The Skinny Bitches

About two weeks ago, I visited a bookstore to buy a farewell present for a colleague. As it happens with me and bookstores, I had to spend a couple hours going through various shelves, picking up books at random, and reading at least some pages of at least some books.

This one, in particular caught my attention. of course, the cover and the language talked to me.

And then it got a lot more colorful. These ladies went on to talk about why meat is gross, milk is for babies, and also uninhibitedly discussed... err... excretion being a good metric of whether or not you are eating right. OK.

They tore apart the joys of sugar, soda, tea, coffee, in short, anything that any major publication says is bad for you. Still OK.

And then comes the part that stole my appetite. Completely. A diet regiment that advocates only fruits in the morning, and a moderately heavy dinner, with lots of tofu and "healthy, non-crappy food that's SO good for you, that it tastes great without making you fat". That was also tolerable.

But what was not was the countless allusion of the "fat reader". The way I saw it, it was almost like glorifying a lifestyle that pays you millions of dollars to NOT eat. I understand these women have a respectable profession of working for a modelling agency and of course, modelling. What I don't understand is why they had to justify that by ordering - yes, literally ordering thousands of women around the world to be the same way.

We understand, that you poor women cannot eat cheese and yogurt. Pity. We understand eating tofu increases your paycheque by 5 figures. What a fantastic life you must lead, one of depravity. And if this is not enough, Kim Barnouin has a Skinny Bitch guide for pregnant women. Fantastic!

Having been on an almost 5-year quest to shed pounds, I have done a lot of exploring around for diet and exercise options that would make me lose excess weight without my colleagues having to rush me to a hospital for IV feeding. The operative word here being excess. I do not wish to be a skinny bitch, because my income doesn't depend on my dress size. But none of those books and blogs made me feel .. well, like a bitch for enjoying my occasional milkshake. None of those made me feel like having a warm grandmom-made meal (the taste of which has a lot to do with the oils and spices that go into it) was "crap" going into my body (for the record, my Grandma is 79, fit, can climb 6 floors of stairs without losing her breath, and walk at least 3 kms at a stretch).

Yes, these are two good-looking women. Ignorant good looking women who want so badly to believe that what is necessary for them is good for other women. Whose self-confidence and self esteem seems to be embedded only in a weighing scale. Sigh.

Apparently beauty is not just skin-deep anymore. Beauty lies in the body than in your brains, heart, or even your face. Absolutely!

And that attitude is what makes you the (skinny - who cares?) Bitches.