Are most actresses very very slim in real life?

[Mitford1789]

I saw a well known actress a few days ago, standing behind her in the queue for a coffee. She was dressed down, however was clearly very pretty in person. However I was taken aback by how slim she was. I would say she was slightly taller than average, not a tiny person if you know what I mean. But so so slim. Do you think most famous actresses/singers etc are like this? Maybe I’m very naive.

And as these threads show, women really don't like other women to be slimmer than them.

I have zero issue with a women or man being slimmer, bigger, shorter or taller then me. However I think it's ok to discuss why this pressure is put upon actresses & increasingly actors. Why should we not discuss it?

@coogee To be fair while that's sometimes true I haven't seen much evidence of that on this thread (although I haven't read all 12 pages so might have missed that). I think most of the replies I've seen hve been commenting on the pressure to be very slim for those women in the public eye and just expressing surprise at how slim these women are.

Usually if I meet a woman who is preoccupied with weight and puts so much energy into being slim (rather than a middle, healthy BMI) I feel a little sorry for her, definitely don't feel jealous or resentful. (I've had disordered eating and an over preoocupation with being slim in the past but am now very healthy).

[quote ovensoff]@SealHouse of course there are naturally slim women.
The lollipop head is a well-known phrase describing when women get too thin and their head appears too big for their far too thin bodies.[/quote]
So what if it's a 'well-known phrase'? It's a pejorative term used to poke fun at another woman's appearance. You know this perfectly well.

And as these threads show, women really don't like other women to be slimmer than them
I have no envy whatsoever, but do have some concern, having myself had a BMI of 16/17 and I know that my periods stop when my BMI is 18 and no amount of Clomid would bring them back until I got back up to 9 stone 4. I have been that person who has no problem with self-control, can weigh everything, obsessed but dealing with facts/weights/numbers only. It was utterly miserable starving all the time, but I am naturally a large framed muscular person so the BMI may be a harsh measure for me. I always assume that's why some people, perhaps mostly tiny-framed women (which I'm not) can have children whilst they are very slim. I think the experience may not be equally bad for all. But if your periods stop, you're too thin for you.

I was 9 stone, size 10 in the 90s and got called fat several times. I think we definitely have a distorted sense of what a healthy weight is now as we are all bigger. I agree though that if people in the public eye feel pressure to starve themselves, it's sad.

@coogee

I think it's often women comparing themselves to each other.

And as these threads show, women really don't like other women to be slimmer than them.

This

I'm not sure if this is necessarily true across the board though.

Over the last decade I've stood or sat next to Rachel Weiss, Fiona Bruce and Natascha McElhone, and none of them seemed unnaturally skinny to me.

In fact one of them had a rather large bottom!

And as these threads show, women really don't like other women to be slimmer than them

This is grasping at straws somewhat

I don’t think saying many celebs are very slim, and can look more so in rl, is that out there

@ACPC I had a different experience I was a size 8 in the 90s and was always described as super skinny. (Obviously nobody should have been commenting on either of our weights, no wonder we all have body issues).

@dorangme

And as these threads show, women really don't like other women to be slimmer than them.

I have zero issue with a women or man being slimmer, bigger, shorter or taller then me. However I think it's ok to discuss why this pressure is put upon actresses & increasingly actors. Why should we not discuss it?

Absolutely. And one of the interesting things about encountering someone whose face and body you are familiar with only from the big screen or even tv is the removal of that sense of scale. I’d always assumed Kristin Scott Thomas was tall, based on her film screen presence, but seeing her in an ‘in the round’ play at the Old Vic where I was sitting on the same level right next to her, she was probably my height (5 ft 5”) or less, and very slight and girlish, though she was well into her 50s.

Or that someone who comes across as conventionally handsome on camera looks far odder and less pretty in person. Cillian Murphy in person is fluorescently pale and skinny, rather than ‘leading man good looks’. It’s interesting to think about how different people can look when photographed and filmed.

I've said this many times. Almost all big ticket Netflix shows could be subtitled 'incredibly thin liberals whispering'.

@MorrisZapp

I've said this many times. Almost all big ticket Netflix shows could be subtitled 'incredibly thin liberals whispering'.

In fairness, sometimes they shout in Spanish. (Money Heist/Casa de Papel)

SealHouse

Lollipop head isn’t going to worry a thin actress though. It might be used as an insult but what it means is “yeah, you’re thin”. The thing they worked hard for.

