Pervasive body image crap

I was at a workshop last night given by Barbara Stanny. Barbara is the local women+money guru, famed for her book, "Secrets of Six Figure Women." I've heard her speak before, but since I am not currently earning six figures (nor have I ever, but I would very much like to), and the workshop was free, I went.

But this is not about the workshop or my plan to become a six figure woman. More on that later, I'm sure.

What I noticed was that even she could not resist playing to women's body image neurosis. At least three times she mentioned how, when women started taking control of their financial life, they lost weight. What? OK, I understand that when you feel more in control of your life, it often frees you from crutches like food (or booze, or sex, or TV). I don't doubt that what she said is true. But it struck me that, of all the positive things that can happen when women take control of their finances, losing weight ranked high enough to get a triple mention.

I thought about this on my run this morning (I'm up to 4x/week, down to 44 minutes for my 3 miles - yeah, I rock). I wondered how much of Barbara's success relies on selling people the dream that they can be like her. She is thin, blonde, stylish. Most of the women in the audience (it was a chicks only event) were not. Something to think about.