Nudity and other stuff

Wednesday:

I had my pelvic ultrasound today. I was really nervous about having to drink a lot and then not wee for 2 hours. I had to do that for ultrasounds when pregnant and remember how painful it was. One time in particular I ended up crying on the toilet afterwards, in pain but unable to unclench enough to wee.

But it turns out it's not so bad when you don't have a baby sitting on your bladder. I'm not saying it was fun or anything, but not as bad as I was fearing. Actually I think the most uncomfortable bit was when he was pressing down on my side because my postural muscles are always so tender!

The radiologist didn't rush me off to hospital or make any worried noises so I assume there was nothing bad. I'll go see my doctor soon to check.

I was watching TV the other night, and it went straight from one of those Next Top Model reality shows to a documentary about a guy who takes photos of ordinary nude people. He was up to volume 4, featuring men and women from Las Vegas, and ended up with an exhibition and a book with pairs of photos, the same person dressed and then naked. And showed the subjects looking at their own photos. I'd just been watching scantily-clad model hopefuls - tall young slender girls - and the contrast to normal people was weird. Lots of pudgy tummies and big thighs and breasts small or fake balloons or saggy; thin people and short people and old people. I don't usually think much about the influence of the media on women's (and men's) body image but it is true that I generally think of TV people as fairly normal. Yet they are nowhere near "average" in body shape or general attractiveness.

Sure we should all strive to be healthy and strong, but most of us are still never going to look like TV people. No matter how hard I tried, I could never at any point of my life have looked like those models. I'm about 10 inches too short, for a start.

My perception of normal is skewed by what I see on TV even though I see real people every day too.

I'm not going anywhere in particular with this. Just musing.