I'm moving to Spain

The following is an extract from The Age:

This week, however, Madrid's regional Government struck a renewed blow for real women by banning models it deems to be too thin from Madrid's fashion week.

A body mass index (BMI) will be used to determine whether models are a healthy weight. On this indicator, 30 per cent of models who participated in the previous event would be turned away because they had a BMI under 18. Doctors will be on hand at the show, which will begin on Monday, to check on the health of the models.

The article "in search of the model weight" is one of the better looks at the weight debate from a limitted industry perspective. As a size 16 who cannot get jeans that fit (To fit my hips they are baggy on my waist, the only ones that fit properly are the granny baggy stule that is available in boutique stores aimed at the "bigger girl" and charging fifty bucks for a simple white t.) I would like to see a return to real women. In fact I have an unofficial campaign that any women over a size fourteen that is comfortable in her body is automatically told she is a spokes person of.

I started the campaign in the hope of finding role models for some of my nieces. Genetically my family produces boys or curves. For a teenage girl to discover she's got the curves that made my mothers generation swoon is not a positive in todays society.

The gorgeous K mentoined in an earlier post is a real woman. Her husband's wedding speech included the phrase "I have married the most beautiful woman in the world." K will probably never be a size 10, but hell she works a size 16 like crazy so why should she?

Her mum, my sister L, is also a gorgeous woman. My dad will tel you that he fathered the two "most beautiful girls ever." In my sister's case I don't disagree, in mine it depends on the way the wind is blowing. L battles her weight, but the only times I've ever thought she looked "Blah!" was when she was uncomfortable in what she had on.

No, clothes do not make the person, being comfortable in your skin does. Feeling that you look good in what your wearing merely helps this process.

Having said that... I'm off to the gym. Make up for missing yesterday. Yes I want to lose weight, but so my ovaries are easier to see using an ultra sound, not the naked eye. I will never be a 33-23-35 (Kate Moss) or a 34C-24-35 (Claudia Schiffer), but if I can be Alicia Silverstone, Janeane Garofallo or my own me I'll be happy.

The Boi thinks I'm gorgeous... he doesn't need me to change. And the best thing... is niether do I.

My only real weight gripe (other then the jeans) is that lingerie that hides sticky out tummies under slinky wedding dresses shouldn't look like medieval knights wore it to fir their armour post feasting. Why can't lingeries look sexy no matter how big we are? Our weight doesn't decide our sexuality, so why should some 14 year old boy in a dress get to look down at me when I ask for a bustierre in Ivory and send me to the "people over a size 18 need to go over there" bit? No women under 60 deserves to be stuck with Granny underewear. No women over for that matter either... anyway... gym.