Black Women: Do you get weight loss support?

I am a skinny white chick so my lived experience cannot relate to your stories. However, I can say something to the beauty ideals we have. Globally, it has actually been the norm that women with more fat meet the beauty ideal. Slimness is a very western, mostly white, ideal that is actually fairly new. Curves, fat, girth, etc, use to be valued because it symbolized fertility. With the rise of western feminism, and the values of entering the workplace rather than being a mother and homemaker increased, slimness, androgyny, a more “boyish” look became more compelling to many white women. To make a long story short, this all evolved to where we are now – skinniness; however, curves have come back to being valued if they’re confined to breasts and butts. This western white ideal has somewhat spread to other cultures and countries – as a lot of western white beauty ideals do: lighter skin, smaller noses, etc. However, you will still find that more curves, fat, etc are still valuable in many cultures. I personally think that monolithic beauty ideals are effed up. I don’t think skinny should be any more valuable than fat; however, we’re on a fitness site so I’m not sure if this is the right audience for body-love in all forms. Also, in many ways “healthy” and “unhealthy” are social constructs, but I won’t get into that or I could go on forever.

I believe that we have the right to choose what we want our bodies to look like so if you want to be slim I hope you find the support you need. Whether friends and family are telling you to eat more or eat less, it can be really frustrating. I wish people would mind their own and be supportive of the choices of others. I hope you find your support. But thinking there is something wrong with other people’s bodies is something people need to check. I have so much respect for the big women I know that reject what society tells them and work on loving and accepting themselves in a society that shames their bodies.

If you’re interested there is a really interesting ethnography called “Feeding Desire: Fatness, Beauty and Sexuality Among a Saharan People” by Popenoe about extreme fatness being the feminine ideal in the Moors in Sahara dessert.

P.S. My fav blog: http://www.hanneblank.com/blog/2011/06/23/real-women/

“There is no wrong way to have a body”

It's me, thanks!

Haha my trainer thinks it is hilarious that I keep telling her I want everything to shrink except for my butt. It's just that my butt is so small for a black girl already.

i dont need support of others.. i gained weight on my own, so i dont see the need to have a posse or support system to lose weight. you're losing the weight for your own reasons, dont make other people's issues yours.

but as someone who's always been active i find that many people (black white asian whatever) are lazy assess so i never discuss my workoyts with them unless i know they into fitness or have an athletic background. otherwise i tend to get too many "oh no you're over doing it!" comments if they discover that i workout 6 hours a week and doubly so if they find out how hard i exercise while doing it.

I’m
Super duper late but no I don’t. They think it’s better if I’m overweight and eating unhealthy crap all day.