Nothing out of the ordinary there, but what was interesting, to me at least, and quite reassuring was that it wasn’t just other women defending a girl’s right to curves, but quite a few blokes too.

Now, the conversation wasn’t anything particularly revolutionary; the standard, woman wanting to be a little bit smaller than she is, stuff really. But men seemed to be genuinely at pains to point out that “thin” is not necessary, with real concern that we would go too far or that we were dieting when we really didn’t need to.

I would hardly describe myself as thin though and I don’t aspire to it. Don’t get me wrong I’m not Wanda either though. I’d just like to tighten up a few of the er, wobblier bits of me & lose a bit of my tummy… and don’t get me started on the boobs, though I could diet myself to nothing and I’m pretty sure they’d still be there, taking over the world!

It got me to thinking though – who are we dieting for? I tend to notice that it’s primarily my single girlfriends that are most conscious about their weight. So is it a case of slimming down to attract a bloke? But what happens after you’ve got one? You pile on the pounds once he’s too involved? Hardly seems fair really. False advertising, if you will.

Are we doing it for each other’s approval? Heaven knows we all notice when a friend’s put on a few pounds or even if she’s looking a bit on the skinny side.

Are we doing it for our colleagues? It’s a bit of a taboo thing to say, but you don’t tend to see many really fat women at the top of the corporate ladder do you? The same can’t really be said for the blokes however.

Well, I don’t have the answers. It’s probably a combination of all of the above and a multitude of other reasons to be honest. All I know is that I’m doing it for myself really. If a bloke doesn’t fancy me because I weigh a little more than I’m happy with or my friends don’t approve of how I’m looking, or a potential employer doesn’t think I’m slim enough to catch a client’s eye then frankly they can all fuck off.

The thing is, I fundamentally like who I am and am really happy with, er, me. Yes, there are things I’d like to change and ways I think I can improve, but these go beyond the existence of my love handles. I’m not ashamed to say it, but I have curves and I love them (I even toyed with the idea of going all Dove campaign on myself & putting a pic on here, but chickened out!). And I like to think I know how to work them when the need arises. I feel way sexier now I have a few curves on me than I did when I was a skinny whippet, that’s for sure.

Which brings me back to the response of the men on Twitter who engaged in the debate. Lads, you’re a breath of fresh air! I’ve always believed that men like a girl who’s got a little junk in her trunk and it’s nice to hear a few of you come out and say as much.

Maybe the Sunday Times was right and we’re seeing the “Return of the Sex Bomb” and with it more acceptance of curves etc. Who knows? But if I was a bloke, or even a lady-loving girl, I certainly know which of the girls below I’d be going for…

The frail girl who'll snap if things get too boisterous

The one who'd encourage boisterousness because tousled looks good

But both here, and in the UK, politicians are by and large just plain old fugly; I mean, can you imagine the spectre of Lord Mandelson or Brian Lenihan looming over you with that certain look? *shudder*

But there’s one thing that Ireland has which the UK doesn’t – Eamon Ryan.

"...and then Mary looked right at me and it shrank this much..."

As politicians go, he’s a bit of eye candy alright. You can practically see Sweary Mary slide off her seat in the Dail when he strides in & was recently heard leering, “Ah shure, g’wan with yer fine self Eamon & let me ride yer face ya stud.”*

And really, who could blame her? There’s slim pickings to be fair. (Image credit)

But seriously, there’s something about him that means I very probably would. Wouldn’t you?

I tweeted about this last and it was possibly one of the most re-tweeted, er, tweets I’ve every had, which not only says a lot about the crap I waffle on about on Twitter, but also that I’m not alone in thinking it. Had a fair few people agree with me, but there were certain provisos that we came up with.

My initial caveat was that he wouldn’t be allowed to speak during “the deed” as frankly I don’t want hear any of his Green, spineless, u-turny nonsense when I’m in the moment.

So the rules are:

1. no speaking
2. any speaking will result in him being gagged
3. no pulling the freaky eyed stare.
4. any freaky-eyed stare will result in him being blindfolded

It’s starting to look a little bit kinky, this session I have planned with the yummy Eamon. Definitely going to need a safe word methinks, which shall be “fiscal rectitude” as suggested by Suzy. Because let’s face it, his party have already helped to f*ck the country up the ass, so some safety measures must be put in place.

But risks aside, just look at this picture that Damien brought to my attention… I probably still would (but not the ass bit, I’m a nice girl)

Raaarrrrrr!

So, for all of my luddite friends, and for those of you that, like me, just like this kind of stuff, here’s a video that explains it all in a much clearer way that I can…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpIOClX1jPE

Made by Lee LeFever (awesome name!!) from commoncraft.com – he also has loads of other cool “plain english” videos that are well worth checking out too.

Now, to those of you who have yet to embrace t’interweb, I beseech you to pulleth out thine fngers and get thee hence to a Social Media site near you. Or to a nunnery. Whichever.

For the meantime I have a Mollie Sugden pic there because a) she had awesome hair & er, died and b) I HATE the vast majority of pictures of me as I am insanely unphotogenic so choosing one is nigh on impossible.

So I put the question to you, good blog/twitter/facebook/folk out there: which of the following should I go with?

Option a) face pic that looks nothing like me

Option b) Not actually me, but possibly for the best

Option c) The original avatar where you CAN see my face

Option d) The one where I'm clearly drunk & pensive

Option e) The one where I pull the standard drunk tongue out face

Right then, here’s a little poll to see which is the one you wish to lumber me with. I hate to say prefer, as I’m well aware that I look like an escaped mental patient in pretty much all of them. It’s in your hands people!

[polldaddy poll=1755899]