The weather reflects my mood today. It’s grey and cold and I’m wrapped up from head to toe. Newspapers are only annoying with information I don’t want. The one solace is that I don’t have to worry about looking sexy today, everybody is wrapped up in layers.
Last week when the sun was shining, I had a different set of problems. I was angry with myself because I couldn’t carry off a miniskirt and a tank top. The bright sun and the beautiful blue sky is just the recipe for good mood. But, summer is the time I worry most about how I look and that does not make me feel good about myself. I worry about my makeup smearing, I dread grill parties around pools where all the other women look drop-dead gorgeous in their bikinis and I pretend to be busy with my phone, trying to kill time until the party gets over.
But my soul cringes when even my devoted, loyal boyfriend grins sheepishly and looks at the usual “sexy” women with great (ass)ets. When confronted, he always says, “ Honey I was just appreciating beauty, but you do know that I love you?” I bite my lip because I know that his hormones are playing with him and it is true that he loves me.
Beautiful women are eye candy and even I stare at them sometimes. I look at them in magazines and tell myself they are just doing their job and the only reason they look so beautiful is because they have professional stylists and make-up artists who help them. So, a few years back when Brigitte, a popular women’s magazine in Germany decided to feature ordinary women as models on their cover, it stirred a small revolution in the media industry. It was applauded for setting such a great example in today’s shallow world.
Now the magazine seems to be going back to using professional model, although they have promised to not feature zero-sized models. As if that is going to be a relief! Who came up with the zero size in the first place anyway? I don’t quite know. A recent study in Germany showed that every second German is too fat. A fat person is someone whose Body Mass Index (BMI) is higher than 30. The study also showed that 10% of German teenagers are too thin. So, one is either too thin or too fat. There is no such thing as ‘normal’ anymore and men wonder why women have so many issues with themselves!

Roma Rajpal

Roma Rajpal is a freelance journalist.