Oh m'dear Peg....;-)


(quote)
"Taliesn:
you just don't get it. "

Well , perhaps in your "world according to Peg", but I will try to re-educate you on the points you chose to posit as proof that somehow you do "get it"

(quote)
"Anorexia has nothing whatsoever to do with obesity or health."

Well you fail to make this presumption stand since the root cause of all 3 even "you" chose to site was "Media influence"; as in your very next sentence..
(quote)
"And it has been proven that media images of women which portray impossible standards of beauty are the direct causes of young girls ..." and so on .
Thus anorexia,obesity , and any number of media-cultural induced self-destructive behavior
( smoking & drug-taking made fashionable & cool ) ,or any health awareness ,or abyssmal lack thereof, have "everything" to do with one another within the context of this thread ;namely the parts played by "Media & society" reinforcement. Media marketing constantly reinforces conflicting messages to
over-indulge in whatever is being sold.
Sounds like a little ginko-stimulated "reading comprehension' wouldn't hurt for someone who apparently suggests that they "get it".

(quote)
" This is true now of cultures where being fleshy is usually a sign of beauty (the Phillipines, Fiji and Malaysia are but three examples)"

Well perhaps the work of even Margaret Mead could back me on this one, but the reason for the more corpulent look being another culturally renforced "perception of beauty" is becuase to be "fleshy" means that you come from some measure of wealth becuase you cna afford regular , even sumptuous, meals; thus a sign of social "status" on the foodchain.
Obversely skinny means impoverished. It's as basic as that throughout   Eurasian culture.
However the role of the "skilled & practiced" warrior or athelete ( indigenous peoples as the American Indian fr'instance ) as the alternative symbol of "health" is as time honored as far back and across as many latitudes & longitudes as you care to address.

(quote)
"but since the importation of American television females..."

Oh that would be the late-60's post-Twiggy phase wouldn't it ; the androgenous British import when London fashion was all gear and Fab and taking American youth media market by storm. Remember the Shrimpton's , the Penelope Tree's , the Anita Pallenbergs followed by the David Bowie's & Jagger/Richard's androgony parade?
American models "were" fleshy until these wastrels started rolling their bones onto Madison Ave.

(quote)
"Today, the percentage of teenage girls who are "on diets" is skyrocketing..."

First off all let us not forget the original point that Karen Carpenter was an adult near 40 ,if not over, when her pychological pathology wasted her life the way Elvis, the blimp's, drugging, whoring ,and eating disorder wasted his.
2nd it "was" skyrocketing during the "emaciated waif" period of cocaine chic-become-heroine chic. The more alarming statistic is the rise of what's still the most common 'dieting' method of choice among teens: smoking cigarettes to kill the appetite. ( DAMN that demon tobacco! )

Meanwhile, looking at the , to my mind, equally brainstem appealing roll-models of the "crotch-grinding " dancing women-objects of RAP videos a reasonably aware person can't help but observe that they are definitely "not" emaciated. Buxom bums and thunder thighs are what's so gratuitously paraded as "desireable".
For that matter the thoroughly mindless images of Britany Spears & Christine Aguillera are hardly emaciated either. Britanny went for the Bob Fosse flash-dancer look while Christine is obviously for the more "corpulent'" ghetto slut look.
All the while the reigning queen ,Jennifer Lopez , defintely made the more "full-bodied" look a high-powered fashion image and she outsells both these MTV brats combined musically. Forget her line of clothes,cosmetics, and fragrances.

Gee, for someone who implies that they "get it" you appear to not grasp the entire picture of the contemporary media culture. But then , why should you. You apparently already "get it".

Coming from the Madison Ave profession I know more than a little about Media & Society and how each affects the other in "marketing". I am in no way condoning or sanctioning the image marketing machinery and take a back seat to no one in taking it to task for all of the body/mind/spirit "unhealthiness" it promotes for a profit, but I also can 'not' sanction this temptation to promote that it's alright to then swing to the other extreme that panders to lazy frumpiness as if "that's" a more balanced model of health. ( " Go on, you "can" still eat crap at MacDonald's. It's what regular folks do". )

Bottomline: The "body is my temple, is my instrument" is the truest model for body/mind/spirit health to aspire to as any artist could understand and appreciate if not always embrace.
When "that" standard finally catches on all then all of the covers of all of the "Cosmopolitan" and "The Inquirer"women & men can not put Humpty together again.
Now "that'" would be a sign of health.