# Ug. Maybe Media DOES want women to be too skinny. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 2, 2007, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492 "2007-05-02T17:19:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492/181 "2007-05-04T22:10:07Z")
[QUOTE=redtail23] Uh, because people (at least one of whom is female) were already calling it a catfight and I was just being smartassed? Get over yourself, babe. [/QUOTE] Get over myself? For not liking the term “catfight”? 😕 I wasn’t trying to pin it on you specifically, though I did quote you, so I can see why you’d think that. But you’re a girl too, right? Doesn’t it even slightly irritate you that any argument between women is automatically a cat fight and thus not to be taken seriously? As if body image issues and women having a heated discussion is just some girl thing, meow, whatever. Next we’ll get people asking me and Kalhoun if we’re on our period. ---
**Author:** ![redtail23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492/182 "2007-05-04T22:34:50Z")
[QUOTE=Rubystreak] Get over myself? For not liking the term “catfight”? 😕 I wasn’t trying to pin it on you specifically, though I did quote you, so I can see why you’d think that. But you’re a girl too, right? Doesn’t it even slightly irritate you that any argument between women is automatically a cat fight and thus not to be taken seriously? As if body image issues and women having a heated discussion is just some girl thing, meow, whatever. Next we’ll get people asking me and Kalhoun if we’re on our period. [/QUOTE] Ah, no, for calling me out when I was just picking up an ongoing riff. If that wasn’t your intent, then we’re all good. 🙂 Nah, doesn’t bother me. We usually use it about fights where people are just being mean back and forth without getting anywhere. Generally accompanied by “meows” and air-scratching and whatnot. Sometimes accompanied by woofing, yowling, and hissing, as passing dogs get involved. (We’re very fond of animal noises, for any reason.) It _might_ be used more often about women than men, but I wouldn’t guarantee it in my crowd. It’s more a way of calling attention to the behavior of the participants than a commentary on gender relations. My friends are not at all PC in any way, but they’re also not in the least bigoted. That’d get their asses kicked. If someone called a serious discussion a catfight just because it was women, I’d call 'em on it. But that’s not how I saw this particular argument going. ::shrug:: YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492/183 "2007-05-04T22:53:04Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] Heh, listen to this: “[Plus-size model](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plus-size_model) is the term internationally applied to a woman larger than a standard U.S. size 8 who models clothing for consumers wearing a dress size 14 or higher in North American sizing, 10 or higher in Australian sizing, size 40 or higher in Europe, and 10 or higher in UK sizing.” [/QUOTE] Whoever wrote that wiki article failed proofreading 101. US size _10_ is an Australian _14_, not the other way around [cite](http://www.onlineconversion.com/clothing_womens.htm) However, they do appear to be correct that this is the size at which plus-sized models[start](http://www.big-gals.com.au/) ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492/184 "2007-05-04T22:57:53Z")
[QUOTE=dropzone] Have any of the guys in this thread complained about thighs that do or do not touch each other? Didn’t think so. [/QUOTE] Damned if I ever payed attention to it before. I figured it depended on the position they were in, like breast size. ---
**Author:** ![MaddyStrut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dbc845/32.png) [@MaddyStrut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaddyStrut)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492/185 "2007-05-04T23:12:22Z")
[QUOTE=lowbrass] It’s probably more a practical decision than an evil conspiracy to make women feel bad about themselves. The fact is that overweight people don’t _really_ want to be shown exactly what they look like. (I know that when I look at a photograph of myself, I always think, “Wow, is my gut really that big?”, and I think most people are the same). So if you’re a savvy marketer, you’re going to show models that really aren’t that much overweight, so overweight people will see them and think, “Yeah, that’s what I look like”, and feel good about themselves. If they used realistically overweight models, people would see them and think, “I’m not THAT fat; I’m sure not going to buy those clothes.” Kind of the same principle as beer commercials where some ultra-cool guy is picking up incredibly hot chicks. They want average guys to see that and think: “Yeah, that’s ME - I’m a really cool guy who gets really hot chicks, so I’m gonna drink that brand of