Ok, I have to admit, I don't watch television during the day unless DH is home (he's the TV addict). So, he had today off and was watching TV, and one of the commercials was Wynonna, talking about how she's taking Alli, and doing it for her kids, and how she wouldn't recommend anything that isn't safe (and says how Alli is FDA-approved).
Now, I'm not much on country music, but I have seen Wynonna when she was thinner, and I've seen her when she wasn't thin. Either way, she's a talented woman, and I think she's gorgeous at whatever size she happens to be. For her to be taking Alli (with its "wonderful" side effects) just makes me so sad for her, and for all the women who will follow her example because she's a star. That kind of pressure to be thin has to cost so much in self-esteem.......it makes me wonder how a woman who knows she has talent and is good at what she does can believe she's not worthy of her fame just because she isn't stick-thin. Or does that pressure make her think the fame she got when she wasn't thin was just a fluke, and in order to keep that fame, and keep working, she has to get thin?
I don't understand it, because I never thought I was worthless because I was fat, I thought I was worthless because nothing I ever did was good enough for certain people in my life, everything I did could always have been done better if I had just worked a little harder, no matter how hard I worked. My diets weren't ever to improve my looks, I never thought I was cute, or pretty, or good-looking, so losing weight wouldn't have made me any better-looking, at least, not in my eyes. My diets were always for my "health" because doctors were just sure that I was either going to die any minute or I was going to end up with diabetes or some other debilitating disease, and they pushed the fact that losing weight would prevent any of that happening to me. So to try and lose weight to become better looking (or more acceptable in others' eyes) just is not comprehensible to me. I guess I was pretty lucky when I was working too, in that my weight was never an issue at any of the jobs I ever had. Never prevented me from getting a job I wanted, never prevented me from doing that job to the best of my ability, and didn't matter much to most of my co-workers (at least, if it did matter, none of them had the balls to say anything to me about it).
I am getting so fed up with the entertainment industry and their unattainable, unrealistic ideal for how women should look in order to be able to work. If a person has talent, they should be allowed to use that talent, and shouldn't be pressured to meet model-thin standards. I like diversity when I'm watching a movie or listening to music (if I didn't like diversity, I wouldn't listen to Jimmy Buffett and Metallica and Brule' and Blackmore's Night and Johnny Cash). So to deny diversity of talent and body shape/size in entertainment seems short-sighted to me. After all, if you look at the world around us, there is a huge amount of variety in sizes and shapes and colors, and that should be reflected in the movies we watch and the music we listen to and the books we read. I'm really sorry that that isn't the case, and I'm sorry that Wynonna has bought whatever bullshit her doctor spouted to get her to take Alli (how on earth do you perform on stage if you're taking a drug that can make you unexpectedly shit yourself?).
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
14 comments:
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I have a sinking feeling that the only way you can perform while taking Alli is by simply not eating for XX amount of time beforehand.
ReplyDeleteWhich I guess is kind of the point - that'll make you lose weight after all!
Does anyone else think that the side effects of this drug are like a kind of negative reinforcement deal? Being that they punish you when you eat something you "shouldn't"? *shudder* I cannot understand what posesses people to take this crap! (HA!)
Yeah, not eating before a performance would prevent that side effect all right. But then do you have the energy to put on a good performance if you're hungry? I mean, that takes a lot of energy.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand anyone who is willing to take a drug for anything when the possible side effects of the drug are worse than the illness it's supposed to prevent. I see all the drugs advertised on television, and the side effects, and I think I'd rather suffer with the disease than deal with the side effects (and Alli definitely falls in that category).
It reminds me of that song... Underwear Goes Inside the Pants, by LazyBoy. Specifically, this bit
ReplyDelete"You know we have more prescription drugs now.
Every commercial that comes on TV is a prescription drug ad.
I can't watch TV for four minutes without thinking I have five serious diseases.
Like: "Do you ever wake up tired in the morning?"
Oh my god I have this, write this down. Whatever it is, I have it.
Half the time I don't even know what the commercial is:
people running in fields or flying kites or swimming in the ocean.
I'm like that is the greatest disease ever. How do you get that?
That disease comes with a hot chick and a puppy."
Although I think the whole song is freakin hilarious, I don't want to take up half your blog with the lyrics! LOL
OMG! That captures it exactly!! I think that's what the pharmaceutical companies are thinking and that's why they do those commercials. Put the symptoms out there in a vague manner, tell consumers there's a drug for it, and talk to your doctor about whether you have whatever ailment and is this drug right for you. And if their drug reps have been to see your doctor, chances are zie has drug samples with which to treat you. and voila, more sales/more money.
ReplyDeleteFor whatever it's worth, when I used to sing in front of people I couldn't eat a thing for a couple of hours beforehand, my stomach was too nervous. (There are famous singers who are well known for actually puking before they go onstage because they're so nervous.)
ReplyDeleteSingers are usually pretty particular about what they eat before a performance, too, since it can affect their voices. I had a no-dairy-before-the-show rule myself; the last thing I needed was to have so much gunk in my throat that nothing would come out when I sang. Also, nothing carbonated...URRRRP!
