Getting on the scale has been a bit stressful lately. It’s not that I have a distorted self-image. I simply indulged in sweets (damn dried figs; they were so tasty), and with my sedentary lifestyle, it didn’t take long to see the results. And since obesity is not healthy in general and can even be fatal, given my pre-existing health problems, I try to pay attention to maintaining a healthy weight-to-height ratio.

Since I usually weigh myself after waking up and naked to ensure the accuracy of the data, I have the opportunity to take a good look at myself in the mirror, and generally, I have nothing to complain about in this matter. But this reminds me how often I encountered texts complaining about the negative impact of pop culture, and especially women’s glossy magazines, on our perception of the body, especially when it concerns women. It’s true that I’m not a reader of this type of periodical, but when I happened to pick one up on some occasion, I never found the photos of these anorexic-looking models in strange poses and unpleasant facial expressions attractive. The question is, who attracts me? I think the simplest way would be to have a look at actors, since everyone knows them, and if not, they are easy to find using an internet search engine. So here is my random list of actors I find beautiful: For each name, I add the title of the film in which they made this impression on me.

Elena Saorin in Pictures of Lily
Zoe Kazan in In Your Eyes
Franka Potente in Run Lola Run
Natalia Tena in You Instead
Jessie Buckley in Men
Kelly Macdonald in Puzzle
Aubrey Plaza in Life After Beth
Maggie Gyllenhaal in Stranger than Fiction
Shirley MacLaine in The Apartment
Cristin Milioti in Palm Springs
Natalie Morales in Language Lessons
Anaïs Demoustier in The New Girlfriend

This list could go on for a long time, so maybe I’ll end it here, because it’s probably enough to give an idea of my taste when it comes to female beauty. None of them are the Barbie type, but they are all rather slim. I don’t know if it’s biologically determined or a matter of the culture in which I grew up, but I’ve never been attracted by Rubensian shapes. Does this make me a bad person?