1975 diary shocker

[NorthernGirl1975]

As part of my PhD I'm looking at primary sources. I'm currently reading a diary from 50 years ago. The writer is obsessed with how she looks, what she eats and weighs and whether or not she's pretty.

There are lots of references to getting male attention. She goes to a summer gala with her friend and talks about the ice cream man being fit.

Then says she and the friend were chatted up on the bus and "Wolf whistled by two guys so that's not bad to say I'm a stone overweight". Earlier she's stated she weighs eight stone three. Says she's joining weight watchers as no guy would want to be seen around with a fat ugly girlfriend. Some guy who looks like Steve Harley keeps staring at her.

She went to buy a dress she liked but there was only one and it was a size 14 and too big. That's a 10 today isn't it? Christ knows what size she wanted to be. She's written measurements down as "35-25-35" and is obsessed with looking like one of Pam's People.

This is so depressing.

I think I'd be mortified to have people read my teenage thoughts, did the lady who gave you the diary hate her sister?
I've shredded my teenage ramblings whenever I've found them. Teenagers are famously self-obsessed.

A Y D S! Killed off bf the AIDS epidemic

"ook at how many ‘body positive’ women have slimmed right down now they can do it with Mounjaro. It was a defence mechanism, not a truly held belief."

Yes, and no. If you look at how people are wearing much tighter clothes at bigger sizes, I think society's views have definitely changed to an extent.

Ha ha no they're both in on it!

They were quite tasty.

Didn't help you lose weight though.
🤣

Who remembers Limmits biscuits?

They were a meal replacement. Also very tasty.

And Boots used to do a slimming chocolate bar. You were meant to have four chunks as a meal replacement.

I always ate the whole bar though.
🤣

Oh yes!

I was obsessed with getting under 8 stone but never managed it.

I'm not sure what is shocking tbh girls have thought like this for centuries. Yes it's sad that she was so small and felt she was too big, but I also think it's sad that a lot of people now are having to deal with the complications of obesity 🤷‍♀️

Agree @Umidontknow. I think our sense of what is normal has changed - but for young girls who are a little larger than their norm, the body positivity movement isn't necessarily helping them feel much better. Obesity causes huge unhappiness beyond its physical harms.

@NorthernGirl1975
"She went to buy a dress she liked but there was only one and it was a size 14 and too big. That's a 10 today isn't it? Christ knows what size she wanted to be. She's written measurements down as "35-25-35""

I was 34-24-35 in those days, 8st 6lb. It was a size 10 then, & I believe it still is. So a 14 would have swamped me.

I don't think we used the word "fit" to describe a "tasty" man.

That was a subset of the magazines around at the time, aimed at a subset of young girls. There was a really huge array of magazines available in the 1970s. Amongst my friendship group of young women, the most popular by far were the music mags from NME to Kerrang! to Smash Hits to Melody Maker.

@ADifferentDay 'WEAR BROWN CLOTHES ALL OVER'? You were a baby, you didn't see the clothes! Mine were from biba, beautiful fabrics and colours. Clothes have never been so lovely since.

What I find interesting is that you have assumed her age. She could be doing a phd at 40/50/etc. And you also have a very narrow view of what younger people are like, too.

@PracticallyPeapod Women might tell the world these things, but look at how many ‘body positive’ women have slimmed right down now they can do it with Mounjaro. It was a defence mechanism, not a truly held belief.

What you are saying as that all of these women are telling lies to the world, and not saying what they actually think. I think there's a deep level of misogyny in that view.

Also, losing weight is normally driven by the health benefits, rather than wanting the opposite sex to like you. When I've lost weight in the past, I definitely was not thinking of the opposite sex.

The problem is that we are focused on weight and sometimes BMI when the only measurement that really matters is body fat. You can be visually small with a borderline body fat percentage and vice versa.

Every GP practice should have a scale that measure it. I think people would be more health conscious if their body fat percentage showed that they were...well really fat, not fashionably overweight.

I remember that my mum discovered that my grandmother was trying to lose weight...by eating Ayds after her main meal.

But I think if the OP were 40 or 50, she wouldn’t be so shocked. She would have more knowledge about the 1970s.

I was thinking about this thread as I stood on the tram today and saw just how fat everyone around me was.

Watch documentary films from the 60s and 70s and you’ll notice that most people are what we’d see today as slim, even skinny.

So she was only 16 when she wrote the diary. I don't see the big deal, tbh. Most 16yos are shallow and obsessed with boys (or girls). The obsession with her diet, weight and size is a bit more of a concern but I don't see how that is a surprise to anyone, given the age-old pressure on women to be slim and look good.

The information is anonymous, and what OP has provided could have been written by just about anyone.

if i had a mars bar in the 1980s, i would make it last me all day,
never a big chocolate eater
i wouldnt dream of making a chocolate bar last all day now though!

I just have to give you a 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 for teaching me the word "gracile" 🤩 I have literally never come across it before, and I'm 193 years old!

(Edied to add: I am sorry you had such a shitty childhood. Even more sorry that I posted this as an afterthought. I was just so impressed)

I get your point, and was about to say oh yeah never thought of that! But then I thought…if she was in her 40s she wouldn’t have any memories of what culture was like until maybe mid 80s, and if she 50 she’d have been born in 1975 so again, still not old enough to understand what life was like in 1975. It’s quite a jolt when you realise people now hitting 40 were born in 1985.

God I hated Jilly Cooper, I dont think I fully read any of her books but she was often dragged out on talk shows and morning telly waffling on about the upper classes and their sex lives and unfaithful husbands and looks and money and blah blah blah

Awful, not a world I was interested in or understood but many must have been and she must have resonated with many otherwise she wouldnt have been so successful