Tuesday, December 22, 2009

The scale is my friend; Em, no.

I've put off getting ready for Christmas this year, because we have a three year old in the house. A tree with lights and shiny things? This is good for mach 3, minimum.

Wrapped presents beneath it? Jack it up a notch or two. Squeal! Santa is coming!

Everything is ready and an Advent calendar with nummy chocolates is holding the three year old in the lower atmosphere.  Me? well, I seem to be the excited one.  I kept looking for things to do today. More cookies? Nope, don't need them. Think of the scale, yeah that's the ticket. Fudge? No, we have enough. My motto is usually, 'There's no such thing as too much chocolate."  Think scale Sherilyn, think scale.

I'm determined not to add any extra padding this holiday. Okay so not so much.

This time of year it seems highly unfair, all of these goodies and I can't eat what I want anymore without consequence. Pounds are consequence. Bouncing blood sugar isn't nice either.  Once it was no worry.  No more.

My characters never have to worry about their weight. Or balancing sugar with protein and carbohydrates.  Of course my characters aren't my age. The age when everything gets stored in case of starvation. As if.

The women of the world have enough pressures on them without the characters they read about pushing them into depression over weight issues. Then of course there are the young ones, hopefully not too young if they're reading my books, who seem to think it's the way of the world to have bones poking out everywhere.  Okay. What man do you know would want to cuddle up with bones?  I've not met one.

They tell me they like to look at thin girls. On the women they date? Some padding is okay. Apparently we're supposed to have curves and soft spots. Who knew?

So while I'm thinking scale and blood sugar, at the end of the day I'm not a woman who's going to do anything drastic about my weight. In raising a daughter and now having a granddaughter I think about theses things when I write. What is a healthy view of the female form?  As romance writers do we play to the media view or a more realistic view?



9 comments:

  1. good One Sherilyn. With 7 brothers, even a few still single, not one of them have dated a skinny woman. The women they choose are all fit but definately with curves and padding.

    My brother Mike says it's nice to look at all those models but he says you always look at works of art but when they wake up with you, they don't look like that and the bruising of his body on her bones, isn't his thing.

    Little bro, Steve, says, Powder and Paint makes her what she ain't.

    My characters are all healthy, some slim some not. I think we have to write our characters realistically. They're supposed to mirror life. Most women aren't model thin. Besides, it's fun to play with characters that aren't perfect and do have the same problems average women do--fighting weight and maintaining their looks, dealing with kids and worries. In other words, lots of inner conflict.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A woman reaches the point where she chooses between flat stomach and a happy stomach. I choose happy. :-) My characters worry about it if it suits the story, but they do eat! It's a fantasy, after all!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't think flat tummy is going to happen for me, no matter how much weight I lose. I'm good with that. Happy tummy is my aim as well.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tricky question Sherilyn. I guess it depends on the genre of romance you write too.

    My characters don't obsess about it, I suppose because I don't. I like the feeling of being fit, I like the way my body can move, but the goal of uber thin is not necessary.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Exactly! If you are active and healthy, a few extra pounds, feh. Who cares?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Fortunately, I write historicals, in an era when "plush" was the norm--smooth rounded arms, hips made for carrying babies, etc., although everything was pushed up, and squeezed in, and padded and corseted. Thank goodness we can just let it all hang out these days!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Happy stomach? My kind of stomach. When I weighed lots less than I weigh now, I still didn't have a flat belly. When I danced every day in college and walked everywhere, I didn't have a flat stomach. I've gone overboard the other way, of course, and I want to be healthy, but I'll never be magazine-photos flat. The body doesn't have it.

    For my stories, I don't stress the body too much. At least, I haven't yet. I want my women to look different from one another, but I also don't mind readers using their imaginations.

    Merry Christmas, all.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Sherilyn,

    From the guy's view, I like curves and skinny binnies aren't my thing. From the writer's view, I like to write about women characters of all ages and various body types as well. They can't all be incredible beauties and I haven't found that in real life either the last time I checked. Good post.

    James Rafferty

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for adding your thoughts.

    I had a flat stomach once, for about six months. Yeah, life interceded and that's not in the cards for me at any weight. Which is just fine. Healthy is always best.

    ReplyDelete