Call anyone a “fat arse” which was the previous comparison and it’s pretty horrible. Whether you do or don’t have a fat arse.

I used to see Thandie Newton in the park with her kids. Beautiful but so thin she's almost transparent.

I once saw Liz Cundy in the flesh (about ten years ago). She was surreally tall (she was wearing sky high boots) and slim, exacerbated by wearing a leather jumpsuit.

I had a phase of bumping into Felicity Kendal (despite her wearing sunglasses as a supposed disguise!) once upon a time. She was tiny and slim but still curvy, so not different to her on-screen look.

On the subject of talk of 40s and 50s stars all being so slim, remember that in those days 'pills' would have been part of the solution to ensuring they remained slim. It's possibly still a thing but not something talked about? Judy Garland (who did look gaunt in by the standards of that era) was put on speed (aka slimming pills) as a teenager because she was starting to look too plump in front of the camera. The film studios were essentially responsible for the addiction to drugs that killed her in her 40s .

This is so rude.What do you gain from Insult a woman's natural or worked for body

I agree with this. Also posting a link to a photo where you've studied Duchess of Cambridges neck?! Wow. That's just weird, studying women's weight to that degree.
Bringing down beautiful film stars. So boring, it really is. A lot of posters need to take a look at themselves and ask why they feel so insecure about themselves that they need to slag off other women.

Can you just imagine this in reverse, if we posted pictures of fat women and zoomed in on their rolls, oh she didn't ised to have that extra chin?! The uproar there would be is laughable.

Yes I was thinking Judy Garland abs of course Audrey Hepburn was allegedly anorexic it's certainly not a new phenomenon.
I think anyone who has been On
A diet knows how depressing it is so I just hope the Hollywood lifestyle makes up for the control and denial. On my podcast they were talking about the wife of a famous actor who said when her husband had to buff up for a role it was so depressing as he was up at 4am working out and barely ate - sounds so miserable !
I think a bit of transparency would help that to have that kind f of body it's non stop exercise and salads- although obviously not good for triggering ED but it's the 'oh I have treat days and hate the gym' quotes that make ur normals feel we are doing it all wrong

Bringing down beautiful film stars. So boring, it really is. A lot of posters need to take a look at themselves and ask why they feel so insecure about themselves that they need to slag off other women.

What are you talking about?

Can you just imagine this in reverse, if we posted pictures of fat women and zoomed in on their rolls, oh she didn't ised to have that extra chin?! The uproar there would be is laughable.

Just go onto the Daily Mail to witness the above.

Why does any criticism get passed off as insecurity & jealously? It's the Trump approach.

I live in a fairly affluent area, and work in central London and am often surprised at the stats for people being obese or even overweight.
I rarely see anyone I would describe as obese , and not many overweight. I also am part of a sports club and I'm always surprised how much thinner people look in normal clothes rather than tight fitting lycra.
I can imagine in Hollywood how you would feel if you were a size 10. I'm pretty sure ED and restrictive eating are normal, it cant be healthy mentally or physically. Smoking and drugs probably factor as well.

Geri Halliwell and David Bowie have both been mentioned - both of them have admitted to having ED. In the late 90s/early 2000s Geri lost loads of weight which she attributed to yoga, but later admitted it was due to an ED.

I've always wondered about this with aiready very visibly thin actresses and celebs on TV. Knowing that the camera adds pounds I have thought that in reality they are probably extremely underweight? Probably similar to male celebs.

I think there's a massive difference between insulting women who are under immense media pressure to look a certain way and commenting on that pressure. Talking about the fact that many celebrities are unnaturally thin isn't bringing them down. It's an issue which does need discussing. You can point out that Kate Middleton and other celebs are probably underweight without being insulting or derrogatory.

Look at the reality of someone like Renee Zellwegger vs her Bridget Jones persona. Didn't she describe gorging on a diet of doughnuts and the like to achieve BJ overweight - the language she used was telling.

Bridget Jones if Irc was about 9 stone in the books, and the narrative was that was massive. I didn’t feel it was clear that that was just how BJ felt, or whether the reader was supposed to also think it’s massive.

The film definitely presented her as on the larger side rather than someone who was slim, thinking she was big, iyswim.

I'm 5.10 tall and a size 12. I've been beside some celebrities and I felt like a whale.