(Lovin’ the RSSchen!)
I was waaaaay thin for a good 10 years (86 lbs at my lowest). I’d be happy at about 103-105, but alas, middle age has caught up with me. I can’t shake this extra 10 lbs to save my life.
103-105 is a very good weight for me. I am fine boned and only 5’2" so it doesn’t look skeletal on me at all.
And I’m curvy.
Why, precisely, is it weak-minded to take one’s view of what is and is not appropriate from the society around you? Everyone’s standards are based on their interactions with other people, skippy.
Granted, it’s asinine to turn to Cosmo and its ilk if you’re in search of affirmation of your body image, but people develop that body image in the first place in large part through their observation - what they see being lauded around them as ideal.
If all you see lauded as the ideal of feminine attractiveness is a size 0, and the women you know (your mother, sister, aunt, etc.) are all spending significant amounts of time trying to slim themselves into that image, and all the men you know lavish their open praise on that image, why in the fuck do you think it’s wea-minded to come to the conclusion that is the correct image?
The tone of that article filled me with :rolleyes: mostly because the tone I got was “Look! Those fat girls managed to be attractive!” as opposed to “Good lord those girls are hot!” - as if their larger than size 0 attractiveness was a fluke - or they’d managed to rise above it somehow, instead of just celebrating their sexiness.
Well, that, and some of the women they were praising for being larger and attractive were still under size 6.
Take a look around. Very thin women are not comfined to popular magazines, they’re in movies, TV and any other visual media. Ever read a news article about the body and clothing of a respected male politician or newscaster? There are plenty about women in these positions: Katie Couric and Condi Rice.
The message to be thin is everywere! “Only thin, beautiful women are successful.” Or is it that only the successful slim, beautiful women get press? When was the last time you saw a women with a BMI over 25 (Hell, even over 20) in a movie, as a major character?
Not to be paranoid or suspicious or anything, but did you know there are aliens in the refrigerator?
[consults index card]
Wait, wrong thread. Anyway, you don’t think women know how to read a magazine’s masthead? I would wager that at least a few of those articles written by women, and photographs taken by women, are pseudonyms for men. It would certainly look better in a magazine aimed at women, at least to people concerned about that kind of thing.
I can honestly say I’ve never read a news article about the body and clothing of a respected female politician or newscaster. I don’t really agree with astro here, but I have to ask, if you read those articles, whose fault is it that they get written?
I don’t read the articles, but I know they exist because I skip them as I go on to read other things. The articles I linked to were just the most outrageous examples I could quickly find.
Kathy Bates?
I was totally expecting a link to Playboar magazine.
Queen Latifah.
Jennifer Coolidge?
VCNJ~
Uh, just as a totally unrelated aside…
A 28" waist is WAAAAY bigger than a size 2.
Just sayin’ is all…
Who cares if it’s not confined to magazines? It’s irrational to base one’s self-image on presentations in any media.
Also, fuck you.
Again, what difference does it make which media it’s in?
Look, I’m not a body-builder, football player, or movie star. But then, I don’t “seek affirmation” from the media, or anyone else. If you do, it’s not Details magazine’s problem, but your own.
Once more, for the dummies.
It’s not just the media, nitwit. The cult of thinness and body image pervades American culture well beyond the media. Sure, the media helps to drive it and is guilty of misrepresenting what “fat” or “curvy” means, but that’s by no means the whole story. Plenty of people perpretuate the notion that skinny equals normal, and normal equals fat, and while there has been some gender equity emerging recently, with men also becoming targets of the body image cult, it has been primarily directed at women.
As i suggested earlier in this thread, in my response to Kalhoun, this wouldn’t be such a problem if the whole body image cult was actually concerned with health and fitness. Many Americans are overweight or obese, and these folks would be bettter off eating less and exercising more. But the cult of body image isn’t really about health; it’s about pushing narrow and often unrealistic notions of what constitutes a reasonable figure.
It’s easy to argue that people shouldn’t cave in to this, that they shouldn’t base their self-image on the dictates of other people, whether in the media or elsewhere. But this ignores the real social pressures to conform to such images, pressures that often have economic consequences in terms of jobs and careers.
You misunderstood me. I was trying to be gender inclusive, and what i probably should have said is “just because they can’t fit into a size 2 (women), or a 28” waist (men)."
