Do you know how big a sheet of A4 is? It is approximately eight inches wide and women are now comparing their waists to this sheet of paper. Interestingly enough it is mostly Asian women who do so. It is being, aptly, called the A4 Challenge.
Being an Asian woman, all my life I have felt that there was a certain pressure to be skinny and fit. Most of it comes from the stereotype that most Asian women and men are skinny and don’t gain weight. But there is also a pressure I place on myself to fit into that stereotype because that is the “definition” of beauty. Which is not only seen in Asian countries but also in most Westernized countries as well.
The worse thing is that till very recently I was very thin. I was 110-115 pounds at 5’5, which is pretty good for someone of my height and I did not exercise and I did not eat well. It did not matter what I ate I depended on my metabolism to balance everything out. However, it was then that I got my eating disorder, which was due to a lot of various issues, but a lot of it was based on the fact that I felt that I did not look like the other two Korean girls in my grade. The pressure to be thin started manifesting itself while I was exercising like a madman. I swam for two to three hours, I was break-dancing for one to two, and when I went home I would do some more ab workout and more. At that point I was at my "peak," I was healthy and felt like I was becoming more fulfilled with my life until I started to get obsessed with Korean girl groups. Every single girl was thinner than I was, was prettier than I was, and looked happier than I did. Weight was always something that was on my mind and it was always something I had noticed about myself. Then it was the first time I would hear this statement: “You’re so pretty in an American sort of way”…I have heard a variety of different ways that people say this to me. It’s not really a compliment but its not really an insult. However, it hurt me to the point of starving myself and ruining my body over this idea that I wanted to look more Asian, be more thin.
Through my obsession to be thin I gained more weight than I ever did in my entire life. I had ruined my “Asian” metabolism all in order to appear more Asian. I gained over 20 pounds. which made me feel like a failure as an Asian woman. Of course there were other factors and other things in my life that lead to me feeling this way but it was something that affected my psyche greatly. Being told that I have an “American’s body” really bugged me. I still get told that today. I am no where near getting down to the size of a sheet of A4 paper.
Now I exercise to become a healthier person and I enjoy feeling like I did something good after coming back from the gym. But when I see trends like this it not only hurts me but it hurts so many young girls who think that they need to fit into this sort of stereotype to be or feel pretty. Exercise and diet should be one of many other factors that should make you happy with yourself. If I am completely honest, there are a lot of days I am unhappy with the way that I look because I was told when I was young that I have an “America body” and an Asian face. However, it doesn't matter if I have an Asian face and a waist that is bigger than a sheet of printer paper. Loving your body is a journey, a long one at that. It is not fair that women have created this beauty standard that is to the point of unhealthy. I am actually quite proud of the fact that most American news sites have been slamming this idea that women need to be the size of a sheet of paper.
Will I ever be as thin as a sheet of paper? Probably not, but will I continue to work out and try to eat healthy to push myself to become a healthier person, oh yeah! I am trying to be happy with how I am as a human being not how small my waist is. The A4 Challenge challenges me to not only love my own body but to try and help other women to love theirs as well.
