GEORGIE - A positive thought to get the week underway...

Just a little note to start the week off... a TV programme that I recorded last week and watched over the weekend... "Extreme parenting with Jo Frost" TV's very own supernanny, of whom I am a big fan. (I love no nonsense women.) Besides coaching parents with totally un-controllable children, Jo also took this feature length episode to address a few other issues to do with parenting and one of them was childen's perception of what was acceptable weight-wise. Jo's experiment involved a test group of children, all female, aged 6, 9 and 12. With each group she photographed the girls in leggings and a t-shirt, then showed each child their real image with 6 other digitally enhanced images that showed them up to 3 sizes smaller or 3 sizes fatter then they were. When Jo discussed the results with each child, nearly half of them who chose a much skinnier version of themselves when asked which image they liked the best. This, right down to the children as young as 6 showed an amazing awareness of body image which really concerned her. She was worried that some of the children thought that painfully thin was a good thing. In group discussions she then found generally negative attitude towards pictures of overweight people. She was then interested to find that a number of the girls had parents who were outwardly obsessed with their weight. Surprise surprise, kids whose mums whinge, whine and vocalise their own weight issues tend to pass on the nervosa. Kids pay attention! I was fascinated by it. Applause for these kids, some of them really young, for recognising what's healthy and what is not - but fear that indeed, too much endorsement of the mega-thin in our society can indeed have affect. I am not however a mum, and I don't really feel qualified to start any debate on this.

To the point then - what I do want to discuss is the other result of the photo images these girls were shown. As discussed above, the girls were asked WHICH image they liked best of themselves (i.e. what size) THEN Jo asked them which image/size they thought was the true original, un-doctored image. In so many cases, these little treasures were picking an image one, two, even three sizes bigger then themselves. This REALLY fascinated me. It says a lot about what we think about our own body image. I think many women and girls across the spectrum would have been picking those bigger size images no matter what age.
I am beginning to think we always THINK we are bigger then we are. I know in my case, and in the case of my ridiculously fit and perfect baby sister Posie, this is true. My negative perception of my curvier, heavier bits (plus the fact I look DOWN at my hips and thighs from above) leads me to feel like I am much bigger then I actually am. Baz Luhrmann in his infinite wisdom said 'you are not as fat as you imagine' and I agree.
Maybe it's time for a little self doctrination about our sizest issue towards ourselves! It's a very Oprah/cheer leader cliche to say but if you respect your size your confidence will show through. But if it's a mantra we/you/I need then so be it! Perhaps it's just time to stop looking at other women on the street and wondering if 'I look like that in skinny jeans too'...

So this week, your/my/our challenge is to get positive about your body. Cover what you know. Dress in what you know suits you, in a style that suits your height, age and size and let yourself start to believe that you do look better then you think. I am calling for all of us this week, to GIVE OURSELVES A BREAK. Just for a few days, let's all try and follow Baz Lurmann's advice and believe that we are not as fat as we think we are. There might be a few straighter backs and higher heads this week and that would be great! Nowt wrong with a bit of confidence I say! Go get 'em ladies!!