So while I was in China, I was happily walking about oblivious to the people around me and just, you know, chilling. Then my world fell apart when my mom pointed something out to me:
"Did you notice that all the girls here are tall and skinny?"*Glass shatters*
No I didn't. Thanks mom. But seriously. All of them, (OK not all of them because obviously I didn't see all the females in Beijing) were tall AND skinny. Not the seniors but like the working class people. AND they were really quite fashionable as well- I reckon its all those markets where they can get cheap and good clothes.
You see, I consider myself "above average" in height and that's about all I got going for me and then I'm in Beijing and feel like a dwarf. Alright, alright, I'm exaggerating. I'm not so much shorter than them, about half a head maybe. But on top of that, they're skinny as well. I mean come on! Rice is the national food of China, WHERE DEM CARBS AT?
Actually I think I know the answer to that. They walk/cycle everywhere. Considering the number of cars on the road you'd think that China has a car per family. But no, you see, there's about 1.35 billion people in China and if you approximate that the top 10% of China has cars that's already 135 million cars. Thus the incredibly astounding long traffic jams.
Anyways the rest of the people will cycle or walk to their destinations and that ladies and gentleman is where dem carbs at. Not at their destinations- I mean, at- you get what I mean. So the solution is to walk everywhere. Unfortunately in my country if you walked to your destination, you wouldn't get there. Either you would get lost because of the lack of pavements, get hit by a car or like me, take one step out of the house, start sweating buckets and run back in.
I don't know if China is becoming the next South Korea, in the sense that plastic surgery is becoming the norm, but it's insane that about 90% of the young females I saw were both tall and model-like skinny.
All jokes aside, this is actually a serious issue. China and America are probably the biggest two countries where conformity is the number 1 rule, regardless of how America promotes individuality. Just take a look at their models, their celebrities (though they're diversifying more) and the stereotypical high school life depicted in movies.
I would just like all you females out there to take time to watch this video.
At first I was flabbergasted, thinking that she was contradicting the very point she was trying to make. In the video she says that "[She's] comfortable with her body", and of course she is, she's fit and beautiful, regardless of those idiots calling her a pig. But then I watched it again and understood that, though it sounded a bit arrogant, it wasn't. She has paved her way into a modelling career even when she wasn't skinny enough to get in and even when she got called a pig, she still held her head high. She's setting an example and making people wonder, if she's a plus-size, what does normal size look like?
I know I need to work on this as well, but we need to feel beautiful no matter our body size. We are after all, individuals and so cannot objectify beauty as a number on a scale. Be healthy, be strong-minded, know yourself and be content with how you are. Don't give in to the stares, or ever let people tell you that you're not good enough, because if you're good enough for yourself, then that is all that matters and who are they to say otherwise?
So I take back what I said. Go to China.
P.S. Just found out about this video depicting the truth about the media and what a lot of girls are striving for: an impossible 'perfect' body.
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