the beauty myth

I think everyone has the right to be fat but health reasons should always remain the overbearing concern of why people who are overweight should try to lose some (and that does include me). What I object to is not the fat factor of this country but the projections we make: that thin is beautiful, that beautiful people are automatically nice people etc etc. My daughter already asked me when she was 5 whether I thought if she was fat. At 6 she was looking at her butt in the mirror and now at 7 she has begun to obsess about the sugar content in food. Mind you, I only bitch about my own weight in the presence of my husband who thinks he compliments me when he says I have the classical figure (Rubens' women had classical shapes so what does that tell about me?!), and I try not to make weight judgments about other people in front of my daughter but nonetheless she has already picked up a lot, either from me or our culture which prescribes we should all try to be beautiful, eternally young...and plastic. And if all else fails there is stomach stapling and botox. How do I raise my daughter in a way that she won't have anorexia at 12? How can I undo the programming of her little brain cells that tells her that outer beauty will bring her more than inner beauty? Why can't we have inner beauty contests instead of the sexist and totally inane beauty contests? Why can't we tell our children that beauty comes in many ways, shapes and forms and has in fact nothing to do with how we should live our lives? I worry about this one for my daughter because I don't have any answers...