Thin is pretty. This is the premise on which the world functions. It is unfortunate but it is true. Women are subjugated to this unfair and absolutely incorrect norm that skinny women are considered hot while heavier ones are not. Why does this happen? The image of a woman and how she should be and what role does she play in society goes a long way in explaining this imagery.
Feminine traits are for some absurd reason linked with being attractive and thin. This pejorative imagery is primarily based on the mindset of males. Since men 'desire' women to be a certain way - a way that does not threaten the dominance of the male and does not repulse or disgust him, over the years it has become a given that women who are thin are attractive. This imagery also flows through popular culture, further cementing it into human psyche.
This poses a very serious problem to all females. With a constant comparison to others around them and what they perceive to be the ideal type - most of them are obsessed with weight loss. In extreme cases, this leads to depression and can cause life threatening circumstances. The world would have been a much better place without mirrors. Women and mirrors are sworn enemies. In front of a mirror, most women are either saying "Oh my god look at my arms" or "My belly jiggles all the time" or "When did I get those thunder thighs?" Weight loss therefore, is a birth right to each woman and you will hardly come across a woman who has not fretted about her weight and does not think about weight loss at least 10 times in a day.
In the bargain, this obsession with weight loss has provided brilliant business opportunities for fitness and weight loss products and services that have mushroomed across the globe. Women drive the weight loss industry forward as they remain their biggest patrons and this unlikely to change in the future. Unfortunately, women who do not find them conforming to the norm of ideal body type usually slip into depression or develop complexes and layered personalities which are difficult to understand and treat.
Constant comparisons with peers and celebrities leads many woman to take drastic steps like starving, using dangerous supplements or other products or even going in for surgical procedures to stay and look thin. Advanced forms of distorted body image relate to anorexia and bulimia which are life threatening diseases.
It is very important to openly tell women that they are absolutely fine and help them accept their bodies. Weight loss is not even required for many and yet they waste a majority of their lives just fretting and cribbing about it. Indeed, weight loss and women are inseparable.
