Fat/Size Acceptance

wot xenia said

First time I've ever said that

Most of her life she was the normal shape women are or were

No, she is very unusual in her proportions.

Fat women pretend MM was heavy because it makes them feel happier when they tuck into their crispy creme donuts but they're just conning themselves.

Most of her life she was the normal shape women are or were before most women got fat which is out at the bust, in at the waist and out at the hips and often weighed about 9 stone, sometimes down to 8 stone something, but some times 10 stone 7 pounds at her heaviest. I think she was average height too which is mine and is about 5 foot 5.

British women used to be about 5 foot 4 and about 9 stone. Now they can well be 18 stone and the same height because they got so heavy.

Well quoted, MrsF - and thanks, I was about to start rummaging through my book boxes!

I wonder how today's magazine eds would have Marilyn airbrushed? I doubt she'd look very sexy with the obligatory slimming down / decelluliting / plasticising techniques applied. Ha! There is no formula to natural beauty. Dove are so close, yet so far with their campaigns.

I conclude that she was a bloody weird shape
And wore one of these. Ouch.

Don't forget the conical bra that gave my mum her sweater-girl assets

I've just discovered that site! Have wandered right off topic now, am engrossed in fashion history ...

I went to see the "Marilyn" exhibition at the American Museum in Bath this summer, and saw lots of her clothes on display, including basques and underwear from films like "Gentlemen prefer Blondes". Her clothes were TINY.
Seriously teeny waist - about a size 6, and bust no bigger than a 12. She was just a classic curvy hourglass shape - none of this teenage boy figure with fake plastic tits shit that girls think is normal nowadays.

"A fat women is thought of as greedy and not willing to prioritise looking sexually appealing to men. Women are not meant to take up too much space, not meant to consume too much and must, must, must cater to the male gaze. So a fat women is a very bad women indeed and must be punished."

Yes. Read "Fat is a Feminist Issue", ladies - its is just as relevant today as when it was first published.

Good point!

Let's look at Marilyn's size in Next, for example. Other shops may have different sizes.

The largest she could be according to your sources is:
38 bust (14-16)
24 waist (just under a size 6)
36 hips (10)

So I conclude that she was a bloody weird shape and would have found it hard to buy dresses. But not fat, definitely not fat, and not large by today's standards either.

And there's the nub, isn't it. The beauty industry takes a beautiful woman, digitally alters her so that she appears free of 'imperfections' such as pores (!) and then implies we all should, and could, look like that ... which isn't even real. No wonder we find it so easy to hate our bodies.

My mum looked stunning in her wedding suit, 1954. She wasn't a film star or anything - very pretty, 38-26-38 if I remember rightly - and wore tight-cut outfits. Trillian, a 38" bust is size 16 although these days it comes with a wider waist and hips. I think we might suppose Marilyn wasn't eating much in the run-up to her suicide.

SardineQueen, my apologies if my early posts made it feel like I was having a go at you or implying you were stupid, that was certainly not my intention.

Er, yes

Compared to the flawless, glossy skin, muscle tone and hair of current models and actresses I mean. Maybe they'd be airbrushed nowadays.

stripey - what was imperfect about each of their looks? Really?

There's something imperfect about their looks which is incredibly sexy and unattainable for most, frustratingly for cosmetics companies.

Yep Marilyn wasn't fat, but she had cellulite which shows in loads of her sexiest pics.

And Marilyn had a really great life, eh?

5'5 and 117 pounds (8 stone 5) is a BMI of 19. So all this talk of Marilyn Monroe being bigger than the current ideal is bollocks. She was just differently-shaped, not bigger, in fact she was very light.

And no, the Christina Hendricks hourglass shape is no more achievable for most people than the Kate Moss skinniness. Less so in many cases. The idea of a shape being in fashion is ridiculous.

And stand over a hot air drain thingy

So true! I do look at eg Rosie Huntingdon-Whitely and think she's beautiful, but these 3 ooze proper feminine beauty, mystery and sexiness. They look so confident and comfortable with their bodies, and just look real somehow.

You can't buy looks like that or even diet /surgery into them - or airbrush. No profits to be made there for beauty product companies - you just can't aspire to look like Marilyn, you can only copy her confident sexuality and sexy poses!

Well, they did have specially-engineered underwear! They are stunning, aren't they - reminds what "Womanly" means at its best. At present, we seem to think of the ideal woman's shape as like a teenage boy with tits stuck on

This is from a fan site:
Marilyn's size fluctuated during her lifetime, but her measurements are most commonly given in the range of 36-24-34 to 38-23-36. (bust-waist-hips). Marilyn was 5' 5 and 1/2" tall and weighed 117 pounds when she died, according to the coroner's report.

SQ: don't get used to it

gn - those pics are so stunning, especially Marilyn! (although didn't she have eating disorders?)

I don't think any of them are a modern 16 though, maybe 12-14. You can't get curves like Mae by eating more/less unfortunately!

Finally!

We have harmony.

agree, SQ!

Marilyn Monroe
Mae West
Sophia Loren

:)

Plus, of course, all those very curvy Renaissance and Victorian nudes ...

What would be better would be women everywhere saying ^hey I'm great and I love my body" irrespective of what shape or size they were. That would be one in the eye for patriarchy. Job done

And then we can all stop thinking in terms of "loving" or "hating" our bodies at all and be in a utopian society where we all just "be" in a content sort of existence.

If someone smokes or drinks or takes drugs (bar needle marks), the damage they are doing to themselves is largely invisible (until fatal). Eating too much produces tangible evidence and hence is easy to comment on and point at/out.