I’m about to  get on my high horse here, because society is pissing me right off at the moment. All day, everyday we are bombarded with images of women. In magazines, on the TV, in movies, Advertising campaigns, Shop dummies, the catwalk. EVERYWHERE we look, we see the ideal woman shown to be skinny, with little to no curves, a boyish frame, preferably somewhere between a British size 4 (US 0) and a size 8.

The fact is though, that in order to be that size zero, you almost certainly need to have a BMI which classifies you as anorexic. Given that people with Anorexia are a serious concern for the NHS due to the dangerously low weight they maintain, size zero can hardly be claimed to be healthy.

Let’s take a little trip back in time…

1950… the women modelling clothing were typically a size 10 or 12. Go much smaller, and you were considered “skinny” and that was bad news back then…

Yes, this advert is to help women GAIN weight.

Let’s go back a little further…

I know this picture is overused, but it portrays the idea of the “perfect woman in the 1400s - BEFORE the idea of dieting was planted in women’s minds. This image shows women as they were intended to be - with curves. NO, I know not EVERY woman is naturally curvy, and that’s fine, but women ARE designed to have hips and boobs, its a SURVIVAL thing, people.

That “fat” stomach you have? You know, the one which won’t look like Britney spears’ 10 years ago no matter how many sit ups you do? Guess what? It won’t go flat because it is there to protect your womb - the thing which you require in order to continue human life.

Here’s something else useful to know - men are HARDWIRED (generally speaking) to find curvy women attractive. curves, somewhere in the primeval part of the male brain = health and health = a good partner to pro-create with. If you were scrawny and underweight 500 years ago, you were probably about to drop down dead of some vile illness, malnutrition, or you wouldn’t survive pregnancy. Why mate with someone who is unable to carry and then raise your offspring? defies the point of life - to continue the cycle.

So, why is thin in then?

Let’s look at our society. Celebrities are the new aristocracy. Remember how the richest people were palest in the Elizabethan times? And how people used to “whiten” their faces to appear more pale and therefore richer? This is, essentially the same.

Celebrities are desirable, rich, popular and admired. They can also afford the dietitians, personal trainers, and the TIME to be thin. On some level, the feeling is, if you can LOOK like societies most admired people, maybe you WILL be admired as much as them. Yes, its shallow, no it’s not ALL there is to it, and OK, not everyone feels that way. However, it IS a big part of our problem today.

how many people do you meet on a day to day basis who are a size 0? Chances are, not many. Your average British woman is a size 14 - 16. 50 years ago she was a size 12- 14. This surely sends us a clear message? Most of us just are NOT designed to be super skinny, so why do we torture ourselves to achieve it?

Let’s bring healthy back.