A Special Place for Confusing Body Image With Health
Cheryl Tiegs is creating a kerfuffle by confusing body image with health and criticizing the current cover model for Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue, Ashley Graham. Citing Dr. Oz as her go-to source, Tiegs says that Graham’s waist “is not healthy.” According to Tiegs, “Your waist should be smaller than 35.”
It turns out that Graham’s waist is 29.5, according to the Daily Mail.
Arrrgh. A good friend pointed us to Tiegs’ rant, saying “There’s a special place in hell…” Those now infamous words from Madeleine Albright might indeed have worked better in this situation. Neither women nor men have any business making assumptions about someone’s health based upon appearances. Waif-thin models such as Tiegs might indeed have special health risks connected to their lifestyles, but we have no business speculating or criticizing. Tiegs should take a hint and get over her own presumptuous judgements of health based on appearance.
Sadly, Tiegs’ stupid comment is just an indicator of the widespread false assumption that obesity is a disease of appearance and body image. Unfortunately, too much of the public dialog about obesity misleads people into thinking so.
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Swimsuits, illustration © stardust soul / flickr
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February 26, 2016
February 26, 2016 at 6:54 am, Joe Gitchell said:
Speaking truth, Ted. Thank you.
Joe
February 26, 2016 at 6:57 am, Ted said:
The “special place in hell” connection is courtesy of our mutual friend, Gwyn. Another friend told me this week that the world is full of judgemental lycra these days.