Weighty issues.

A couple of days ago, a woman came into our office to interview. She saw me and said, "You probably don't remember me, because last time you saw me, I was pregnant." I said that, yes, I did remember her. At that same time, the guy in the office who was interviewing her walked out, catching the end of the exchange. He said, "Man, I will never ask a woman if she's pregnant again. I was wrong once and it was so embarrassing." To that, the woman interviewing looked at me and said, "I thought you were! Last time I saw you, you were so tiny and now you have a tummy!". She thought, by his comment, that I was pregnant. "No", I said, "I'm not. Just 10 pounds heavier than I was last year." I'll have to admit that exchange ruined my day. I didn't want it to effect me. Really, it's just a stupid, yet honest, mistake made by a rather dim-witted young woman, who has clearly not yet faced the general metabolic slow-down. But it hurt my feelings and caused me to wonder if I did in fact look pregnant. Uuugghh.

I'm sad that women have to feel bad about their bodies if we're 10 pounds heavier than....what's the standard now....a size 6. I was a size 6 just a few short years ago. Now I'm a 10-12. I usually feel fine about it. I think I look more curvy and voluptuous, two things I always wanted to be when I was a stick-skinny teenager. Even in my 20's and part of my 30's, I wished to be more full-figured. I loved the bodies of the pin-up girls from the 1940's and 50's, big round breasts and hips. I think men (men who like "real" women and not Barbies) like fuller figures. But even if they didn't, I'd still like em. I'd still prefer a round booty to a bony booty any day. I don't' fret about it, but it makes me sad that women my age collectively fret about their weight and that as a culture, we don't consider the rounder body of the middle-aged woman sexy, or sexually viable, or healthy looking, or professional, or good.

Yesterday, the President chose Regina Benjamin, a rounder black woman, to be the next Surgeon General. Immediately there are blog comments about her weight and her body type being a bad example for the nations women and children, in an age where obesity is a real problem for national health. Seriously? We're that shallow? Despite this woman's volume of qualifications for this appointment, we have to point out that she's fat? Please. If she looked like Sarah Palin, maybe we'd feel better about her. I'm personally pleased that she looks like a "real" woman, that she has the same body type as "most" women, especially in her age category. Can we just get over it, please?