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“Let Them Eat Cake”. This is a quote from Marie Antoinette, Queen of France during the French Revolution, in response to being alerted that her people were starving due to having little bread to eat. At the time this phrase was not greeted with open arms-to say the least. In fact, it infuriated the Peasantry and is even said to have sparked the French Revolution.
However, after over two hundred years and some food for thought, I have found it in my heart, a way to forgive the flamboyant and over-indulging French Queen. You may ask why this is the case considering that it was far beyond shallow to treat such vulnerable people with this level of insensitivity. The truth is however, it isn’t about the Marie. It is about the Revolution that her quote sparked inside my head. In a modern context, I can picture Scarlett Johanssen, an actress known for her curves and refusal to confine to the super-skinny Hollywood mould, proclaiming this to all women who have ever felt pressure to lose that extra pound to get the zipper up on that must-have designer dress or envied one of the airbrushed stick insects on the cover of a fashion magazine. I believe, and I’m sure that Antoinette would agree, that we shouldn’t have to change ourselves physically in order to be happy and fulfilled. Instead of training ourselves to crash-diet and beat the cravings, we should be learning about how to embrace our natural body shapes, appreciate the variety it creates and most importantly- enjoy a heavenly helping of that double chocolate, cream filled, frosting covered cake that Marie was talking about!

Fashion magazines, big-budget Hollywood movies, and our favourite celebrities are all sending us the message that we should all be part of some League of coat-hangers led by the likes of Nicole Richie, Keira Knightley, and Mary-Kate Olsen in order to feel better about ourselves. In response to them, I am not only saying no to starving myself in order to look like a dying...