For the price of:     You could have:   breast implant surgery   a year of college tuition   a year's worth of Slim-Fast   plane tickets to Europe   one month of fake tanning   a one-hour massage   a set of salon highlights   two weeks of groceries   uncomfortable shoes   gas for a 1200 mile road trip   a pair of designer jeans   a lift ticket at a ski resort   a set of acrylic nails   a day at an amusement park   a breast-enhancing bra   an afternoon canoe trip   12 fashion magazines   dinner at a very nice restaurant   another tube of lipstick   a long distance call to a friend

National Love Your Body Day
By Jennifer Sader

I'm gradually letting my magazine subscriptions lapse. Whichever ones don't make me feel happy about myself and empowered will not going to be renewed. The first obvious casualties are Fitness and Self, whose models get skinnier each month to the point where they don't look like they'd have the energy to exercise. Luckily I never subscribed to People or Us or any of those other celebrity magazines, because as I read the "articles" in which they discuss Ashlee or Jessica's figure flaws, I feel my own self-respect gradually slipping away.

Oprah's magazine, O, is still in the running but not by much. Whenever they do their "fashions for all sizes" layout, the copy tells us the "plus-sized" women are size 12. Occasionally they'll use a size 14. Rarely if ever represented the average size of most American women, a size 16.

A recent issue featured a How-To-Dress spread that I was enjoying until I came upon this sentence, "If your knees aren't perfect, don't show them." Um, OK. Actually, I've always had great anxiety about my knees. Maybe I should take O's advice. My knees are scarred from being a normal kid who liked to play outside and fell down a lot. I'm not particularly fond of that little chubby part on the inside of my knees next to the kneecap so I guess I'm a candidate for not perfect knees.

In fact, I have a lot of not-perfect parts. Why stop at the knees? The only parts of me that I would nominate for perfection are my ears (they're very cute), and the last two fingers on my left hand. I love my hair, or at least I do most days. The rest of my body has scratches and dents and parts that aren't as firm and beautiful as I'd like them to be.

But instead of ordering a specially-made burqa that covers everything but my ears and part of my left hand—with a removable top for good hair days—I think I'll celebrate the National Organization for Women's Love Your Body Day with a big old raspberry to the fashion editors and advertisers who want to turn my shame into their profits.

I'm wearing a skirt and just-below-the-knee boots today, showing my not so perfect knees to anyone who would like to look. Anyone averse to looking can close their eyes unless there's a Keira Knightley look-alike around to watch. Or they can order their own custom-made burqa, one that covers their eyes and their mouths.

Jennifer Sader is a freelance writer, part-time doctoral student and recreational athlete. She has completed several sprint and international distance triathlons and three half-marathons. Her next goal is to do the Columbus Marathon. She is supported in all her endeavors by her wonderful husband of ten years, Jesse Squire, who inspired her to do her first competitive event, a 5K run, at the ripe old age of 20. Email Jennifer Sader: jensader@yahoo.com

Photo: András