As Women Why Are We Never Enough Exactly As We Are?
I spend my days and nights thinking about sizing and bodies. I read/see so many posts basically telling us how to be better, not how great we already are.
Yesterday I had my annual physical. At 70 yo, this is a game of numbers. Cholesterol, liver and kidney function, bone density, blood, etc.
The first statistics taken is height (5’ 7.5” / 5 m) and weight (146.5 lbs / 66.5 kg). In my head, I deducted 5 lbs / 2.3 kg, because every woman knows that is the error in the doctor’s scale/being fully dressed/it being 4 pm. To his credit, the doctor only mentioned the consistency of my weight, not the actual numbers. But I have to ask myself, why is it important in my head for me to be 141.5 instead of 146.5 if they are the same thing?
Can We Just Be Who We Are?
Lately there have been so many posts and notes about how to improve:
live better,
have a better home,
dress better, more effectively,
work more productively,
live more sustainably,
be fitter,
weigh less (take up less space?), and
eat better.
Yet I also see many Notes seem to be saying SEE ME! As I am. Why are we so unwilling to do that?
What Irritates Me (the list is much longer than this)!
I’m not sure which type of these posts irritates me the most. I’m sure they all speak to someone. Trouble is, they are broadcast to everyone in an attempt to find those who want them.
For instance, I don’t want to be more productive, I want more time to do what I love to do, what I am good at, and have more time to explore.
Why do I have to better monetize myself? Yeah, I’d like to make money, but I can’t seem to do that and do what I love to do, what I am good at, and have any time to explore. Why am I less relevant because my micro-business isn’t profitable?
I have been recycling, up cycling, using public transportation, driving less, and generally trying to make my footprint as small as possible since I was a teenager. Those were values I was brought up with, long before we fully realized how screwed we were.
I am doing what I can in every instance and whatever I am doing, it is more than any corporation that is at the root of our climate change problems. I want to add that I had no children, which is the biggest footprint reducer possible. Additionally, as a couple we have shared a car since 1999.
Why do I feel I have to justify myself?
Do you wonder what I am good at, what I love to do, and what I need more time to explore?
This is pretty much how conversations go for women. Justify yourself and your profitability, and then maybe someone will be interested in that thing that is essentially who you are and want to be.
I know this is not just me whinging, although I am. It is the internet and the world we live in, but I’d love to tell you what I do and love, and am good at.
I don't mind being weighed, but I love your solution, which saves the mental math!
Every time I have a doctor’s appointment, that morning I weigh myself in my own bathroom, naked, before I get dressed. Then when I’m at my appointment and they say “Let’s just get a quick weight,” I say “Oh, I just weighed myself this morning; it was [insert current number here].” They just write it down. I’ve never had anyone say they needed to weigh me again.