Does your body disgust you?

The response to our poll 'Does your body disgust you?' was overwhelming, with more than half the respondents answering 'yes'. Here's one iVillager's view - that women's obsession with weight is tied to their sense of sacrifice

If we really want the answers to why virtually every western woman wants to lose weight, regardless of her size, we have to take a good look at ourselves. Why do we want to be thinner? My belief is that women are born to sacrifice themselves in some way. We have won the right to pursue our own aspirations, rather than giving them up for those of our husbands and children, but we've also had to find another way of beating up on ourselves. Weight obsession wasn't such an issue before women's emancipation really picked up, presumably because women were too busy to worry about it. Scrubbing the step must have been one hell of a calorie burner.

I would mark the 1960s as the point at which we all started wanting our cake but not daring to eat it. If this theory sounds a little outlandish, consider the evidence. The most savage critics of women's bodies always seem to be other women. How many times have you been out and about and seen a large woman tucking into a pastry or ice cream and said to yourself, 'I thought I had a problem. She really should pack away fewer of those cakes.' For a few seconds I bet you felt very relieved - smug even. In contrast, men rarely criticise women's bodies - they just want us naked.

Consider, as well, the virtue that women make of self-denial. In my office we have a tradition where people bring in cakes on their birthdays. The men just grab a tasty morsel and wolf it down, pausing only briefly to thank the provider, while the women agonise over whether or not to indulge. They come out with the excuses, 'No thanks, I'm being good,' and 'I really shouldn't'. Incidentally, none of these women have a weight problem. Most of them fall into the 'slim going on skinny' range. In addition, my female colleagues and I have competitions over who can eat the least. Variations of 'I've been really good today - I've only had a banana and a Slim-a-Soup' are heard daily in workplaces across the land. What angers me more than anything is the way we congratulate ourselves on our denial, secure in the knowledge that yet again we have avoided eating something we might actually enjoy.