beer”, even though it’s completely unrealistic. [/QUOTE] Yeah. Advertising models often reflect how people want to look, not how they really look. I know when we select models for our ads who are supposed to be in their late 50’s/early 60’s, they better not have a single wrinkle or age spot. :rolleyes: Pretty much, they look like someone in their 40’s who’s gone totally grey. Many advertisers do the same thing. However, I’ve noticed more exceptions recently. Perhaps as the population ages, people are starting to get turned off by totally unrealistic representations. I’m still flabbergasted that people think MM was fat or even chubby. She wasn’t skinny, but when did “not skinny” start equalling “fat?” Where’s the middle ground of just normal weight? ---
**Author:** ![GillianBoardman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc79bd/32.png) [@GillianBoardman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GillianBoardman)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492/186 "2007-05-04T23:54:23Z")
This is totally not useful, but as I was reading this thread at work today, I kept flashing on Harry Morgan, in his role as Colonel Potter on M_A_S\*H singing: I like to go swimmin’ with bow-legged wimmin and swim between their knees! I can’t remember if he was in the shower or riding Sophie at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492/187 "2007-05-05T00:45:53Z")
[QUOTE=tremorviolet] Yeah, yeah, the science is sketchy but having your thighs touch also doesn’t indicate morbid obesity. [/QUOTE] 😕 Doesn’t it also depend on how wide a woman’s pelvis is and how muscular her legs are? My fiancee bikes many, many miles a day, her thighs are large (mostly muscle) but she is VERY fit. Her thighs touch, but barely because she has a narrow pelvis (fip boe to hip bone, there’s not a lot of space – if we have kids, I don’t can’t imagine there’ll be room to fit the tot). Her best friend has wider hips, but an almost idential level of fitness and physique. There’s no way her thighs could tough unless her knees were bending inward sideways. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492/188 "2007-05-05T00:46:56Z")
[QUOTE=GillianBoardman] I like to go swimmin’ with bow-legged wimmin and swim between their knees! I can’t remember if he was in the shower or riding Sophie at the time. [/QUOTE] He was in thw shower then Father Mulchahy came him. “Swim between their – Oh hi, father! :: cough, cough ::” ---
**Author:** ![GillianBoardman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc79bd/32.png) [@GillianBoardman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GillianBoardman)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492/189 "2007-05-05T00:49:16Z")
[QUOTE=Swallowed My Cellphone] He was in thw shower then Father Mulchahy came him. “Swim between their – Oh hi, father! :: cough, cough ::” [/QUOTE] Thanks, that would’ve bugged me all night! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492/190 "2007-05-05T03:04:21Z")
Well, I sent that link of plus-sized models to my husband. His response (and I quote) - “Seriously? This is what passes for “big” in the modelling industry? These women are all gorgeous, curvy, and most of them have flatter tummies than some athletes! I’m looking at one named Hannah who looks significantly thinner than the average woman in her pics. And yes, I’d much rather look at “big” models like this than the heroin chic stick figures that pass for women that all the designers seem to prefer.” (If I looked like any of those women, I would be super-hot. I mean, stopping traffic hot. I’m talking, getting no work done from all the men chasing after me hot. Plus-sized, indeed.) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492/191 "2007-05-05T03:48:49Z")
[QUOTE=kidchameleon] Damned if I ever payed attention to it before. I figured it depended on the position they were in, like breast size. [/QUOTE] Funny thing is, on my way home I noticed an attractive, though far from svelte, woman and, for the hell of it, checked for light showing. Lots of it showed, like a full inch, and she weighed a buck-fifty if she weighed an ounce. Probably closer to 170, but she’s about six foot. Then I looked at the whole package and saw that it was quite good. And, to whoever it was who earlier couldn’t get it up for [Theda Bara](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:ThedaBara.jpg) (nee Theodosia Goodman–Lord, I loves me my Jewish women!), it reflects more on you than her, bro, and goes beyond “taste” into “calling into question your heterosexuality.” Yeah, maybe the makeup is overdone to show up better on the crappy film of the day, but that washes off. Her features are magnificent. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492/192 "2007-05-05T04:00:19Z")