Wynnona must really need the money. You'd be surprised at how often that's the case with famous people who do these deals; even though they make a lot, they get behind on their taxes and whatnot. I hope to God she doesn't actually use the stuff.
Andee (Meowser)
I had a friend who sang, and he never ate before a gig, but man, could he put away the chow afterward (and he was skinny as a rail, too, people swore up and down his legs were hollow....lol).
ReplyDeleteI wondered if it was a money thing, and is she really taking the drug, or just saying she is. I would hope she isn't using it, but no way to know for sure.
Alli only makes you "randomly shit yourself" if you take it without concurrently consuming a low-fat diet.
ReplyDeleteYes, I know that, but it's not always easy to know the amount of fat in every food one might eat. And you don't have to go over that limit by much in order to have the hershey squirts. I'm sorry, but that's leading to obsession about food and what's in it, and can I go anywhere after I eat, and maybe I should be wearing a diaper just in case. For me, weight loss that isn't going to be maintainable, and only adds up to maybe an additional 3 lbs is not worth that amount of hassle, obsession, and humiliation. But because I'm fat, drug makers and doctors think I deserve that kind of treatment? Fuck them.
ReplyDeleteTo build off your last comment, Vesta...
ReplyDeleteHow sad is it that people think it is better to randomly shit yourself via Alli than to be the weight they are at right now?
I find the Alli side-effects ironic, cuz coming from the eating disorder side of things I have known so many women who abused LAXATIVES as a way to try to keep weight off. Now, we have an FDA approved drug that works like a mega-laxitive? Something doesn't jive there.
I think it has become a way for famous women to get themselves out there in the public eye - by going on public diets and I think it's a bloody shame. If you have to get on some shady med and talk bad about your body and restrict food, is the attention really worth it?
I think not.
I agree, luv, and hadn't even thought of the abuse of laxatives as a correlation to Alli, but it makes a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteHmmm.... I think I'm going to make a blog post out of that Alli is similar to a laxitive bit.
ReplyDeleteYou may already know this, but luvpeace is my google account for AngryGrayRainbows... maybe it's time to get a AngryGrayRainbows Google account. lol
Go for it, luv, on the post, I think that would be an awesome topic. I've thought about using disordered eating in the past to lose weight, but I just don't have what it takes, I suppose, to carry it through (which is probably a damned good thing and makes me lucky as hell). I'm not fond of barfing, and I hate feeling over-full, so binge-ing, and binge-ing and purging are out. And while there are times I get busy and forget to eat, I pay for it with shakiness and headaches and bitchiness, so anorexia was never a real option (I'm not into pain, and one of my headaches from not eating takes a couple of days to get rid of). And as for abusing laxatives, well, I'm not much on spending a lot of time on the toilet shitting my brains out (I can't afford to lose what brain I have...lol).
ReplyDeleteI've really been lucky all the way around with a lot of things in my life. I have done a variety of recreational drugs in the distant past (ah, the indiscretions and stupidity of youth) and never got hooked on any of them. I did a lot of drinking in my younger years, but it was no problem to just stop when I outgrew the party hearty mentality. I smoked for quite a few years too (really heavily....not! maybe a carton a month), and decided to quit when the price went up to $2 a pack. I didn't miss any of those things when I quit them, and I don't miss them now. I sometimes wish I hadn't done a lot of the things I did when I was younger, but then I think back on all the experiences I had because of those "mistakes/missteps", and realize that those things are part of what made me who I am today, and none of it lessens my worth as a person. Would I have been a different person had I had an eating disorder? Probably, but not any less of a person than I am now (pardon the pun, but I probably would still have ended up fat, even if I'd had an eating disorder), just a person with more experience in a different area of life.
Ironically, ED's make people fat probably more often than they make them thin. I know most people who haven't spent years around the ED community don't know that, so I'm just throwing it out there. :)
ReplyDeleteI will tell ya, ED's have a lot more to do with MENTAL ILLNESS than will. So yay you for not having to deal with that icky mental illness. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
I think it's awesome that you don't have a very addictive personality. You are one lucky duck and good for you!!!
I am currently wondering if my years in the ED (starving, purging and binging) caused me a certain amount of noticeable brain damage. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to come of anti-depressants and ADD meds and still be a functional person. Who knows.
Actually, I don't think it's a bad thing that meds can help you be a functional person. I had a serious bout with depression (undiagnosed for probably 20 years) and 10 years of therapy and Prozac helped a lot with that (and I hate taking medication unless it's absolutely necessary). I don't take the Prozac anymore, and seem to be functioning just fine, but I also have a lot less stress in my life now than I did when I was depressed (and the amount of Prozac I took depended on the amount of stress I had at the time).
ReplyDeleteI know medications can be expensive, especially if one doesn't have insurance (been there done that), but if they help you function, I don't see anything wrong or stigmatizing about it at all. Anything to keep one's sanity in this madhouse of a world is good :) (but for me, if I weren't already crazy, I'd be insane....lol).