There is a difference between being beautiful and being physically desirable, having sex appeal. I'm not talking pop media here...skinny teenagers in skimpy clothing or bony adult women with enhancement after enhancement.

Big.. how big? I can acknowledge that someone has a beautiful face, whether it is fat or thin - but a large part of what is sexy/beautiful (TO ME) has to do with a person's physical body. If someone is carrying a significant amount of fat, yet still carries themselves with poise and grace - they obviously have some sense of physicality to them and that is an attractive feature. It's hard to explain how important "taking care" of yourself is to a person's over all image!

One of my girlfriends has an ideal figure by todays standards, and a beautiful face. Yet, she carries herself as if she were not worth very much, does not pay attention to detail when it comes to her clothes and makeup and thus does not come across as someone strikingly beautiful - whereas with the right image inside, she certainly would.

Another friend is significantly overweight - I don't want to venture to make estimate her weight..but she's pretty big. She does yoga or something - rather than being sedentary and she is radiantly beautiful, I am always in awe when I spend time with her because she is so beautiful. She walks like a queen and carries herself as if she were proud of her body - in an elegant way, not a "I am a sex kitten and look at me because I'm the hottest thing out there."

I don't think big is necessarily beautiful, although I believe that overweight people have just as much potential to be as attractive as their thin counterparts - although it really has to come from within because they (generally) don't have the advantage of having an ideal shape. It's a fact that certain body shapes are more pleasing to others and
I don't think that a large percentage of the population has a biological tendency to be drawn to overfat people of the opposite sex. Couple that with the constant media images being hammered into our heads and Big is Beautiful sounds something like denial.

Obesity and a sedentary lifestyle overwhelming this continent.. and it doesn't make sense to me to promote something that is unhealthy as something that is acceptable and even desirable - just because it is so widespread. That said - discrimination over weight is unfair. Yet... right now, if I was looking for a partner (I am not) I would have physicality and athleticism (not thinness) as something very important. I want to know he cares about his body and would be willing to share an active lifestyle.

It drives me crazy to see this "brainwashing" of a certain look or body type or shape to be promoted as THE IDEAL and what is hot and what is not.

This is longer than I intended it to be and rambled all over the place rather than making a point so.. I'll just end it before it gets out of hand.

Meg