Body Image

I attended a really interesting Women's Circle at my congregation on the topic of body image.  Not that the discussion was that interesting, but what wasn't being said was interesting.

May be I should start by saying that I was the youngest women in the group.  Someone else in her 30's showed up late, and the rest of them were 60-80.

I was hoping to hear women who have similar issues that I have: women who like parts of their bodies, but don't like others; women who have problems with body parts that others don't view as problems, or the women themselves don't see positives.  I didn't even expect that there would be anyone else who exercised as much as I do to change their bodies.

But instead of actually talking about body image, the women mostly talked about two things: health issues or how they value their brains.  Yeah, I get that these are UU's, so intelligence is a big.  And may be because they're older they are worried about losing their memory or other mental issues of the elderly.  But the topic was body image!  When you say that you're best feature is your brain, you're basically not talking about body image.  Health issues make a little more sense, but none of these women had any physical ailments that appeared to affect their body image.  It's great to be grateful for your health, that you're body still works, but it's not really related to the image you hold of your body.  It was like they were completely focused on the functionality of their bodies, not their appearance or how what they looked like made them feel. 

A few women did briefly touch on what they liked about their bodies (other than their brains), but the most related comment was usually about sagging.  That's finally on topic, but not something that I can relate to yet.  As I was leaving, the other young adult commented that she was glad that there was someone else who was younger.  She then said that at least we now know what to expect when we get older!  Sure, I know about some health problems, and how grateful I'll feel when my body is working, but I actually learned nothing about what older women feel about their bodies.

Unless I can intuit that older women basically only see their bodies as functional shells to let them continue in their lives.