Post by Matty Hanson on Jan 8, 2013 19:58:38 GMT -5
PLEASE READ
I hate doing things like this, but it's something that really irks me. Unrealistic weights and heights. This gets me for some reason, and maybe it's because of something I went through a few years ago. I hope this story doesn't change your opinion of me, it's not something I'm proud of, but it is part of me and I'm proud to say that I got through it.
I'd been stick thin all my life, shortest, lightest, and tiniest in my classes since as far back as I could remember. At the start of 6th grade, I was only 4'10". Then by 8th grade I had shot up to 5'5" and obviously, as you get taller, you also gain weight (and I was still growing.) I was never overweight, but freshman year, every time I looked in the mirror I saw that I wasn't the stick I used to be. I felt like I had failed somehow because I wasn't like that anymore. So I stopped eating.
It wasn't a long time that I wasn't eating, but I've struggled with boddy image issues ever since. Until one day I realized that with my height of 5'6.5" (not 5'7"!) and my weight of just a little over 120, I was completely and utterly healthy and normal.
But this rant isn't about me, this is about the completely unrealistic heights to weight ratios I'm seeing in characters. Some of them are so unrealistic, a person of that height and weight would surely, without a doubt, be dead.
I'm not asking you to change your character in any way, shape, or form, but please please maybe reevaluate it a little? From someone who has struggled with weight and body image issues before, it not only makes me sad, it makes me sick what I am seeing, because it's just not healthy and it gives girls the wrong idea of what's beautiful. We're all beautiful regardless of shape, size, color, and anything else. Weight's just a number, but too low can be just as bad as too high.
I love all of you to death and I wouldn't want any of you to go through what I, or people who've had it much worse than me, went through. Please check to make sure your characters are healthy!
