Dancing away the pounds - impossible standards of beauty

Well, I screwed up, in trying to re-post this I deleted this by mistake, so now I have to rewrite it. Sorry for the confusion, I know it won't be as good the second time around. I guess I learned a good lesson about backup up everything I write, too.

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With Dancing With the Stars starting this week, I know that it will be the beginning of a media frenzy about the weight of the the contestants and the pros. It often seems like the show becomes more about the size of the womens' waists more than their considerable accomplishments. Some of the contestants seem to view the show as a version of The Biggest Loser more than a dance contest. And what really makes me crazy is all of the articles about what the pros eat. They all (or at least the ones who let themselves be quoted in the magazines) seem to eat extremely restricted 1200-1400 calorie a day diets. If these professional athletes who exercise 5-8 hours a day can't eat like normal human beings, then what does that say for the average woman? What has happened to our standard of beauty in this country that these woman have to practically starve themselves to meet some arbitrary standard of beauty that their industry and our beauty standards have set for them?

What has really brought this to my mind is that my niece was visiting this weekend. She's 14 and takes dance 3 days a week. She's in great shape but she will never be a skinny girl, she has beautiful curves and a strong, perfect body. She seems OK with that, but she must have insecurities. Every teenage girl does, and a girl in the dance industry must have double or triple those insecurities, especially one who loves ballet. And I watch these shows and I really fear for her. At least when I watch So You Think You Can Dance many of the women are strong and curvy, their legs are strong and muscular and they don't have little skinny stick arms. I much prefer the aesthetic of that show and that portion of the dance industry to what I see in ballroom and ballet. Do you remember the scandal on DWTS when Cheryl, one of the most talented dancers and choreographers on the show, gained 3-5 pounds? And one of the male dancers pointed it out and claimed that she and Lacey-of-the-stunning-legs (I'm straight as can be but that girl has the best pins in the business, I love watching her, who in their right mind doesn't?) were too fat? It was crazy, it was all over the news shows, the women were humiliated, and for what? When did being a size 2 become the goal? It's impossible and unhealthy, mentally and physically, for women to aspire to this arbitrary standard of beauty. Yes, it is important to maintain a healthy lifestyle and to keep your body at a weight that supports overall health and wellness. And no, there is no magic formula, so please stop buying magazines with articles about what famous people are eating. It's always the same thing. Eat less, exercise more, eat a well balanced diet, it's always the exact same information. But most of all, please stop holding yourself and other women up to this impossible standard of beauty. The pressure is too much for anyone at any age, much less little girls who are watching everything that we do and say.

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Timing, reading and writing

Have you ever noticed that some books take longer to read than others? Sometimes I just blaze through a book in six to eight hours or two long reading sessions, and other books that are the same length take several days instead. And usually I can't tell any major obvious difference between them. The ones that go quickly tend to be more humorous, an urban fantasy book with a lot of banter perhaps. But not always. It certainly isn't a reflection of the quality of writing, some of my very favorite writers fall into the category just mentioned, skilled beyond my ability to describe, so the fact that I blaze through their books is both fun and frustrating because the joy is over way to quickly. Of course sometimes the shortness of the reading experience it is a reflection of one of my big pet peeves, when publishers these days sell a book with huge margins, blank pages between chapters and double spaced text, so a hardback book sold for full price is really the length of a novella, but that's an obvious problem. Does anyone have any ideas about this? What makes a book read quickly or slowly for you?

And how come some reviews are so easy to write, and others are such bears? Again, this isn't in any way a reflection on the quality of the book either, in fact sometimes it's the opposite. Sometimes the easiest reviews to write are the ones where the flaws in the book just jump out at me. Unfortunately, the ideas for the review seems to flow more easily that way. But when I've loved a book the ideas tend to be so much more complex and layered. There is so much that I want to say and I can never say it the way I want to, so I wrestle with the review and it never turns out quite the way I want it to. It can take hours to labor over these reviews, but it's still some of the most satisfying and rewarding time that I spend these days. I don't really enjoy pointing out the bad stuff in the books I read. I do it because I think I should; as a reviewer I think my friends and people who read my reviews are looking for honesty from me, so I try to tell it like I see it. I really try not to be mean, just as honest as possible. But I do really enjoy sharing the good stuff, especially when it's an author that I've been following for a long time, or a new author who's just starting out. It's a chance to express myself and my thoughts on the book, to support their careers a little bit, and to maybe turn a friend onto a super cool book that they might not have read otherwise. And the Internet and blogging gives me a chance to get feedback and to find out if I'm having a little bit of an impact, which is really rewarding. When a friend on Twitter says that she's going to read a book because I recommended it, it's just a really satisfying feeling. Or when I get an email that says that someone has "liked" one of my Goodreads reviews. Or when I see that I'm starting to get hits on this blog for my reviews. So thank you, everyone, for your support. And I'd love to see any comments you have about what makes reviews easy or hard for you to write, or what you think makes books read quickly or go really slowly.

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Author appreciation

This is a copy of the post I made on Tumblr the other day. I guess it was a sign that a resumption of blogging was in my future! Clearly my mind and spirit was getting in the mood even before NetGalley gave me the push to get my act together.

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It occurs to me that as much as it makes me crazy to wait a year for the next book in all of my favorite series, it’s probably really good that there are some things in this world that can’t be massed produced. We’re so lucky in the developed countries that we have so many forms of instant gratification. We don’t even have to watch repeats of TV shows over the summer anymore, there are always new shows to watch throughout the year now. There are so many ways of finding new music, artists, podcasts, whatever you’re into, it’s out there. But each of those artists only has one voice and so much time available, making whatever they’re able to produce precious. And I, for one, am really grateful for every word that my favorite writers produce. I don’t have a creative bone in my body and I really treasure the hours I spend lost in their worlds. The fact is that most of them don’t do it for the money. There sure isn’t much money there, even for those who manage to eke out a living at it. They do it because they love to do it, even can’t imagine a life without doing it. But that doesn’t make it an easy life for most of them. So I just want to say how much I appreciate you, my dear authors. And that I am eagerly awaiting that next book!

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