[QUOTE=DSeid] Okay. I rescind the calling her prepubertal. [/QUOTE] Doc, she’s not only looking prepubertal, she’s looking like a prepubertal male, and did so by dieting herself away from looking like an adult woman. No apologies needed, as far as I’m concerned. Were I her MD I’d be concerned, but if I were my wife’s great uncle, the MD, I’d probably offer her more amphetamines, but she (my wife) never figured out if his line was illegal diet pills or illegal abortions. He certainly wasn’t a physician and lacked the hospital credentials to prove it. But he was descended from the Pilgrims, so he was Oh-Tay to my inlaws. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Quint](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/76d3ee/32.png) [@Quint](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quint)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492/193 "2007-05-05T06:26:34Z")
[QUOTE=Rubystreak] Get over myself? For not liking the term “catfight”? 😕 I wasn’t trying to pin it on you specifically, though I did quote you, so I can see why you’d think that. But you’re a girl too, right? Doesn’t it even slightly irritate you that any argument between women is automatically a cat fight and thus not to be taken seriously? As if body image issues and women having a heated discussion is just some girl thing, meow, whatever. Next we’ll get people asking me and Kalhoun if we’re on our period. [/QUOTE] When a discussion of body image degenerates into a “heated discussion” in which women call each other sluts because of the gap (or lack thereof) between their thighs, you’ve got yourself a hair-pulling, nail-clawing, **catfight**. That’s not sexist, it’s just _funny_. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492/194 "2007-05-05T14:21:37Z")
[QUOTE=Quint] When a discussion of body image degenerates into a “heated discussion” in which women call each other sluts because of the gap (or lack thereof) between their thighs, you’ve got yourself a hair-pulling, nail-clawing, **catfight**. That’s not sexist, it’s just _funny_. [/QUOTE] Yeah, but if you were reading carefully, you’d see that no one called anyone a slut. Well, OK, Kalhoun kind of did. Meow. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492/195 "2007-05-05T14:30:42Z")
[QUOTE=Rubystreak] Yeah, but if you were reading carefully, you’d see that no one called anyone a slut. Well, OK, Kalhoun kind of did. Meow. [/QUOTE] Only kinda. Hssssssssss! ---
**Author:** ![Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Key_Lime_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492/196 "2007-05-05T17:48:46Z")
I was kind of shocked to see the [Winx Club](http://www.studentsoftheworld.info/sites/tv/img/5977_winx.jpg) while flipping around Saturday morning television. ---
**Author:** ![harmless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/2acd7d/32.png) [@harmless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmless)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492/197 "2007-05-05T19:09:36Z")
Is it just me or does that redhead have a camel toe? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2007, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492/198 "2007-05-06T01:48:09Z")
[QUOTE=Swallowed My Cellphone] 😕 Doesn’t it also depend on how wide a woman’s pelvis is and how muscular her legs are? My fiancee bikes many, many miles a day, her thighs are large (mostly muscle) but she is VERY fit. Her thighs touch, but barely because she has a narrow pelvis (fip boe to hip bone, there’s not a lot of space – if we have kids, I don’t can’t imagine there’ll be room to fit the tot). Her best friend has wider hips, but an almost idential level of fitness and physique. There’s no way her thighs could tough unless her knees were bending inward sideways. [/QUOTE] 😕 back to you. Wasn’t that the whole point of my posts and those of many others? That thighs touching or not touching is dependent on body type and does not (necessarily) indicate either “fatness” or fitness. I’m not sure what’s confusing about that quote. ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2007, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492/199 "2007-05-06T01:49:33Z")
[QUOTE=harmless] Is it just me or does that redhead have a camel toe? :eek: [/QUOTE] You better not be talking about the photos of me. :dubious: (and I can state definitively that there is no camel toe despite the wearing of lycra unisuits) ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2007, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492/200 "2007-05-06T01:51:58Z")
[QUOTE=tremorviolet] You better not be talking about the photos of me. :dubious: (and I can state definitively that there is no camel toe despite the wearing of lycra unisuits) [/QUOTE] I think he was talking about the cartoon redhead. Not enough of a crotch-shot to make that determination, in my opinion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ug-maybe-media-does-want-women-to-be-too-skinny/402492.md?page=11)