Men don't worship 'Barbie' bodies

We all have bodies, but our perceptions of other people's bodies can be a little fuzzy at times. I didn't realize how fuzzy until this past weekend when I went out to the bars with a few of my friends, who happened to be all male, and we started talking about women's bodies. No big surprise since I was with a bunch of guys, but the most astonishing thing about this whole experience was the fact that our guidelines of what makes a woman’s body impeccable were completely opposite and the worse part is — girls don't even realize this.

As the night went on, my friends, in their drunken stupor, continued to point out girls that they thought had exquisite bodies. As they continually picked girls who looked as if they all weighed at least 130 pounds or more, I was bewildered. When they asked me to pick a girl I though had a nice body I immediately picked a girl who was several inches taller than me and very slender. One of my friends exclaimed, "No way, she has a boy butt." Needless to say, I was shocked. I thought they would agree that this girl had a killer body, but I was wrong.

What really threw me off guard was not the fact that they were picking girls with curvaceous bodies but because of the way the media neglects women with figures like this.

Although I argued every step of the way, my friends assured me that most men (I'll say most because there are always exceptions) do not find extremely thin women attractive. Those who are a size 3, have a body like Kate Moss and have a "boy butt," as my male cohorts like to call it, are not what guys are looking for. However, women mirroring these same characteristics are featured on the covers of magazines across the world day after day. What is most disturbing is that women try to fit into this mold of the "perfect body" created by the media, when in reality they will never look like these so-called icons.

For example, over time I’ve seen the female cast of "Friends" shrink while I’ve seen the whole male cast inflate. True, Matthew Perry is recovering from a drug addiction, but did Courtney Cox and Jennifer Aniston start shooting heroin or what? My 11-year-old sister looks like she could bench press more than both of them combined. In fact, I was just reading in some magazine that long ago, during the early years of Friends, Jennifer Aniston weighed 130 pounds but was told by her agent that she would have to lose some weight. I don’t understand this, she looked perfectly fine and so do 70 percent of normal weight women in this country who are dissatisfied with their appearance and the 80 percent of American women who are on diets.

According to an Eating Disorders Awareness Week publication, the average woman is 5’4," weighs 140 pounds and wears a size 14. But, the "ideal" woman — portrayed by actresses, models and Barbie dolls — averages about 5’7," weighs 100 pounds and wears a size 8. While 50 percent of 9-year-old girls and 80 percent of 10-year-old girls diet. This is unreal. Even my 11-year-old sister, who weighs a measly 70 pounds, thinks she’s fat. It seems as though girls are more afraid of being fat than they are of cancer or nuclear war.

According to the Center for the Study of Anorexia and Bulimia, American standards for ideal weight have become thinner and thinner over the past 20 years, while the weight of the average adult has increased five pounds due to improved nutrition. And we wonder why Americans spend $300 million per year on diet products alone.

The fact is, who has the time or the money to look like a celebrity or fit into the mythical "ideal body," and who the hell would want to when most guys find the average woman’s body attractive anyway? Well, at least my friends do, and, might I mention, they are single. Plus, these celebrities spend oodles of money on personal trainers, fitness programs, diets and so on — money that the average person does not have. Not to mention the fact that the camera can be deceiving and, I bet celebrities thank God everyday for airbrushing. Plus, it’s their job to look like that. Let them suffer through rigorous workouts and let them eat only lettuce, I’ll settle for my "8-minute Abs and Buns" workout and my Pizza Rolls.

My point is, I don’t see any reason why girls who fit into the category of the average woman need to diet. Just be yourself; besides, a few love handles never hurt anyone.