12/11/2019
RANT ALERT! RANT ALERT!!
I know that the Kardashians aren't exactly Rhodes Scholars, but people - mostly young and impressionable ones - still look up to them. So what they say matters. Unfortunately.
And when Kim Kardashian is all over the news saying that she *gasp* gained 18 pounds in the past year, that she 'fell off' her diet and that she's bound and determined to lose those pounds before she turns 40, I sit up and take notice. (and throw up a little in my mouth, actually)
“To feel good, I just want to get it like, a really good goal weight, and so that means working out at all costs,” she said.
Like, oh my god! Kim! Like, a 'good goal weight' means not having to work out AT ALL COSTS, you dingbat! How about NOT PUNISHING YOUR BODY for doing what it probably needed to do: gain pounds to be healthy, rather than stay at an impossibly low weight because you were starving and working out like a manic?
She says about her eating, “I’ve kind of been trained to just eat a lot healthier than I used to. I used to just eat anything and everything and I loved it,” the reality star added. “And so I really do control that now. … I don’t want to ruin it by just stuffing my face.”
She goes on to say that she lost 20lb last year by working out hard an hour and a half every day: “I’ve lost 20 pounds and I’m really proud of that. I was almost 140 forever and now I’m like 116 and it just feels good."
Like, oh my god, hold my Gucci bag, because I'm about to go off on her.
I think of my girls, who are 9 and 11, and what they're going to think when they inevitably come into contact with this bu****it. Cringeworthy.
When celebrities (and the outlets who print this stuff) spout idiotic, unrealistic garbage like this, how are young people - and a lot of older people, too -supposed to understand that this behaviour is NOT normal? That you're not supposed to almost kill yourself to get down to a tiny weight that you're 'proud of,' only to have your body biologically rebel and cause you to put the weight back on?
Look at the messages she's sending:
1. Eating should be about training yourself like an animal, so you have control. Food is not about being happy
2. Gaining weight is horrible and disgusting
3. Exercising night and day is healthy
4. 'Stuffing your face' is shameful and gluttonous
5. Punishing our bodies should be rewarded
6. Getting down to the lowest weight you can be is the goal
7. Everyone can look like her if they 'work hard enough'
Are you fu***ng kidding me? As if she wasn't vapid enough?
This entire thing is representative of how our society views eating, food, and weight. It's unbelievably sad.
If you have kids, tell them over and over again that celebrities know s**t about nutrition and that this sort of behaviour is unhealthy and wrong.
Tell them that everyone's weight is dynamic, that sometimes you'll gain weight, sometimes you'll lose weight, and that is normal, not shameful.
That food is for fuel but also for pleasure.
That if you try to control everything about your life, you end up unhappy...and not being able to control very much.
That exercise is about caring for your body, not to punishing it.
That we all come in different shapes and sizes, and they should never compare themselves to others.
And hey: that's good advice for all of us, too.
Abby XOXO
