I’ve lived through the ‘wafer thin’ era. The ‘cigarette pants’. The ‘skinny jeans’. We had so many different names for them. Basically, it was the era of starvation equals discipline. Counting or restricting calories resulted in applause and adoration from your peers for getting into those old school size 24s. Boobs? Sure. Bums? Meh. Hips? No way!
The current curves-are-cool movement was a great relief for me as a mother of a teen daughter. She’s loving her womanly curves, and I’m here for it. I’ve been ashamed of my generation’s views on diet and our relationship with food and our bodies. It was not something I wanted to pass down to my children. Sure, I promote a healthy lifestyle by working out and providing balanced, mostly home cooked meals. Nothing is restricted and all is welcomed in moderation. We don’t walk around saying ‘I’m fat, I really need to lose weight’ with every conversation. What each of us weighs is not important. Exercise is encouraged when possible, but incorporated in fun activities.
What I’ve noticed is the Ozempic craze has delivered on a dangerous promise—to get thin quick—with unknown side effects. Public figures who once encouraged young women to love their curves have now transformed and pivoted into very thin people with a totally different message. Healthy living should always be encouraged and I am certainly not against weight loss. I am not a doctor or dietician either, but the rate at which people are losing the weight, and the amount of people on this drug has got me doing a double take. It seems to have spread to the masses overnight.
I love exercising. I love lifting weights. I enjoy eating healthy. Truth be told, I have carried an eating disorder on my back for most of my life. Thankfully, it’s a much lighter load lately. I suppose my concern stems from this rapid thin frenzy mentality spreading into the teenage psyche. We are a collective now. I don’t think there is such thing as protecting teens from this or that on social media. We are delusional if we think we have any control over what they are being exposed to every day. Ask a teenager in your life if they know what Ozempic is and I bet you they do (they advertise it on billboards in sporting events! I’ve seen it with my own eyes)
Certainly I am also not against this drug, or any other medication that helps people achieve a healthy goal and life style. What concerns me is the pendulum swinging too hard the other way. What concerns me is a teenager thinking they don’t have a choice but to take it because thin is in again. What concerns me is not accepting different body types as naturally human, which is naturally beautiful. What concerns me is obsessing over weight as the measure of our self worth, and our worth to others in their eyes.
I guess I’ve survived this swing and I don’t feel like going through it again. I write in hopes that as a collective we start to have conversations within ourselves about what we value as a society. I choose health over social standards, and I encourage each of you to choose the healthiest versions of you. We are each role models. As mother and fathers we know…our children are always watching.
Thoughts At F___ It Forties 