# Thin people aren't famous because the media made them famous. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 6, 2004, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thin-people-arent-famous-because-the-media-made-them-famous/278414 "2004-12-06T21:02:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thin-people-arent-famous-because-the-media-made-them-famous/278414/61 "2004-12-09T22:22:25Z")
by **Ellis Dee** > [@](#): > > Women should be motivated to look like a healthy version of themselves. Once the mission is achieved, don’t beat yourself up because you don’t look like the media’s flavor of the week. That’s where the real problem lies, IMO. Women’s magazines. We are in agreement. It’s one thing to want to be fit in order to be healthy and _look_ healthy. It’s another thing to want to be fit in order to look like a supermodel. The angst from many average-sized women comes from their struggle to look a certain way, when it is literally impossible (sans surgery) given their natural body types. The “big is beautiful” mantra simply is a backlash to the skinny ideal that has forcefully pushed by the media. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thin-people-arent-famous-because-the-media-made-them-famous/278414/62 "2004-12-10T06:59:25Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > Being thin isn’t necessarily _bad_, but you’d never know when hearing people speak out against the unrealistic ideals. I would hope that the more reasoned voiced do not do this. Being thin is _bad_ if you are not built for it (like **Obsidian** and many others) but it’s just fine if you are built like, say, Audrey Hepburn. I would hope that nobody would make snarky remarks about Audrey, dammit! > [@](#): > > I think a fit, healthy woman is the sexiest thing going. I am curious, however, what constitutes “fit” and “healthy.” I know I seem to be belaboring a point, but would, for instance, a woman be “fit” and “healthy” _enough_ if her doctor said so, even though (by looking at her) many people would think she needed to lose more weight? Like, she looked kind of “chunky”? Sure, she _could_ lose more weight if she really wanted to, but she’s “good enough” and her doctor thinks so too. How would some people know by looking at her that this was the case? Would they stop giving her a hard time just because she’s (technically) healthy enough? I doubt it. > [@](#): > > You aren’t really hearing my position, but rather you are dissecting my words in an attempt to read ulterior motives into them in order to refute them in a way that furthers your agenda. Well, it was hard to figure out what you were getting at, since you didn’t seem to grasp what _we_ were getting at all the time. > [@](#): > > No, I would not like a world of bald women. Apparently, that makes me bad. So be it. It doesn’t make you “bad.” We all have things that we’d like to see. But when it comes to other peoples’ appearance, it’s really not our call to make, as I’m sure you know. How ugly or attractive they are, it’s really none of your business. **Canvas Shoes’** latest post (the purple hat one) covers what I’m talking about–men bitching about how women aren’t dressing up nice enough, or aren’t looking pretty enough, or whatever. As if we _owe_ them that somehow. This impression didn’t come out of a vaccum. > [@](#): > > What I would like is for women to have some self esteem. I think that would translate into a more fit female population, and a huge decrease in plastic surgery, in particular breast implants. That would make me happy. Too bad it seems to be a pipe dream. Yeah, it does. Because as **Obsidian** and many others have pointed out, “fit” and “healthy” don’t always add up to pretty _enough_, and so women get flak for it, and are given the message that it’s either all or nothing. (I’m not saying that you would do this, but come on. We know many do.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thin-people-arent-famous-because-the-media-made-them-famous/278414.md?page=3)