Inner beauty juxtaposed with cosmetic ads — that says it all!

The whole Two Weeks Under story is a satire — and I didn’t want the reader to know Pam and Elana were satiric at the outset. You need to relate to them, read them as earnest—they are earnest, and they haven’t gone through their journey yet. You don’t want to be ahead of them in the story. When Elana has her defiant life transformation by the end, she then understands that at the beginning she was emotionally unhealthy. I think that’s how we humans work.

Pam and Elana live urban lives that many women live. Their struggle to have some semblance of a natural life in our YouTube culture is a collective societal dilemma.

Self loathing, shame, and alienation are about self-perception and your own demand for yourself to be perfect. The point that they’re not fat but they hate their bodies and see themselves as fat reflects what I consider a serious problem in our society.

That sense of self permeates all socio-economic and education levels, too–all regions of the country. Even, or perhaps especially, the most feminist in us all! There’s some irony for you….

As to your Ayn Rand question: I don’t know if readers know about Ayn Rand or not. I encourage them to look her up. Some like her work, some don’t, but she was an important cultural influence and historical figure. She brought issues of perfectionism and objective beauty to the forefront of discussion in the 20th century. So if we want to know how we got so obsessed with youth and visual perfection, knowing about Ayn Rand is having some historical background. I think historical perspective helps us see things in a richer light. She’s fun to google, too.

Weightism versus sizeism: Sizeism is too broad. It can mean discrimination against a dwarf. Weightism is specifically about people thinking less of you because of your weight. Further, it can mean people thinking less of you even if you’re not really overweight, but there’s someone gold-standard, model-thin that you’re being compared to. This has impact on people’s jobs in many industries.

Here’s a question I’d like to ask your readers that reflects this point: Check out newscasters/anchors on CNN. Which ones were chosen on the basis of their looks versus their journalistic credentials?

So fun talking with you! You have an intriguing web site, too.

From your point of view, what do you think are the thorniest issues of self esteem facing women today?

Happy New Year, I think it’s going to be a surprisingly great one!
Rivka

Rivka Tadjer’s last blog post..As the Dow Plunges, Comfort Foodies Corner the (Grocery) Market

so – yeah, i guess i didn’t catch the satire

the irony of a health club sitting beside a pizza place – yeah, crazy, crazy. same thing with articles in a women’s magazine about inner beauty, surrounded by cosmetics ads.

so … do you expect a lot of your readers are well acquainted with ayn rand? (i could never get into her)

i like the word “weightism” that you use on your blog. how would you say that concept is different from sizeism?

Okay, to answer questions:
Is 5’6″ and weighing 145 overweight? NO. It’s satiric. The point is that Pam, and then Elana, the heroine, don’t need to lose weight — hence the tragedy that befalls both of them, and Elana’s triumph over her demons at the end.

Women who battle with weight aren’t always the ones who need to lose weight. That’s one of the psychological consequence of youth-centric, visually obsessed culture. Women who do have serious weight issues–and I come from a family with this issue–are twice as alienated in this culture, and are adversely affected by the fact that there are no boundaries for what’s healthy and normal. It becomes about aesthetics more than health, about judgment, and is extremely demoralizing.

At the same time, every health club or dieting ad on TV is right next to a SuperSize Pizza Hut ad. We feed our kids sugar to express love. We then use negative reinforcement — if you don’t look 20 you’re worthless — to get women to buy more products.

And this effects all women regardless of age, or socioeconomic status.

That’s why the satiric comment and unreliable narrators. We all are trapped in wondering whether that weight really is too much or not. Killing off certain people was my way of saying no, it’s not too much

Other questions: The Ayn Rand comment: Ayn Rand’s own satiric novels, particularly Fountainhead, represents a perfectionist whose very notion of perfection renders something lifeless. When we are perfect, we’re perfectly dead.

In the architectural metaphor of Ayn Rand’s story, the obsession with perfect structure is the undoing.

Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism (Outside of her novel writing), addresses the issue of whether true object beauty, for example, exists, or whether an individual’s right to happiness has a place (also a huge theme in both Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged).

So being the Ayn Rand of my body means to be our own worst critics. And we are. Ever have a day where you’re bopping along, feeling perfectly happy, until you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror — maybe even in the bathroom at work? Or have you ever loved the way you look in a new outfit, until you start comparing yourself to other women you see on the street?

One of the themes in TWO WEEKS UNDER, is that women often turn on themselves, and each other, more even than men objectify us. The Libra character in the story, and Elana’s relationship to her throughout the story, represents this. As does Deja’s betrayal of Pam in the beginning.

You know the old saying “Women may put on perfume for men, but they dress for other women.”?

Oh my. I could go on forever. I’ll stop now, at the risk of doing the cyber equivalent of overstaying my welcome. Thank you for asking such thoughtful questions. And if anyone else has any, I’m more than happy to answer. I’m not thin-skinned about criticism, either. Please be honest.

I wrote the book to start discussions among women. I love that blogs enable writers to bring work to life. I write to connect with people and communicate.

Also, for book clubs that read Two Weeks Under, I will happily participate in any discussions, either online or on the phone, if you’d like. I’ve called in to book clubs that meet in one place. I’m honored to do so. And if anyone wants, we could do a webcast of a book club discussion.

Take care,
Rivka Tadjer

Rivka Tadjer’s last blog post..As the Dow Plunges, Comfort Foodies Corner the (Grocery) Market