Lessons from I Love Lucy

Yesterday I caught an episode of I Love Lucy.  Silly Lucy was trying to be a part of Ricky's show.  She went to the audition and tried to dance but really she just had two left feet.  Ricky brought out a costume, said it was a size 12 and said, "you all are size 12, right?"  All said yes.  Except for Lucy.  She didn't say what size she was but she tried on the costume and it ripped.  So she made a deal with Ricky.  If she lost a bit of weight to fit into the size 12, she could be in the show.  Long story short, she did.

But here's the thing that caught my attention.  ALL of the girls were size 12.  And they looked perfect.  They were fit and healthy and didn't look "fat".  Today, though, a size 12 actress would be called fat and the only thing that would be talked about was her weight and her pursuit to drop pounds.  That would be the focus instead of her acting.  Her name would be prefaced with "plus size".  It's so irritating.  Marilyn Monroe was a size 14.  No one, ever, called her fat.  No one, ever, called her plus size.  When did the "normal" size of women, size 12 or 14 become considered fat and size 0-6 become ideal, become the prevelant definition of beautiful?

There is a local DJ here, actually probably more than one, that calls Adele a fat cow.  One of the actresses on Mad Men is called plus size.  It pisses me off.  They are neither a fat cow, nor plus size.  They have shape and definition and curves!  When did that become so "bad"?

So how do we move away from that and get back to where women aren't judged by their weight, their worth is not based on their appearance?