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.

Same here 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yeah, there's a lot of bullshit, faux feminism around beauty treatments and sexualised depictions of women in the media. Lots of crap about empowerment. It's the same pick me dance women have felt the need to play for millennia. I wish us humans were like birds, where the males have to do the preening pick me act, and the women get to look on in distain and say, no thanks.

Yes, among others I seem to recall the ‘large, fat sighings’ of Mrs M in Persuasion after reference was made to the death of her ‘troublesome, hopeless’ son, who was sent away to sea.

And wasn’t Lydia in P&P described as ‘stout’? Often a polite way of saying porky.
I particularly liked one of the elderly sisters in The Forsyte Saga, saying to her brother, ‘My dear boy, how stout you’re getting!’ 😂
He didn’t like it!

I remember at school - 5th year 1980, I was around 8 stone and 5 ft 5. I was desperate to get down to 7 so bought these 'slimming' sweets called Ayds from the village chemist.
We were all obsessed with weight and being pretty for boys....

My sisters and I grew up in the 70s. I was a size 14, hated it, and rejoiced when I could fit into a 12. Was probably 11-12 stone and I'm 5 ft 7. Got into a 12 when under 11 stone.

My older sister didn't fit into a 14, and there were no size 16s in Chelsea Girl, Top Shop or Miss Selfridge in our neck of the woods. She used to make her skirts.

The thin girls at school were a size 8, although again the shops didn't stock a 6 so who knows. It was just size 8, 10,12 and 14 in the shops. I also had size 7 feet and was made to feel ginormous for this as well, struggled to get some shoes at times.

Absolutely agree with people being thin but untoned. We had games and PE at school but nobody really did any running or aerobics mid 70s.

That's true.
That's about the same age as me.

Size 16 was regarded as extremely fat, I recall. Anything above that was truly shocking.

Most clothes shops only kept sizes 10 - 16 in stock. You'd have to go to Evans for the larger sizes.

I think that would depend on shape rather than dress size.

It might be interesting to explore if social class made any difference re: attitudes.

You know, that's all very true.
And very depressing.

Women haven't moved on really.

I’m not surprised. My mum would have been about 25 then and she’s still obsessed with her weight as she nears 80. Everything she eats is a trade-off, every treat is something to feel guilty about. And she weighs herself every day and discusses putting on or losing 1-2lbs like it’s a thing. I feel very sad that a whole generation lived a life like this.

How did that impact you? My Mum the same.

I feel very sad that a whole generation lived a life like this

Nothing has changed. It wasn't just that generation, either.

Way back in the 1920s if you read books written then, you'll see references to weight loss methods, "health farms" and "Banting" to name just two.

Women have always been obsessed with their weight. It really wasn't only the 1970s, or nowadays.

I feel very sad that a whole generation lived a life like this
Yet she is 80 and seemingly healthy?

I live like your mum and am mid 50s. Of course, I would love not to care and eat what my brain tells me to eat without holding back but I consider the demands in managing my weight as an investment. I don't want to be 70 with my life revolving around Drs appointments and discussing my aches and pains and all the things I can't do because of my health. Experts are saying that by next generation, we will see a reduction in life expectancy for the first time ever.

I think the actual weights and measurements of the diary writer are a red herring here. For me, the interesting fact is that not much has changed. She was preoccupied with how she looked and teenagers and young women are still overwhelmingly of this mindset.

I was 8 in 1975, so a little younger than this girl, but I would have been her age in the early 1980's and I remember being anxious about my weight and whether I was pretty. I went through a phase in my mid teens of not eating very much at all, to the point where people asked straight out if I had anorexia. I also remember feeling hugely flattered by this. The magazines I read featured very thin models and I wanted to look like them. I was always slim back then, but I have a large frame and big hips, so I was never ever going to look anything like those women. It didn't stop me trying. Despite the fact there was no social media, boys didn't hold back when it came to commenting on girls' and women's appearance. They just said it to your face. I had so many comments about my shape, my small breasts, my big hips, my facial features. Not helped by my mum's attitude. To give her her dues, she never ever made any negative comments about me, but she commented on every single woman on television and often in real life. Their size, their hair, their clothes, their make up. Mostly their size though.

I am still glad I was young then and not now. I was very suggestible and lacking in self esteem as a teenager and honestly don't know how I would have coped with the big giant cesspool that is social media.

That was autocorrect. I wrote it in the early hours and didn't notice! Even I know what they were called!

Sounds familiar. My mother is pretty much housebound, mid 80s and has to have nutrition supplements from the GP. Usually she’d be about 9 stone ish. Throughout my 70s childhood she banged on constantly about calories and weight.

Now she is suffering health issues and is very frail. She weighs about 6.5 stone. And cannot
afford to lose any more muscle mass.

She is secretly delighted. I find it unbelievably depressing

I think it probably did. I mentioned my nan being “stout” and not caring. She was working class, but also from quite a bohemian sort of family. They just didn’t seem to suffer social shame in the way a lot of British people seemed to back then.
She made clothes for a living though so probably never really bought much in the shops, so sizing not an issue.
I also do not recognise the recollections of hardly eating any cake or eking out a bit of suet pudding all week. My mum was always baking (80s) and we had cream cakes from the naice bakers every Friday! Plus pop, regular chips etc. certainly nobody in my family liked to go hungry!

I ended up overweight. I’ve never been a skinny person - big feet, massive boobs, hips - and I think I felt such a weight of her disapproval I just gave up. I remember going to get my graduation dress and she was buying it and it was meant to be a treat day out - and she was so disappointed I was a size 16 - that’s the only thing I remember about the day now.

I weighed 8st 3 . I went on a watermelon diet, eating nothing else. I got to 7st 11 and a 22 inch waist. All of the magazines were full of ridiculously restrictive diets.
I now weigh 14 stone and even the watermelon diet has no effect.

This doesn't surprise me. People were thinner years ago and what was considered over weight then wouldn't be now. A variety of factors including less cars so people walked more. I know people who will drive their kids to school despite living a 10 minute walk away (not going to work afterwards). We also have huge portion sizes now and cheap fast food but expensive healthier food options. I remember going to the USA in the late 80s as a child and had rarely seen an over weight person until then so was quite shocked at the sheer size of lots of people. Now its common in the UK to see overweight people. Many shops size 10 used to be a 12 or 14. I have bought size 10 tops that literally hang off me so vanity sizing is an issue to.

However its sad that women had so much pressure on her.

My DM (78) is obsessed with not putting on weight and looking back I now recognise life long food issues that sadly impacted me all my lift having had ED from age 11. I am so thankful that my teen boys appear to have no issues at all with food.

I think there’s a happy medium.

Most in 50s/60s are likely to be a bit overweight if they eat well/healthily well unless unusually active as metabolism slows. That’s unlikely to cause a problem.

Mary Berry apparently is very strict with portion size, she exudes that strict, stiff upper lip, self disciplined 50s womanhood to me. A good thing? The former group unlikely to look as put together into their 80s. The 50s generation have in some cases that reassuring almost comforting energy that if you look fantastic on outside all life standards are happily at equilibrium.

a whole generation didn't.

Weren’t those the days of disco where a normal size was absolutely reed thin?

I remember doing a boiled egg and lettuce leaf diet. I was 5’10 and 11 stone 3 - so BMI of 22 and a 25 inch waist but I was a size 14 and thought I was enormous.