Jillian Michaels Hates Her Butt

If Jillian Michaels hates her butt, then you should too.

That's the underlying message behind this news from Ms. Michaels [this was an Examiner article and it's no longer live so I removed the link]. It's just one more piece of evidence that

• Even really fit women are not allowed to love their bodies in public
• The messages that "our bodies are not good enough" are ubiquitous and pervasive
  
• The fitness industry (and the diet industry, and the fashion industry, and the cosmetics industry, and the plastic surgery industry, and the porn industry... Gezus...) is built on and profits from women's self-loathing rather than self-love.

I spent years hating my body. It was never going to be good enough because I was comparing it against some unrealistic ideal (the origins of which I still don't know). I finally got smart, though, and realized that my body was here not to look a certain way but to do certain things, such as...

• Carry me around, sometimes for hours at a time
• Keep me alive, every day
• Help me explore the places and things that pique my interest
• Experience pleasure and joy from dance, touch, and contact with nature and other human beings

As you may have noticed from reading any post or page on my sites, my focus is NOT on appearance. At all. I don't give a crap what your butt looks like, or how big your biceps are, or whether you have "thigh gap." (WTF?!?!) What I DO give a crap about is that you

• Understand how your body works
• Learn how to take care of it so that it takes care of you
• Live a life free of physical pain

No one should hate her body. No one. Does a dimply butt make Jillian Michaels a bad person? No. But in the world of fitness and celebrity, it's apparently important that Ms. Michaels makes public her self-loathing. I guess it helps sell her products? Maybe it helps other women feel OK about loathing their own "imperfect" body parts? A strange kinship of females despising themselves?

Apparently, this is the only view of herself acceptable to Ms. Michaels.

Yuck. If you hate something about your body, please stop. Seriously. Because here's the truth: Your body is a beautiful, wonderful, incredible piece of existence that is designed to work, to do things, to function within certain parameters to keep you alive. What it looks like is no one's business. How you feel in it is up to you and you alone. I'm really sad that Ms. Michaels feels bad in hers. And I'm even more sad that she felt compelled to say that to the media. Perpetuating women's self-loathing is the very last thing fitness celebrities should be doing.

If women loved their bodies would the fitness industry, the diet industry, and the plastic surgery industry collapse? Talk amongst yourself, then discuss here. I'm really dying to know.