Boston Globe article, are no longer acceptable. A personal trainer is quoted as saying people come to him "all the time" with concerns about their fat knees. Of course, we must not go too far in the other direction, since Kate Moss was criticized in 2007 for showing up at Sir Paul McCartney's birthday party with "distinctly bony" knees. If all else fails, we're advised to wear makeup on our knees, unless we can afford to follow Demi Moore's example, and get a knee lift.
Makeup. On our knees.
Are they out of their freaking minds?
I am so utterly sick and tired of the constant pressure to have a perfect body. Toned arms. Flat abs. Big, perky breasts and narrow hips. The smooth, taut skin of a fifteen-year-old. Minimal, if any, body hair. And now, knees that don't sag and are neither too fat or too bony.
This is what the media tells women to worry about. Unless you spend all your free time and energy to be perfectly fit, perfectly groomed and depilated and dressed in the latest designer style, and oh, don't forget, thin and young (or at least as close to young as surgery and cosmetics can make you), you cannot possibly be attractive or sexy. Intelligence, a successful career, warmth and generosity are all well and good, but they don't matter if your knees don't measure up to Kate Middleton's and your arms aren't as slender as Michelle Obama's.
I say it's stupid, and I say the hell with it.
My knees function. They bend, they make it possible to go up and down stairs, they hold me up and only occasionally give me pain. I love them, I appreciate them, and I'm not going to hold them to some arbitrary standard of beauty. That way lies insanity, eating disorders, and chronic dissatisfaction.
It makes me so angry to read things like this, to be reminded once again that women are judged on appearance more often than not, and that no real person can meet the impossible standard of perfection for female beauty. It's such a stupid distraction from things that really matter, but everywhere I turn I see this brainwashing, this unending drumbeat of expectation that if I can't look "perfect" I should at least have the decency to worry about it 24-7. And it makes me sad that so many women do worry about it.
No.
NO.
HELL, NO.
I have only one question.
Do these elbows make me look fat?
Makeup. On our knees.
Are they out of their freaking minds?
I am so utterly sick and tired of the constant pressure to have a perfect body. Toned arms. Flat abs. Big, perky breasts and narrow hips. The smooth, taut skin of a fifteen-year-old. Minimal, if any, body hair. And now, knees that don't sag and are neither too fat or too bony.
This is what the media tells women to worry about. Unless you spend all your free time and energy to be perfectly fit, perfectly groomed and depilated and dressed in the latest designer style, and oh, don't forget, thin and young (or at least as close to young as surgery and cosmetics can make you), you cannot possibly be attractive or sexy. Intelligence, a successful career, warmth and generosity are all well and good, but they don't matter if your knees don't measure up to Kate Middleton's and your arms aren't as slender as Michelle Obama's.
I say it's stupid, and I say the hell with it.
My knees function. They bend, they make it possible to go up and down stairs, they hold me up and only occasionally give me pain. I love them, I appreciate them, and I'm not going to hold them to some arbitrary standard of beauty. That way lies insanity, eating disorders, and chronic dissatisfaction.
It makes me so angry to read things like this, to be reminded once again that women are judged on appearance more often than not, and that no real person can meet the impossible standard of perfection for female beauty. It's such a stupid distraction from things that really matter, but everywhere I turn I see this brainwashing, this unending drumbeat of expectation that if I can't look "perfect" I should at least have the decency to worry about it 24-7. And it makes me sad that so many women do worry about it.
No.
NO.
HELL, NO.
I have only one question.
Do these elbows make me look fat?
