Who is an elite athlete? All of them.
There are a dozen photos like this, captured in a book by Howard Schatz and Beverly Ornstein, which caught my eye thanks to this tweet:
We are the shape we are because of how we use our bodies: Diversity in elite athlete body shape bit.ly/OmXy2B
— Andrew & Sabrina (@PsychScientists) July 28, 2012
The line-up — even visual assault — of so many differently shaped bodies reminded me of a six-page feature that ran in Might magazine back in 1994 called “Your Body is Wrong.” I loved it so much that I saved my copy. Here’s a snippet:
Ron van Dongen shot the photos and Shelly Smith wrote the text, including this kicker:
How do you use your body? It is yours. Is it wrong?
Wow. You kept your copy of Might since 1994? I thought I was the only one who does things like that – my favourite so far is this (slightly older) ad from a 1993 issue of Vanity Fair: http://ethicalnag.org/2011/05/31/falling-in-love-in-six-acts-nike-ad/
The images you featured here, the “visual assault”, are both startling and liberating at the same time. We are all so different – yes, even elite athletes! Look at runners as an example, all competing on the same track: huge differences between the burly sprinters and the wiry distance runners!
I suspect body image is relative. My daughter and I were recently looking at some photos of her as a teenager and she wailed: “Look how gorgeous and skinny I was, but I was convinced back then that I was SO FAT!” That same daughter is getting married this Saturday; my sisters and I (three entirely unique body types – you’d never know we were related!) have been fussing for months over choosing our individual special wedding outfits as we anticipate the truthful permanence of all those group wedding photos to be taken!
But beyond the basics of body appearance, those of us living with debilitating heart disease can often view our diagnoses as if our hearts have betrayed us, as if our bodies have let us down somehow. I sure felt like that in the early months, until a wise friend reminded me that my body hadn’t betrayed me – it had indeed saved me by helping me survive what many do not.
Thanks for this post, Susannah!
Thanks, Carolyn!
Yes, I saved all my Might magazines, along with a few other choice specimens from that era of early-internet glossies (Internet World, Wired) and end-of-an-era zines (before they folded or became websites). I had a sense that we were in a transitional moment and I tried to capture it. My print-outs of early websites are not as successful an archive and the Wayback Machine is too often pocked with missing GIFs.
As to body image and being thankful for just having a body: yes. Personally I’ve metamorphized from ballet dancer to rugby player to child-bearer to runner. That’s why I was so struck by these sets of photos. Our bodies are useful. How we look reflects how we use them. Input = output.
Have fun at the wedding!!
Love this post, Susannah. It comes at a particularly poignant time for me as a cousin’s former partner is about to be taken off a breathing tube on Sunday. She came to be on one due to the ravaging effects of her long-term anorexia. The reasons why we develop eating disorders are complicated and are still being researched, but our lack of awareness of what real bodies look like and our lack of appreciation for our bodies as machines, as you put it, surely play a role. I personally didn’t come to fully appreciate my body’s strength and ability to give succor until I became a mom.
Thanks for sharing this.
f
Fran, peace to you and your family. Peace to all of us as we take a moment of reflection.
Thank you for the inspiring post and the provocative questions at the end of it, Susannah. I am in the second week of the Couch25K program, which I started because I was exhausted after a week of teaching and, when resting didn’t help, decided to do the opposite of what I felt like doing to see if it restored my energy (it has). This is on top of my regular exercise class and swing dancing with my husband. When I look at these images it is a powerful reminder of why I exercise but what the images don’t capture is how good it feels and how much fun it is to move.
I love that! I do the same thing when I feel stuck – get outside, go for a walk, even just do 10 jumping jacks. You & I (and a lot of people) are lucky to have a habit of exercise and a love for it. I worry about people who don’t — or who have barriers in their way.
As I read each comment and look back at the post, I want to acknowledge that there are many layers of meaning. I purposely wrote the last line to be ambiguous. There is the possibility of self-acceptance and also the possibility of self-realization, saying, “wait, sitting on the couch is actually not the best use of my body.”
Update: thanks to a tweet by Katie Couric I can add another link to a thought-provoking photo essay of real people’s bodies:
Rugged Grace: A photo project done by the Harvard Women’s Rugby team exploring what sport and community mean for their bodies and identities.
Beautiful, in every sense of the word!