As a designer I look at so many women every day to find the right look for my brand but also to find out what it is women want, what suits them best and what flatters the female figure and brings out it's best attributes. I've always been a girly girl and look up to role models such as Marylin Monroe, Scarlet Johanson, Kate Winslet and Beyonce. They are all perfectly healthy, fit, gorgeous girls, and all are international superstars, yet there is not one six pack in sight.
They have curves!
These days "curvy" generally means someone who is carrying a few extra pounds, but in reality what it really means is someone who has boobs, a but and hips, its the traditional shape of a woman, and has been since the first female ever arrived on this earth (or mutated to be here, which ever way you see it). When you look back at Renaissance Art, you don't see painters fantasising over the farm girl with her ripped abs and giant traps, you see the traditional woman with her flirty figure luring the viewer into her picture through her eyes and a flash of soft pale skin. You see delicate fabrics draped over luscious lips, quietly hinting thighs through sheer fabrics, or a well placed cushion over a partially covered bosom. These days these women would not be considered to be beautiful creatures, but rather ugly, pudgy, middle aged women.
Rather sad to think The Birth of Venus (The God of Love, most favoured God of all the Romans) would now be seen as someone who needs to join a gym.
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| The Birth of Venus Sandro Botticelli 1486 |
Fast forward to present day and all I see in my news feed these days are girls with bodies that would put most blokes to shame, and this is what they're purposely aiming for! The "clean eating, heavy lifting" regime is going too far. I think its safe to say we live in a world of extremes. Why is the girl with a C cup, a flat stomach and healthy insides not idolised? Isn't that who we all want to be? Fit and healthy but still feminine?
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| Crystal Renn International Model and self confessed healthy eater. Courtesy of I like, I wish, I heart |
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| Courtesy of Female Gym Motivation This is the new sexy? Most guys would be too scared to ask this girl on a date in case she decided to kick his ass! |
Don't get me wrong, I love going to the gym and eating healthy but I refuse to take supplements other than vitamins because it's not natural. I live on healthy food most of the time but if I want a Tim Tam, I'll eat one! I think it's great that women are all of a sudden interested in being fit and healthy and looking after themselves, because it's important to do so, but why do we always take everything to the extreme? I go to the gym to release stress, not to lift heavier weights than the guy next to me.
Girls please, if this actually makes a difference to you, from a designer point of view and as a fellow female, you don't need a six pack to prove to the world your strong. You need a strong character and thick skin, you need confidence that only comes from truly loving yourself for everything that you are. If you love you, and you radiate your love, self worth and confidence to the world, then the world will follow suit. Taking supplements (drugs) to make yourself more ripped and toned isn't going to get you that promotion, it isn't going to make your unrequited love suddenly love you and it isn't going to make you a million dollars.
If you work as hard on you as a person (on the inside) as you do to you on the outside, you'll find the world will open a lot more doors to you. All I can say is if your beating yourself up in the gym everyday to look like the girls in your fitness mags, your no different to the girl throwing up in the toilet because Nicole Ritchie is still thinner than her. Grab a handful of self worth, appreciation and love and chow down on that instead.
Stay beautiful ladies and LOVE YOURSELF!
XX
