BODY type & Beauty:
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED GOT SOME HEAT LAST MONTH OVER BOWING TO THE PRESSURE TO FEATURE MORE REGULAR SIZED WOMEN IN THEIR FAMOUS BIKINI Spread.
HERE'S WHY I LIKE THE EXPANSION OF THEIR FEATURED BEAUTY IDEAL:
Yes, much of America has gotten unhealthily overweight with our poisoned food supply and I don't support adjusting advertising to accommodate this fact rather than fixing our flawed food production.
But the model featured is not unhealthily overweight and isn't advertising being unhealthy - she's a beautiful woman - with a different body type than we're used to seeing advertised as sexy.
Her skin is clear, features symmetrical, and it appears her immune system is strong. So why shouldn't she be rocking her goddess energy alongside the other embodiments of fertility indicators Sports Illustrated is so famous for?
WHAT'S OUR BEEF WITH THIS BODY TYPE?
This model is 1 of 3 body types commonly found in humans. Using the language of Indian healing practice, Ayurveda, she's just a grounded strong fluid Kapha body type in a culture that currently celebrates the lean, airy Vata types.
If we were in a culture struggling with scarcity and starvation, this Kapha body type would be the advertised ideal over the currently celebrated lean Vata.
Our ancestors survived in different climates, we have different blood types, and our body shapes show up in a few different versions - indicating different traits and survivability.
Other cultures & earlier periods in U.S. history have celebrated a wider range of body types- usually depending on who's in power, what's "popular," and abundant food supply.
Now if she was a Vata or Pitta type that was just imbalanced due to unhealthy habits and we were celebrating obesity instead of fixing our country's health problem, I'd be the first to complain.
But it's not the case.
She's a curvy Kapha girl, wired to survive in different environmental stimuli and has every right to be celebrated for her sexiness alongside leaner bikini clad body types.
.
beauty is not a thin thing.
Beauty is actually a symmetrical, fertility indicator, estrogen distribution thing. Although THIN may be marketed to us as a beauty indicator, this is only in wealthy, resource abundant societies. It's actually the model's ratios that make her appealing.
Clear skin, higher voice, symmetrical face, full fertility indicators like round booty, full breasts, curvy .7 waist to hip ratio (at any size), and longer hair - all indicate a healthy immune system, enough estrogen to reproduce strong babies, and hips that can bear those babies.
Because women are the peacocks of the human species, it ends up being our burden and power source to be the beautiful, showy ones.
In bird species, the males are often bestowed this role. To blame it on the media is slightly off. The media merely exploits our biological preferences to sell us more crap we don't need. They'll use whatever advertising sells more clothing or dish soap or furniture....
But biology is only half to blame as the 'group think', 'going viral' element, leaves certain trends on the front page longer which affects future preferences. Certain tastemakers in society do affect which version of our biological wiring we think we're supposed to prefer. Right now we are seeing uber thin get crowded out by larger booty...
Here's a 3 min video on past popular preferences that are different from today's rage.
Marketing that goes too far
The extreme focusing on these inflated fertility indicators (overly exaggerated waist to hip ratio, pumped up lips and breasts, photoshop...) have aired on the side of ridiculous and moved the needle to almost unattainable beauty standards.
This unattainable standard setting is why I support the average woman doing her own PR campaign through filters and apps that keep her competitive in an environment putting out unrealistic versions of our ideal standards. (Specific tips released in my upcoming book)
I've worked with a top super model for 10 years. Despite her being one of the prettiest people on the planet at 6am with no makeup, she's still ushered into 3 hours of hair and makeup, given an army to assemble lighting and backdrops and a videographer at 10k/ day to shoot her even more biologically appealing.
Not even her regular gorgeous self, let alone the rest of us, stands a chance against this level of production. Knowing this, we have to love ourselves and accentuate our natural gift.
Marketing is competing with other marketing to out dazzle each other in competition for our limited attention. So they go for the cheap win and come straight back to sex with bigger and more distracting images to hijack our brains.
By exploiting our biological preference for full boobies, lips, and hips with tiny waists, we get this characature of what female fertile sexiness looks like.
This leaves a lot of women wondering how to feel good enough. "So you want me to have the hips and boobs of Kapha but the waist of Vata?
I don't love it and it's not good for our self esteem, but I do understand that it works. And with plastic surgery allowing for us to become walking fertility indicators, there's a lot of pressure to do what it takes to stay competitive.
Capitalism, with all of it's strengths, is not going to choose healthy values over exploiting incentive systems to sell more stuff. It's also not going anywhere so I've turned my focus to making sure the GetHSH community is armed to have a fighting chance to feel good and look beautiful.
Let's rally behind giving all the body types a space to showcase their wares and shape the cultural influence of a biological ideal . Let's celebrate Vata, Pitta, & Kapha doing their sexy thing.
So...
Our country celebrates a narrow view of beauty that doesn't reflect the reality of our body type variations. I love that Sports Illustrated got with the program and rocked a Kapha Body type in all her curvy beautifulness. I love the DIRECTION OF THE MODELING industry in general.
I love that she is healthy and not crossing the line into glamorizing the sick obesity epidemic that is plaguing our citizens thanks to a poisoned, processed food supply. We absolutely need a broader model base to highlight all the versions of beauty nature has provided.
Call to Action:
If you have a body type that isn't lean Vata, please shake what your mama gave you and show up beautifully, proudly, and shine brightly.
Be the power source to give other women permission to love and enjoy their unique manifestation on this planet. Be unapologetic about loving yourself and take good care of the body you've been given. Dress it up beautifully, enjoy it fully.
Do cool stuff with it, travel, play, and enjoy delicious experiences and food. We need you showing up vibrantly and shifting the focus back to a truer representation of beauty where all 3 body types get to strut.
#CelebrateTrueBeauty #Rockwhatyou'veGot #Don'tPoisonOurPeople #KeepShowinUp
