As Hubby and I flicked through the weekend papers yesterday and I saw the Jen pics, my first thought was: flaws and all my arse. Good for her for stripping down and good for marie claire for putting her on the cover un-re-touched. But hello people, if I had Jen’s body, I’d do the groceries with no bloody clothes on.

There has been criticism of ‘Jen bashing’ and saying she’s not real, and I think it’s a shame that when it comes to body image we get off track and sometimes don’t maybe express our opinions the way we should. All women of all shapes and sizes are real women. Some body types provide a more positive image than others, yes, and is Jen’s one of those bodies? Well that is the million dollar question.

Do I like looking at Jen’s body, and admire her hard work and/or freaking good genes? Yes, I do, and I can appreciate her as a lingerie model and her job that requires her to look a certain way. But out of all the women in the whole entire country, was she the right one for the magazine to make a stand? Probably not. Maybe the right person to make a little bit of ripple, but to try and cause a tidle wave of support for body image, for the AVERAGE Australian women, no.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have my head stuck in the sand, and I think that someone like me or fellow potential covergirl Kerri Sackville would outsell Miss Universe herself in the magazine stakes, (although I’m sure we’d give her a good run for her money), but it still saddens me that at the end of the day whether it was a close second or still the top priority, magazines, like marie claire have a duty to their advertisers to sell magazines. And shitloads of them.

And so here I am flaws, creases, cellulite and all. Why? Well why the hell not? I know I’ve put on weight, about 10kg over the past couple of years. And yes sometimes I have extremely unhappy and p*@$ed off days with my body. I hate my thighs and tummy every single day. But I also know that this is the only body I’ve got, and while I whinge and moan about clothes that don’t fit anymore, I know I’m not fat, but sometimes it still sucks.

But would you catch me like this standing next to Jen. Um, let me think about that. HELL NO!

UPDATE: So after pondering all this for a few hours I felt the need to add something else. Someone wrote on Twitter last night about how they felt when they saw Jen naked on the cover of marie claire. And basically it wasn’t good. I felt the same. I thought if that’s a flawed body then what hope do the rest of us ‘normal’ non-supermodel people have. Um, how about zero. Yes we are all very different shapes and sizes and we should all learn to love the skin we’re in, but comparing ourselves to Jen, which we would all naturally instantly do, is not going to help.

Lastly bravo to Madison Magazine who unfortunately didn’t seem to drum up the same publicity as Jen, but their spread on Aussie’s baring all was a little more comforting in that you could look at women of all sizes and relate. And that’s what we want. To see people who are just like us.

So now that Summer has hit us, it’s time to drag out the dreaded summer attire of, yes you guessed it, the swimmers. Don’t get me wrong, I love Summer, but I’m more of a comfy shorts, or maxi-dress kinda gal. So the thought of having to put on a pair of swimmers is far from being my cup of tea.

I recently weighed in on the body image issue, you can read about that HERE, and trying on a pair swimmers just ain’t what it used to be.

I’m afraid I have to admit that I seriously feel like I’ve grown old before my time. Exhibit A of this would be standing in the change rooms trying on a nice simple black bikini and the bottoms don’t, well, they don’t properly cover your butt crack. Yes that’s right they don’t come up high enough, and if you pull them up you run the risk of your butt cheeks falling further out of the sides of the bikini bottoms. Painting a great picture ha! And is it too much to ask that the bikini tops actually cover something. Not everyone wants their girls hanging out.

I own so many pairs of swimmers that could fit all creatures great and small, and NONE, I repeat NONE of them are right. Why do we buy things that aren’t just right. Actually I think that’s a whole other Puff Piece! So I feel another ‘little black’ adventure coming on. In case you missed the first one: The Little Black Shoe (LBS) you can read about that HERE.

Where was I? Oh yes the new adventure to find the LBB, the Little Black Bikini. I can’t wait to traipse around the shops and try on a heap of bikini’s in those lovely change rooms with those even more lovely, HIDEOUS lights that make your skin look l like you need a chemical peel all over your body. Ugh. And don’t even get me started on boardshorts. Oh, ok I will then. You see, I see boardshorts now as a necessity and refuse to go out in public without my boardshorts on when wearing swimmers. But then when you’re actually in the water the feeling of wearing the boardshorts is yuck, with them all wet and riding up you know where and then when you get out they stick to you, and UGH.

Gosh and I thought I loved Summer. Maybe I’ll just stick to my lovely air-conditioned house this year.

What will you be wearing this Summer togs wise?

Not on the models in the magazines, the plus sized models on the catwalk, or lack there of, or the way photoshop is used to make even the tiniest of people look even tinier.

No, none of that. I’d like to talk about my own thoughts on MY body. Risky, selfish, whatever you want to call it, here’s what I think about me, myself and I.

My story isn’t one for the dramatics. I don’t have an eating disorder, and I don’t go to extremes with my food or exercise. Well I don’t really go anywhere with my exercise because I don’t really do any.

