The Sum of Her Parts

Dissection of the human body belongs in the anatomy lab, not in fitness forums. Well, maybe it exists in the basements of deranged serial killers too, but that is a separate topic for another day. Before you click out of here, let me explain. One of my favorite fitness gurus, Leigh Peele, recently posted an article on her website about women’s perceptions of other women’s bodies. She polled 2000 women and asked them about their perceptions of the word “bulky” as it applies to women’s bodies. The majority of women defined these physiques as bulky:

And the majority of women, 71%, in fact, said that they would rather be “too thin” instead of “too muscular”.

Naturally, this article was up for discussion on a fitness forum that I frequent. Most of the women were celebrating our “bulkiness”—to paraphrase an old disco hit, “we work hard for the muscle!” One woman posted about her own journey as an aspiring bodybuilder, and how she sometimes felt ostracized because of her “amazon” physique. In response, another poster clarified that, in her mind, too bulky or “amazon” was exemplified by this physique:

The aspiring bodybuilder was quick to praise this physique, and wrote about her wish to be that big someday. All good so far, right? Bodies come in different shapes and sizes, and Leigh’s original article brought home the point that we all have different ideas about “ideal”. Ideal for one woman might be the thin, cover girl look. Ideal for another woman might be voluptuous ruebenesque. Yet another might covet the physique of a bodybuilder. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, yada yada. Until you traverse into serial killer territory-that’s when I feel compelled to write about it and subject you to my aimless ramblings. The aspiring bodybuilder went on to qualify her admiration of the woman pictured above, by stating that her waist was a little thick. HUH? The woman in the picture has a single digit body fat percentage. Sure, her hips are narrow, and she is ultra lean. And to have, visible, cut abs like that, you actually have to hypertrophy them! So if this woman were to buy into the whole idea of chopping her physique into little tiny parts, what are her options to fix her “thick” waist? Atrophy her obliques? Surgically implant hips so her waist appears smaller? Build even bigger shoulders and chest so her waist appears smaller? Dissection belongs in the cadaver lab. 

To be fair, most of us are guilty of dissection. How many times in my own life have I focused on my midsection? Before I understood how to lift properly to build my best body, I would try to diet myself into some idealized shape I had in my mind. Focusing on my parts never helped me achieve my goals—it always resulted in chronic dissatisfaction. I love wearing my 5 inch platform Miu Miu wedges, because in them, I am 5’ 11 ½”, the height that should have been my birthright. But alas, try as I might, without the wedges, I am 5’ 6 ½”, and no amount of dieting or weightlifting will make me 5’ 11 ½”.

 I think it is time for us to stop with the dissection obsession and focus on building our very best, healthiest bodies. And guess what? Our healthiest bodies are going to come in a variety of shapes and sizes—let’s celebrate the diversity! Some women will naturally be leaner than others. For some women to get superlean, they would have to starve, do steroids or both. Is that healthy? Other women might be very fit and free from disease, yet they are living in bodies that some would consider plump. Is this healthy?  Healthy is a continuum—somewhere along the continuum, people can venture into the “unhealthy” side. Take the woman bodybuilder in the photo above as an example. At some point, she made the decision to cross over into anabolic steroid territory. Not healthy. What about the woman in the first photo? Healthy right? Well, what if she were maintaining that degree of leanness by engaging in dangerous diet pill abuse plus bingeing and purging? Not healthy. 

In the end, we are more than the sum of our parts. We are whole, human beings who deserve to be seen with a wide-angle lens. Again, let’s look at our woman bodybuilder. Even though she might be making unhealthy decisions with her body, does that negate who she is in the rest of her life? What if she is a firefighter/paramedic? When she is first on the accident scene, and delivers the lifesaving chest compressions to the dying stranger, does that patient care that some random person at her last bodybuilding show thought she had a thick waist? Uhhh. No. What if she were a fifth grade teacher? When one of her former students with a learning disability walks the stage with her peers at graduation, does that student remember her teacher’s body, or does she remember her kindness, compassion, and refusal to give up on her like others had before? Chances are, that student is walking that stage with confidence, celebrating a lifetime of hard work. One could only hope that her teacher is there in the audience, proudly celebrating her student, and also celebrating her own newly discovered understanding of what it means to be confident on the stage.

I am not suggesting that we forego our pursuits of our healthiest selves. Living in healthy bodies gives us the energy to accomplish everything we are meant to accomplish in our lifetimes. Our healthy bodies allow us to power through life with purpose and intention. But I AM suggesting that we put down our scalpels and leave the dissection to the medical students and the serial killers. Step away from the scalpel, step toward the camera with the wide-angle lens, start seeing your body for the miracle that it is, and start living your best life. 

At the end of my life, I want to be known for so much more than my thick waist or my seven minute mile. So in case anyone on the forum ever feels the urge to give me some unsolicited physique critique, just know that you won’t be heard. This body’s got her wide-angled lens-on, a well-known shield that protects against those who would dissect me into component parts. Every click of the shutter is one step closer to health and wellness. Every whole, wide-angle picture is another piece of kryptonite that dulls the scalpel of those who would attempt to shatter a healthy body image. Dissection has a place and a time, but you won’t be seeing any more scalpels in my wellness toolbox.