Lately some of my American friends are writing about the “Strong is the new skinny” movement. You can read Eileen’s post here and Liz’s post from Cave Girl Eats here. I love what Marsha and Adam the founders of “Strong is the new skinny” have done for women all around the world, but I still want to share my opinion about the way I see, feel and understand that.
Skinny is something I never wanna be, feel, associate with and aim for! Strong is my lifetime goal! I understand that in “Strong is the new skinny”, strong is meant to become our ideal, and skinny to be left in our past, but I do not want strong to become the new skinny.
Skinny is the ultimate goal of a lot of young girls and elder women. Most of them go through hell and back, trying to achieve that robbed of life look! All the mental issues, the eating disorders, self hate and body image issues, that have to do with being skinny are destructive!
A person that hasn’t been a part of the journey of being in the prison of your own thoughts and self hate, could never understand how skinny feels like! Seeing somebody waste the beautiful person she is, in the mere goal of perfection is heartbreaking! The days, spend hardly existing, struggling to breath, move and eat… the pain of being around of people, but feeling lonely… The pain of being beautiful but seeing yourself as fat, disgusting and unattractive!
Why would you want strong to be the new skinny? The new ideal that gripes women… The new ideal that leaves tons of expectations and the all or nothing attitude.
Is that the reason we are trying so hard to convince women that skinny is not the way to live? Just to give them another ideal, that will torture their minds and bodies?
I don’t think so! I think that the main reason we are trying to convince woman to lift weights and eat clean, is to help them accept themselves, love themselves and be themselves! The main point is health! Be healthy and don’t waste who you are, trying to be who others think you should be!
Strong is a relative concept! For a child, his parents could be seen as strong. For the ordinary person, an athlete might be seen as strong… strong depends on who you are looking to and who you are comparing with.
I don’t want to spread the word for another ideal, that will turn in the next century’s mental disease! Strong is strong!
And what I truly believe is that Health is Beautiful and that is all that matters. And health is hidden in balance! Don’t forget why we are trying so hard to convince women that skinny ain’t the way to do it- HEALTH! Not appearance!
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Here is what I think is happening.
Strong is the New Skinny is the first movement to gain real momentum and effect totally awesome positive change. CrossFit, Social Media, and SINS kind of grew up together ON social media.
As in every movement, as it evolves, people think about what they are doing and why. There is such a variety of people getting strong, getting fit – there is no way ONE statement, movement, FB page or philosophy can encompass all of us.
So as people think about what exists, new ideas emerge, different people speak their voice and the only thing that happens is:
WE GROW.
I do not know one person who says anything negative about SINS. But being able to talk freely about each of our own relationship to this very word, this word that seems to haunt us wherever we go, is important, liberating, empowering, and healthy for ALL of us.
We are all in this together. – e
Oh I know! And I appreciate all you do as well! 🙂
I have always prided myself on the fact that I say over and over and over again that strong is and looks different for each individual. I’m not offended in any way by this and I accept and am okay with people that may disagree or want to pick things apart on the most specific level. I just want to make sure that I say what I am about with my own words. No one should try to look like or be like me or anyone else. Every person that hears my message to be the best version of themselves. That does not mean perfect…there’s no such thing. It means for us to always be evolving and trying to be better…not just on the outside but on the inside too. It’s popular right now for everyone to use the tagline “Strong is the new skinny” and put a new spin on it or say why their way is better. We as fitness enthusiasts can be so self defeating. The fact is…we all want the same thing…for people to love and accept themselves and improve where they can…but everyone wants to be right. I embrace and encourage ALL kinds of women…all ages…all shapes and sizes. I don’t encourage people to embrace skinny but I also take issue with women making fun of other women that are thin. Like I said…I’m not upset by this. I am just explaining where I am coming from. Here are a couple of my blog posts that may speak to this as well. Either way…agree or disagree…I applaud anyone that is out there trying to motivate and inspire, so thank you for that!
http://www.strongisnewskinny.blogspot.com/2010/09/am-i-strong-enough.html
http://www.strongisnewskinny.blogspot.com/2010/11/measurements-and-statistics.html
Thank you for the comment Marsha! As I said I really appreciate everything you do! I am a fan of yours. I know you don’t encourage anybody to starve or be skinny. I just shared my thoughts on the sentence strong is thenew skinny! Otherwise you have my support for everything! You really change lives!
Ines 🙂