(Photos on the right of me at different weights)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Visions

get cloudy and wet,

and like everyBody else

I'm just trying to naviagate the culture,

trying to make my way around this mess

I'd like to make a dent in it

take a knife to the way things are

shift it, bend it, make it bleed...

I want Beauty to be accessible

readily available

offered to all -

The only threat to losing it

would be abusing it

and then the dance would be fair

open wide and free

approachable, comfortable, natural

and sweet.

We're all watching -

seeing each other, acting as mirrors

tripping the wires, calculating the numbers

EveryBody trying to feel better

relax together, attract each other...

Before the latest unreal magazine cover

people were still drawn to one another -

no Beauty standard in place

no check list to follow,

no humiliating silicone to order

no weight to qualify and

no limits to obsess over -

People still found a way to love each other

real and raw

honest and happier...

Instead of debating what pounds to lose

afriad of rejection, afraid of relaxing

brain washed and confused,

what if we laughed at the Beauty ideal

it's stupidity, ill-logic, sexist demands

and simply just refused?

What if the new generation of disorders

diets and size-focused

turned out, spoke up

and said to pressure a good, old fashioned,

"Fuck You!"?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lisa Arndt ~ 26th March 2006 ~ Trinity Copyright

(pics at left: me age 31 with a squirrel, & me age 13 - so 80's stylish!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am a woman, I am a girl...

I am lost, I am found

I am, like you, a part of the world -

and, if it matters, I am a lot more

I am sad, I am happy,

I am heart-broken & curled up on the floor

I am dancing, I am singing,

I am questioning, I am crying

I am wide awake, I am sleeping

my poses change with my every mood -

my hair flies out of place with my every day

I am not air-brushed to fit in

I am not photo-retouched to please you

I cannot digitally make my blemishes go away

I can only hope you'll still see me

want to look in my eyes and find me

behind the physical is my true being,

carefully, expertly tucked, and kept at bay.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lisa Arndt ~ Trinity Copyright ~ 2006

One good reason to prevent & Stop ALL eating disorders

- or to recover from them -

is simply the statement you make when you accept your body as it naturally is...

and the effect you have on others when they see that you don't buy into the society pressure to look a certain way.

In thinking about the Beauty Ideal, I do wonder where the image industry plans to go from here...realistically, models cannot get any thinner, but because the nature of the fashion world is to change, and the models must stand out year after year, grab the audience's attention, and, of course, promote the product... the industry has to keep introducing new looks. ...So, what will be next???

And did you know this?:

In Israel there is currently a bill proposed for a law that would require all working models to have and maintain a Body Mass Index (or BMI) of 18 or more (a BMI of 17 is considered underweight, and a BMI of 16 is technically anorexic)...and all working models would have to have monthlly lab tests to ensure they are not purging (using the salivary amilase numbers as well as potassium levels to check for purging).

This is a brilliant idea - because why should you have to be sick in order to work as an example of beauty? We drug test athletes. Hopefully this will become an actual law in Israel very soon.

And then, maybe the rest of the world would follow!!

...And we could stop the proven-to-be-dangerous-and-destructive onslaught of glossy photos of sickly women from influencing every one into hating themselves.

The media claims to both be concerned about eating disorders and to cherish them.

Thank you for giving me some of your time...

I hope I've made you think... hope I've added to your life and not taken away from it!! Cheers, Lisa

In the photo above: me & my best friend Jase relaxing... And photo to the left: me (in skull mask) & my dear friend Colleen, gooffing off on Halloween...

I have been blessed with such great friendships... something that you can't truly have when an eating disorder is your closest relationship!

this page created by Lisa Arndt

Trinity Copyright 2006