“ There is so much pressure to look a certain way—it was like that when I was growing up, but I think it’s worse now. I think as a society it would be really great if we could just stop talking about how everybody looks. I don’t understand why it matters so much. In my own family, I had to sort of retrain everyone to not comment on weight and appearance the minute you see someone. It offends me now, and also it is not helpful to my daughter. Think of what we could be accomplishing if we weren’t so caught up on whether we had lost two pounds or not. To be honest, it seems like a backlash against feminism. At a time when women are—in theory—more powerful than ever, have more education, better jobs, and more freedom, we are sort of imprisoned by our appearance. I think it’s very, very hard to go against the mainstream culture, but I think you start with accepting yourself, your body, and who you are, and I think it kind of moves outward from there. Of course, that is much, much easier said than done.
H.M
