To think that skinny celebrities do have a negative impact on women and girls?

[thatisnotcoffee]

How could they not? When you constantly have this ideal body type pushed in your face as the only right one and and when size 14 is considered to be overweight then how can that not effect you?

Dakota Fanning is considered to be a good role model for teenagers and young women but she's a stick! How can that be healthy? She's 21 and still has the body of a child.

I watched an interview with Amanda Holden recently and she's wasting away. I also looked up Gillian Anderson recently when I found out the X Files was coming back and I was shocked to see that she's also very thin. I was even more shocked when I looked at even older pictures of her from 10-20 years ago and I realised she was very skinny even back then. I just don't understand how being that thin can be healthy tbh.

This sort of shit just makes me feel like crap and that I must be a hippo at a size 16 even though that's the average size.

Society definitely approves of this. When I was too thin, it approved even more.

Really? I had a too-thin friend (anorexic) who was stared at because she looked dreadful. People teased her for 'pipe cleaner legs'. She was ill!

You are deluded if you think demonising is only aimed at fat people. The phrase 'real women' is designed to make the thinner person feel like a fucking freak.

It's not faux hurt. Speak for yourself! You sure as hell don't speak for me.

I agree it is utter crap word - when people comment on someone being 'too thin', nine times out of ten it is borne of envy or jealousy, not disgust and it most often comes from other women . If there was a lot less judgement of each others bodies we would all be a lot healthier.

Why all this faux hurt at being called skinny? Why all this pretense that the slim are somehow being victimised? It's utter crap and we all know it.

Faux hurt? What a pile of bollocks.

'Skinny' people are often told (nearly always by other women) that they have 'no boobs', that they're 'stick insects', 'real women have curves' etc etc etc

Not to mention how many times they're asked or assumed to have an eating disorder, because they're hip, collar and rib bones are visible.

If you think being hurt by weight comments is only for the overweight/obese then you really need to think again.

thewordfactory sorry but you read in the media everyday that you're not a 'real woman' unless you've got massive tits, back fat and thighs that rub together. It's not victimisation but it is bloody insulting. So because my waist is smaller that my hips or that I have a thigh gap, I'm not a real woman?

I have been very slim, and a large size 14. I say large because when I put weight on I don't look womanly or curvy, I look fat! I am not a naturally slim 8-10, I have to exercise and exert self control and moderation to maintain it.

We have lost all our recognition of what is normal, we have too much temptation available, and then blame everyone else when we get larger. If you feel big - do something about it, it's not the fault of the thinner people in society. If you are truly happy at size 16 you would not care if I was a size 8.

Oh come on, we all know that the term 'real women' is a marketing tool.

It is a way for big business to sell things to people who are overweight.

It doesn't in any way seriously affect people who are slim. We have society's approval. Yes, some people may not like our build, that is their personal preference. But it's not the same as the whole sale shaming that goes on of fat women.

Maybe it depends where you live. The "real woman" meme is very strong among women I know and fat shaming is frowned upon massively.

I know there is a far,far smaller group of very slight young women who do appear to be controlling their food intake. They are more of a worry as a wrong turn there and they are on a potentially fatal track.

Anything suggesting that a woman isn't a 'real' woman because of their body shape is insulting but if we as a population were genuinely being sold the 'real women have back fat' then that is what we would see images of 90% of the time, in magazines, advertising, films....clearly, it's not and any hint of any fat that might exist in the flesh will be airbrushed away!

When slim people see the real women marketing stuff they rarely run out and out on two stone!

Why? It doesn't affect them, really. They like being slim. They know that ultimately they has society's approval.

Pretending that slim people are some vulnerable group who have to fight the oppression of The Fat is taking self obsession to its far corner.

Sleepwhenidie's comment is a perfect example of how we have come to think of 'skinny' as a virtue as any concern for someone looking too thin as immediately put down to jealousy or envy. Really? Was my Dad, Dad's business partner, brother, jealous of me when they thought I was too thin?

The interpretation seems to be that a slender, toned body is the Hollywood ideal and we can enjoy looking from afar but we don't need to aspire to that because as "real women" it's normal to be a size 14. It's kind of patronising.

It doesn't in any way seriously affect people who are slim. We have society's approval. Yes, some people may not like our build, that is their personal preference. But it's not the same as the whole sale shaming that goes on of fat women.

Rubbish! I had friends at school bullied for being skinny. I had an adult friend abused in the street for being very thin.

I feel better when I am the right weight for me, which is what most people would call slim. Some people still call me 'too skinny' but they haven't seen my the way my body (quite rightly) looks post-kids. And, yeah, I wouldn't want to be fat. Because it is unhealthy. And if you don't feel affronted by the 'real women' label, well good for you.

The interpretation seems to be that a slender, toned body is the Hollywood ideal and we can enjoy looking from afar but we don't need to aspire to that because as "real women" it's normal to be a size 14. It's kind of patronising.

YY ^^

TheWordFactory Body shaming is hurtful and wrong no matter what the body type.

No-one has the right to tell someone who has been body shamed that they're displaying faux hurt, if they're genuinely hurt.

Just as no-one has the right to body shame anyone.

Goldenbear as an older adult now I get a bit worried at very,very slim teens because I've known someone who nearly died of anorexia. However I was once a very slim teen myself and relished my food but naturally had a lowish appetite and was shocked when a rude bugger said I was an anorexic! I don't think she was jealous but she was not exactly "on my side" when she said it!

