By NATALIA HAWK
This is Trina Hall. She’s a yoga teacher.
And in March this year, she decided to start a body-image-self-awareness campaign by deliberately gaining weight to become “The Fat Yoga Teacher”. (A name, for the record, that she gave herself.)
The photo above shows Trina at her usual weight.
Below is a picture of Trina after she deliberately gained 40 pounds (that’s 18 kg) over a period of four months.
Trina is 34 years old and she started on her gaining-weight mission after talking to a friend who suffered from an eating disorder. One of the driving forces behind her friend’s anxiety about her own weight was that she (also a yoga teacher) didn’t want to be known as the “fat one”.
This statement set off alarm bells in Trina’s head.
So she set out to prove that size doesn’t matter. On her blog, Trina explained that she wanted to “slay the notion that people who do yoga need to look like the beauties on the cover of magazines.”
Trina began eating whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. She gave up on her healthy, regular, moderate eating and started eating a whole lot of Mexican food.
And while her aim – of showing that you can be proud and confident in your body at any size – was a worthy one, the results of her experiment didn’t quite end up sending that message. Because, instead of growing to love her new (still healthy-sized) body, Trina became plagued by insecurities.
Top Comments
I see what she was trying to do, and respect for it. I don't think it quite did what it was meant to, but I applaud her spirit.
People seem to have this idea that Yoga is easy. It's not. I am terribly unfit, and a simple yoga workout is a struggle for me.
Anybody who can do yoga regularly, no matter what size they are, is amazing in my eyes!
There's this weird notion that thin means attractive. Whilst everyone is familiar with the notion that "maybe she'd look pretty if she lost a few kilos" can be applied to a "fatty," I often look at women who are thin and think she could do with gaining a few kilos and I think she'd look awesome. (Granted that's my opinion, so don't judge me for being honest about that).
*Remember this is about physical appearance this article, so that's where I'm coming from...
Now here's the thing; take "the Fat Yoga Teacher's" Trina Hall or Mamamia's very own Taryn Brumfitt of the Body Image Movement fame. Both woman are beautiful to look at with their before weights and their current/after weights. You can add Samantha Armytage to that; a beautiful looking woman even being in the larger woman (although she's average size, right?) category.
But take a woman who isn't that attractive when she's fat and then make her Hollywood thing and I think that people might start calling her beautiful based on her weight, or lack there of it.
That's the thing that's always perplexed me; why is being thin so highly regarded?