I know these rants have been done before, but it just seems like things are getting worse. The ad should say results not typical, nor possibly even desirable I’m not saying no one should be a size 4, but COME ON. I’m 5’5", and if I were a size 4, I would look absolutely, positively emaciated and unhealthy. But I’d fit into a size 4!
I’m referencing a Nutri-System commercial, for real. I want to know how many women, really, can be a size 4 without doing serious damage to their bodies? Size 10 is a slim, normal size for a great number of women.
This is one big reason why normal-sized women feel defective. What the f*ck is wrong with being a size 10? And what a freak I feel like for being a strong size 16. OMG, if I got down to a size 10, I’d still have 3 more sizes to go so I can feel good about myself!!
OK, the above about me being a size 16 is not really how I feel, because I’m too old to really be concerned about my size. But when I was young, I really cared like so many other young people. And this ad, coupled with so much other crap that gets thrown at people to be “perfect” in so many ways, just makes for more and more insecurity, and loss of realization of the things in life that really matter! Plenty of young girls really do take one commercial this seriously.
And what can we do about it? I’d like to know how I would have reacted had I a young lady such as a daughter or niece next to me while this commercial came on. Would it have any impact if I just shut the TV off? Maybe on her, but will it affect whether or not this crap gets played? This is a true mindf*ck, because, it’s really not the way the real world works! A person is manipulated into thinking there is something wrong with her when nothing is!!! Nutri-system, helping folks get out of touch with reality one beautiful body at a time.
No…but unless someone posts a profanity-laden inflammatory comment or barges in to rape, rob and pillage like a band of marauding vikings soon, this rant will end up in MPSIMS alot faster than it takes to lose even 1 dress size.
You know, I agree that relentless promotion of the idea that extreme skinnyness is attractive can be damaging to some women. (I really like Dove’s new Real Beauty campaign that shows a whole range of body types.) But, a size 4 really isn’t that tiny. I wear a 4 or 6 and I am by no means a waif at 5’5" and 135 pounds. Sizes have become inflated enough that a 25-26 inch waist and 36 inch hips can be a size 4. (which I have recently discovered would have been a size 12 in the fifties)
Don’t I look GREAT?! I’ve lost 100 pounds, I can wear ANYTHING. I’m wearing a STRAW!
I don’t know the truth about most people, but I actively avoid skinny wimmin even as buddies because I like to be spontaneous and eat/drink whatever & whenever it enhances the mood. My perception is that skinny people have always got their bodies and their plates on their minds and not the enjoyment of the moment. Not that there’s anything wrong with proper diet & exercise, it’s just not something I want to keep in the forefront of my mind. Go ahead and have that chicken marsalla & split another bottle of chianti with me…we’ll work it off later. I promise.
I’ve found the opposite. Most of the thin people I know are that way because of metabolism. None of them have a problem snacking on some ice cream or getting some good food or an extra bottle of wine.
Sizes are just another (of many) crazy effed up things in women’s clothing. Men’s pants are measured by waist and inseam in inches; shirts neck and sleeve size in inches or at least S-M-L-XL. Women should have something like chest-waist-hips in inches for sizes, IMHO. Seems you could get better fits that way.
Maybe the person who went from a size ten to a size four used to be a size two, had a few kids, gained a bunch of weight and then worked her way down to a size four.
I’d love to be a size four, but I think I’d look silly. My shoulders are too broad and my boobs are too big.
I don’t know what’s worse about the whole body-image thing:
that someone like me, who must have a Spanish guitar somewhere in her ancestry, gets called “fat” even though my doctor says I’m fine, thanks.
that lots of Olympic athletes would come out as “fat” if all you look at is their BMI.
or when someone like Paula Vázquez (just Google for images, without the accent - hot blonde alert) gets accused of “having removed several ribs”, “having gone into a clinic for anorexia” or some such stupidity. She’s something like 24, she’s from a part of Spain where “tall and thin” is relatively normal due to lots of Celt blood, she’s thin but has all her curves in the right places and they don’t change size, she readily explains the only “cosmetic” surgery she’s had (got her nose straightened, it used to point a bit to the left due to a childhood accident). HeLLOOOOOO!
Since “cosmetics” of all kinds can be a huge money machine, the people working them feel that it isn’t enough with helping the people who feel uncomfortable, or highlighting someone’s natural beauty - you have to make more people feel terribly uncomfortable, in order to have more customers. Think they’re in cahoots with the shrinks?
I wear a size four or six, and I’m not skeletal. I have a relatively defined figure, but bones don’t really stick out. I eat pretty much what I want (within reason), and weight about 125 pounds.
I hope no additional posters will generalize thin people. It’s offensive and far from the purpose of my post. Some people are supposed to be a size four. Some people are not. And I’m not saying that a woman shouldn’t try to lose a few pounds, if that’s what she feels she needs.
My main concern is that young women take these commercials seriously and literally. “Oh, I’m a size 10, so that must mean I need to lose weight.” There are girls, and indeed women, who think this way. The industry knows that there are women out there looking for the reason why their life isn’t as satisfactory as it should be, and their weight/size is the perfect scapegoat.
Maybe a size 4 is larger than it was in the past, but does that mean a size 10 is unacceptable, which seems to be what this commercial is saying? The fact that the commercial uses these numbers when it’s pretty common knowledge that a size 10 varies is extremely manipulative.
Yes, I know that is their goal, and of course, most, if not all advertising is manipulative…to get people to buy their product, and make money. But I feel that it is so manipulative and potentially harmful that the little disclaimers that they are required to make are not enough. Those buying this crap don’t think their results will be “typical”, otherwise they wouldn’t waste their money.
The sooner that all women everywhere realize that we are all different, the better. Some women have a build where at 110 pounds, they’re perfect (my husband’s sisters, for one - they’re all quite petite). Me, I’m probably the only 24 year old woman in California that is happy at 145 (only 15 more to go!) but that is pretty ideal for me. When I got down to 135 five years ago, my grandmother (all 95 pounds of her) got on my case to gain some weight.
tremorviolet, thanks for that link. That’s exactly the kind of thing I am talking about!
I thought this thread was going somewhere different. Because way back in 98 when I bought my prom dress it was a size 10. Last week I went out looking for a fancy dress and now I’m down to a 4. If anything, i’ve gained about 5 pounds in the intervening years. Because these magical sizes keep changing.
And at 5’6" I barely top 120 lbs.
I’ve never dated anyone bigger than a size 2. They’ve all been 5’5" to 5’8". Not one has ever looked skinny, malnurished or rail thin. All have been very athletic and healthy. Not a single one had any issues with food and loved eating.
Bone structure and frame size has a big bearing on what size you are. But extra body fat is unhealthy and we should not try to arbitrarily justify a size 10 to be the default “healthy/normal” size when that’s clearly not the measure of a woman’s health and fitness. No more than a size 0/2/xs is a sign of malnutrition or bolemia.
