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hawkwing_lbI met a friend on the train home last night, and somehow we ended up talking about body image and associated crap. (Our conclusion: society is screwed up, and people who make "Women's Clothes" obviously believe women come only shaped like skinny big-breasted aliens with drainpipe legs, or very, very round.)
But it got me thinking.
I'm 5'8 or 5'9, depending on who's doing the measuring. I weigh between 93 and 95 kilograms - 14 stone, or thereabouts. And thinking about the shape of my body last night - carrying the amount of muscle I do right now, I suspect if I weighed in at under 90kg, I'd be borderline unhealthy. Under 85kg, and I would be downright unhealthy.
The Body Mass Index test thinks I'm obese. (BMI of 31.74) Which is a test that is clearly, and demonstrably, flawed, and yet it is used as an indicator of obesity on a global scale by the WHO.
All the advertising that is directed at women's bodies encourages dieting and weight loss, as opposed to exercise and muscle gain - a far healthier, for those who can sustain an exercise program, option. I gave up trying to buy clothes that fit and flattered in the women's section of shops years ago, even before I started climbing. I have thighs like tree-trunks, thanks to years of first hockey, then running, and when I could find trousers that fit my thighs? The waist freaking gaped. So I started buying men's trousers instead: too much fabric in the crotch is a small price to pay.
These days I have the same problem with shirts. Women's tops and blouses come equipped with this problem at the upper arm and shoulder, you see: when I flex my arm, the seams protest. Apparently women can have breasts but not shoulders, and in the clothes which are capacious enough about the shoulder? Billowing fabric around the midrift is not my idea of fun. So when I need a shirt, I buy in the men's department, and get one loose enough to still button in front.
It makes me quite angry, this.
You see, I climb for two hours at least twice a week. I run at least a mile, sometimes two, about twice a week. Maybe once a week I'll do weightwork for an hour or so. This keeps me healthy and relatively sane. So I have the muscle of an amateur athlete (six to eight hours of dedicated exercise is enough in one week, seriously: I do have other things to do as well) and the bones of my ancestors, who have generally been big, broad-shouldered people as far back as family memory goes.
(I've got my mother's shoulders. Plus some muscle that's all my own.)
Which means finding clothes is a bugger. And don't even get me started on the disjoint between my flesh and frame and the female bodytype that seems to be so popular in the media, and just how poisonous that is even for people who recognise the absurdity inherent within this construct.
But it got me thinking.
I'm 5'8 or 5'9, depending on who's doing the measuring. I weigh between 93 and 95 kilograms - 14 stone, or thereabouts. And thinking about the shape of my body last night - carrying the amount of muscle I do right now, I suspect if I weighed in at under 90kg, I'd be borderline unhealthy. Under 85kg, and I would be downright unhealthy.
The Body Mass Index test thinks I'm obese. (BMI of 31.74) Which is a test that is clearly, and demonstrably, flawed, and yet it is used as an indicator of obesity on a global scale by the WHO.
All the advertising that is directed at women's bodies encourages dieting and weight loss, as opposed to exercise and muscle gain - a far healthier, for those who can sustain an exercise program, option. I gave up trying to buy clothes that fit and flattered in the women's section of shops years ago, even before I started climbing. I have thighs like tree-trunks, thanks to years of first hockey, then running, and when I could find trousers that fit my thighs? The waist freaking gaped. So I started buying men's trousers instead: too much fabric in the crotch is a small price to pay.
These days I have the same problem with shirts. Women's tops and blouses come equipped with this problem at the upper arm and shoulder, you see: when I flex my arm, the seams protest. Apparently women can have breasts but not shoulders, and in the clothes which are capacious enough about the shoulder? Billowing fabric around the midrift is not my idea of fun. So when I need a shirt, I buy in the men's department, and get one loose enough to still button in front.
It makes me quite angry, this.
You see, I climb for two hours at least twice a week. I run at least a mile, sometimes two, about twice a week. Maybe once a week I'll do weightwork for an hour or so. This keeps me healthy and relatively sane. So I have the muscle of an amateur athlete (six to eight hours of dedicated exercise is enough in one week, seriously: I do have other things to do as well) and the bones of my ancestors, who have generally been big, broad-shouldered people as far back as family memory goes.
(I've got my mother's shoulders. Plus some muscle that's all my own.)
Which means finding clothes is a bugger. And don't even get me started on the disjoint between my flesh and frame and the female bodytype that seems to be so popular in the media, and just how poisonous that is even for people who recognise the absurdity inherent within this construct.