I'd never comment either way tbh.

I constantly see phrases thrown around day to day and on facebook status updates, cover photos etc.
Phrases like this
"real women have curves"
"Men need something to hold onto"
"only dogs go for bones"
Its not right. Im not underweight (maybe even larger im not sure)although not sure on my BMI(5ft, 9 stone) I know I could lose some weight and be in proportion still as I'm short. OP you're 2inches taller than me and 3 stone larger than me.. am I anorexic? I don't think so.
My sister is classed as underweight, shes 5ft 4 and about 7 stone. She eats healthily, doesn't skip meals etc but still as an adult (Shes 30 this year) encounters comments and snide remarks regarding her weight, Its horrible and i remember she was also bullied at school for being "skinny" Maybe we should just point blank stop giving a fuck about who weighs what, who eats what and how tall everyone is? It causes so much controversy there is no need for it, People are people. Would you still love your best friend if they lost/gained 5 stone?

*When slim people see the real women marketing stuff they rarely run out and out on two stone!

Why? It doesn't affect them, really. They like being slim. They know that ultimately they has society's approval.*

And, as for this... try telling that to someone who has been told they have no breasts so that they feel they don't look feminine, or that they are like an ironing board. Why do we have padded bras for sale? Why are women having implants in their chests and arses?? To look like 'real women'?!

I'm 5ft3 and size 12 and overweight in terms of BMI.

Most people eat way too much and move way too little. If our perception is skewed it's skewed in the wrong direction, maybe size 16 is average but pretty much everyone at size 16 is overweight.

"And, yeah, I wouldn't want to be fat. Because it is unhealthy."

Being morbidly obese is unhealthy. Being at the high end of your BMI range or just above it often isn't. I'm at the very top of the range for my height, possibly slightly into overweight (the dreaded "normal" size 14) and I'm pretty sure I am healthy. Blood pressure etc. is normal, I get a lot of exercise, I can lift heavy things (grrrr), I'm big-framed and build muscle like a mofo. I see my GP regularly for asthma/allergy management (not weight related, fwiw) and I am apparently in rude good health.

I could do with losing a bit of weight but I'm not kidding myself that it's for anything except purely aesthetic/fitting better into my old trousers reasons.

I totally don't condone shaming people for their body shape at any size or bullying people for being slender or that whole "real woman" shite, but yes, also finding the "we are so much healthier than those fatsos and they're just jealous because they are part of the obesity time bomb/in denial about how unhealthy they are, and we are the correct weight" a bit tiresome.

worra I agree that there should be no body shaming.

However, I have enough understanding of society's values and enough imagination to see that a few FB memes aimed at making fat people feel better about themselves or a marketing campaign aimed at selling shit to fat people do not compare to the whole sale shaming of fat women that goes on.

In much the same way that I might smart at a racist comment from a black person. But as a white person I understand that it is not in the same ball park the institutionalised racism that others face.

That's why I'm uncomfortable with this thread.

One person's 'starving yourself' is another person's 'eating healthily'

Eh, I would (respectfully) advise caution against that statement, Gently. I was anorexic as a teenager and am now overweight and I think that the vast majority of people are aware that a healthy diet which doesn't exceed recommended intakes isn't 'starving yourself.' 4 big bottles of sparkling water and half a cucumber a day is starving yourself. Trust me. I know.

To many of the posters on this thread, I think that the majority of we overweight people do understand that we could be healthier and our shapes aren't ideal. But really, advising someone to have a biscuit or ten and using phrases like 'looking shit and fat' are not very helpful. Please don't lower yourselves to insults just because you (justifiably) feel insulted. It's quite stinging to the current, overweight me and the 16 year old me who's dying to get out and purge over the toilet whenever something bad happens.

No, normal (and healthy) can be anything but when it comes to 'beauty' we don't see a representation of that range that exists in RL.

BMI is outdated, thanks to better health and nutrition, each generation is getting taller, stronger and I would guess, have greater bone density. No doubt a fair proportion of people with a BMI over 25 are there because of poor lifestyle but it's far from the case 100% of the time. And a certain number of people are naturally very slim but again, a proportion of them will be working very hard at restricting food/exercising calories away. No one can say by looking at them which is which so they should stop making assumptions.

Golden no not jealousy, I think that applies with most comments made by women, those men may have been genuinely concerned for your health (how thin were you?) or they may have been basing their comments on their own aesthetic preference. There is a line between being very slim and looking anorexic (maybe half a stone off most 'thin' celebs?) which will draw critical comments not motivated by envy. But stay just the right side of the line and you are pretty much perfect if measuring by media images.

London the padded bras issue has nothing to do with the real women debate.

They are not made for those poor downtrodden slim women to look like the Fat Oppressors.

Bras is large sizes are all padded too.

This is a result of the media holding up a particular body shape as perfect; very slim with big tits.

Erm, no. I said I wouldn't want to be fat! To me, fat happens when I have eaten a load of crap and done too little exercise. I know this, having been fat and thin and in between. I don't own scales now, haven't for years!

My concern is not based on my needing society's so-called approval, but on my health. I'm an apple shape and conscious that, actually, for me fat is a serious risk factor for various things. So, I'd be a mug to ignore it.

As long as a person's health is good, well, great!

Well I'm on the cusp of healthy-overweight BMI and am chest 34a so I guess I'm 'fat' (as not skinny) with no breasts- bigger doesn't equate to big breasts!