As far as i know, a 28" waist is still considered pretty damn slim for an adult man.
Ah yes - that is totally clear now. Many pardons. 
Thin being “in” is somewhat recent of an ideal for women, from what I know. I’ve read it has something to do with the economy; when times are tough, people are thin from not eating enough (back in ancient days), so being well fed was a sign of affluence.
Or maybe not. Myself, I have bulked up since high school, and I am much healthier and happier with this little bit of flab on me.
Quoting from the linked article:
And she’s a little loopy herself if she thinks that we didn’t perceive that those pinups had perfect bodies. They looked gorgeous! But back then, they could hide any flaws with a little bit of clothing.
It was definitely not a more forgiving era. Girls and women were still expected to live up to a certain body image. In the mid-Twentieth century (pre-Audrey Hepburn), she was generally expected to have curves – to be “broad where a broad should be broad” as Nellie sang in South Pacific.
“Lean” and “skinny” were not kind words in the 1950’s. I was a little bit overweight, but I felt sorry for the skinny girls. I graduated from high school in 1961 without ever hearing about anorexia. There was a girl in a neighboring town who lost a lot of weight, but no one seemed to know why.
And certainly we dieted to try to be perfect! My first diet was in 1957 when I was fourteen. I was then what I now consider my ideal weight.
What is even sadder to think about is that these skinny actresses and models weigh even less than they appear to. The camera really does add about ten pounds. I’ve concluded that Calista Flockheart probably doesn’t really exist anymore in real space.
The photograph of the pig was a hideous idea – very negative. I’ve worked in publishing. Neither the author nor the photographer decides what picture goes in the magazine. That’s an editorial decision. Telling the photographer what to shoot used to be one of my jobs.
Kalhoun, I have good news. As you close in on middle age, a little bit of meat on your tiny bones will keep your face younger looking in the years ahead. There are advantages – if you care about that sort of thing. 
Undoubtably, there are social pressures to conform to such images. But people who get worked up over what’s in Cosmo and the like are the nitwits, here.
No, she does not look obese. I was quite dismayed, however, to see her sport a muffin top in Match Point.
That was just so wrong.
I still don’t understand why it is that women are so vulnerable to media saturation when it comes to body issues. I’ve been deluged by just as many (if not more) images of the ideal male physique, and it seems to have had little effect, if any.
And the ideal images I see are actually real bodies, as opposed to airbrushed photos. Of course, some women will try to rationalize a difference, something about how sports stars are glorified for their skills where actresses are glorified for their appearance. They obviously don’t watch much sports.
Earlier tonight I reveled in the fantastic performance by my beloved Giants. In the 3rd quarter, Jared Lorenzen – who is fighting for a roster spot as a backup quarterback – took the field. He’s a fan favorite, a favorite of mine, and a favorite of the guys in the booth. He is 280 pounds, and maybe 10 of that is muscle. The guy is quite literally just a fat load, but he has a cannon for an arm, and he can actually scramble. But he’s huge. He’s noticeably and literally larger than the goal line back, who was brought in for his size. (To any football fans reading, he was bigger than the opposing team’s starting Left Tackle! Not that is fucking ridiculous.)
Anyway, the whole time he was on, the sportscasters (who repeatedly voiced their hope he would make the team) laughed at and mocked his girth. The camera shots lingered on his enormous gut. They only mentioned one of his nicknames; the kindest one: “The Hefty Lefty.” He also goes by “The Pillsbury Throw Boy” and “J-Load.” heh. I love the guy, but he really is a fat sack of shit.
The exact same emphasis that actresses have put on their bodies is also put on sports stars, and the same media obsession with perfect builds is also put out there to sports fans. I can’t count the number of articles I’ve read about various workouts the athletes do, what dietary changes they made to get in better shape, etc etc ad nauseam. I must have heard about how Michael Strahan lost 20 pounds hundreds of times since last year.
And yet, none of that type of stuff seems to make me, or any guys I know in real life, feel bad about themselves. I’ve never once in my life heard a man complain about how seeing images of the perfect bodies of athletes makes it hard for them to feel good about themselves.
I try not to suspect that women are just somehow more weakminded, but sometimes it’s difficult. It’s a fucking picture in a magazine; if comparing it to yourself is what defines your self-esteem, you’re too vain and stupid to have self-esteem in the first place.