Growing up I never had a weight issue. I was naturally normal. I don’t like to say the word thin, because a) I don’t like it and b) you wouldn’t look at me and think wow she’s thin, I was you know, just a size 10. I never had to worry about bits poking out here and there, and was easily able to where usually whatever I wanted quite comfortably. God I sound up myself, but I promise you I’m not!!

So there I was plodding along not worried about my weight until a couple of years ago. Gradually I noticed that no more could I just eat whatever I wanted without consequence. And slowly the kilo’s crept on. So about 2 years ago I gradually put on about 8-10 kilos, it hovers depending on what I’ve eaten that day!

I have pants that I can juuust do up, and would ok to wear if you know I didn’t need to breathe or anything important like that. I have dresses that fit, if you call fitting, being able to do them up, but then not being able to walk for fear the side of it might split in half!

Any you know what, I’m ok with that. I’m ok with the fact that my body has changed, and I haven’t even got bloody kids to blame it on! Essentially my weight gain has been evenly distributed! So I’m just a little more padded all over! My butt pokes out more than it used to. On a bad day, I could pass my tummy off for at least 4 months preggers. My arms have that slight tuckshop lady flab going on, and don’t even get me started on my thighs!

I guess in some respect I do worry about gaining weight, enough for me to think about writing this post anyway. But not in a ‘oh my god I’m fat’ kinda way. And not in a I HAVE to look like that model in the magazine kinda way either. More that I know I’d probably feel a little better about myself if I exercised more and got my body moving. I’d be healthier and feel better phyically, and with that comes feeling better about how you look.

So I guess in a nutshell, while I grief for the clothes that I used to feel fantastic in, I’m also ok with the fact that I prefer and feel more comfortable in a maxi-dress as opposed to a mini-skirt. (Not that I ever got round in mini-skirts, but you get my point!). And for those that know me, no I haven’t lost my mind, yes most of my clothes are 10-12, but I still thought I’d share my body changing experience anyhow.

So there you have it, Ami’s Body Image according to moi! Alright, your turn now!

We got what we had to get oh so very quickly and then headed to the foodcourt to grab some dinner. We decided to get something relatively healthy and chose a salad place. As the girl was packaging up our pasta and salad I noticed their slogan on the back of her shirt. It said “Eat Larger, Stay Thin”.

I thought about this for a second and decided that I didn’t really like the use of the word ‘Thin’ and all that it implies. Maybe I’ve been exposed to too much body image talk lately, but something about it just didn’t sit right with me.

While it’s only one little word, it can send so many messages to so many people, most of which are negative.

As a healthy size 10-12 girl, I have thankfully never had an eating disorder, but I do often think about my weight. I’ve probably put on approx 6 kilos over the last couple of years and often find myself putting on old clothes that just don’t fit, which is kinda depressing. But at the end of the day I’m not big on exercising or dieting and most of the time accept how I am and just buy different clothes now. (Yes another excuse to go shopping!)

So what do you think of the tagline? Am I over reacting? I’m actually finding it hard to pinpoint my exact grievance over the tagline, except my first initial reaction was, Hmmm, I’m not to sure about that.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

So after feeling all warm and fuzzy after reading a story about a plus-size model, my warm and fuzziness quickly disappeared when I saw this story on www.ninemsn.com.au:

Keira’s boobs pumped up for Chanel ad

Slimline Keira Knightley doesn’t need to be slimmed down in Photoshop for her ad campaigns… she just gets plumped up instead. In a new image from her latest shoot for Chanel perfume, Keira’s chest looks somewhat fuller than what she’s famous for. UK’s Daily Mail called in airbrushing expert Chris Bickmore to study the new picture of the 24-year-old actress, and concluded that “her breast has had some shading added to it to give it the effect of being rounder and more pert and it has also been increased in size slightly.”

Der.

It’s just pretty lame that women in advertising seem to be either too fat or not voluptuous enough these days. UK Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone, a fervent campaigner against the use of excessive airbrushing in ads, said Keira’s Chanel shoot was fine – but that people need to realise the image had been tampered with.

“Keira is a beautiful woman and that’s the point,” she was quoted as saying.

“If the image has been airbrushed then people need to know so they don’t try and achieve what is totally unrealistic.

“Young girls especially will try and aspire to things which often they can’t achieve and which will leave them feeling bad about themselves.

“Where an image has been altered and retouched, we are simply saying there needs to be a symbol showing what has been done and where.”

Keira’s no stranger to boob controversy – in 2004 her King Arthur publicity images got a chesty makeover. The image used for the UK release showed her natural chest, where her breasts were digitally enhanced for the US version.

“Those things certainly weren’t mine,” she said at the time.

“We had an interesting discussion when they said, ‘We want to make them slightly larger and you’ll get approval’ and I was like, ‘OK, fine. I honestly don’t give a s***’.”

Firstly I think this issue is going to be an ever evolving one in this industry, and unfortunately stories like this are like 2 steps forward and one step back. Secondly, I think that Keira should give a shit. If she’s proud of the rack she’s got then she should have said no to the digital enhancement.
So what do you think? Are we always going to be banging our heads against a brick wall on this issue, or slowly slowly wins the race?