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.

Are you going to be the one to tell all the female professional athletes (bar weight lifers, wrestlers etc) they're unhealthy.

What's your waist size OP? There's lots being made of a large circumference being unhealthy.

You need to stop lashing out Nd blaming others for your own unhappiness.
It's not an 'us & them' fight, women come in all manner of wonderful shapes, cause for concern at either extreme end obviously, but blaming a slim 21yr old who works out, eats well and hasn't had her body change through pregnancy, age & other factors is ridiculous

Marilyn Monroe wasn't a size 16- that's just an old wives tale

studio this time next month I will be a marathon runner. When I've got through the London marathon finish line!! Until then I just run halfs.

I'm getting my Dakotas mixed up. Both look great tho

You are over weight op.

I too am 5'4. But I am 8.5st and size 8. I am a healthy weight. I work outside and compete in sports and eat healthily. You are not a healthy weight.
It is also correct that seeing the ribs is healthy.

Marilyn Monroe may well have been beautiful but that doesn't stop Kate Moss or whoever this Dakota bird is from being beautiful too or does it given that they don't fit into your extremely narrow range of what passes for OK size wise?

Op

So are you maintaining that a size 16 person is healthier than a size 10 all other parameters being equal?

Gillian Anderson

She's all bony, how is that healthy?

Some people are naturally thin though. I've spent most of my life having to defend being thin. My teachers at school used to think I was anorexic. One even asked my parents if I ate!! I was 7.5 stone until I had dc2. Now I have dc 3 I am about 8.5 stone. I am 5' 4". My body is still quite thin, but my tummy is no longer sadly. Too much wine and not enough exercise, but I'm happy!

'Just run halves', love it 26.2! I'm training for my first soon and it is hard work! Good luck in London .

That old Jessica Ennis-Hill must be very unhealthy with her being a size 8 n all that.

Lots of sources re MM but this is about an exhibit of her dress and confirms they were a uk size 8 and she had just a 22 inch waist- that's about a 4 nowadays.

I'm fairly miffed that some women are taller than me without wearing heels. I have to wear high heels every time I want to appear to be 5'10. Would it kill them to kneel down so I felt a bit more comfortable?

www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/9141077/Marilyn-Monroe-The-star-with-marbles-in-her-bra.html

Sorry but Marilyn Monroe was pretty tiny. Read this: www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-06-24/hollywood-auction-ends-myth-of-zaftig-marilyn-virginia-postrel

I think GA looks fine in that picture. Quite attractive, actually.

Oh fgs sake OP, are just ignoring everyone intentionally? and yes you are being bloody ridiculous.

Eh? She's not all bony . Where is she all bony?

She's slim, with a defined waist and a very slightly untoned stomach. She looks perfectly normal for a very old photo.

IMO there are far too many skinny role models out there, promoting underweight as the ideal. I can't comment on the actresses OP cited as I haven't seen pictures, but look in the average teen magazine and you're bombarded with super-skinny models, actresses and diet articles. We should be encouraging young women to be athletic, healthy but not obsess over their weight or obtaining the 'perfect' body. Dress-size is not an indicator of beauty or health, and it varies a lot. Tall women or those with larger bone structure naturally need bigger size, while someone with small frame could have high ratio of body fat but still fit into small size.

She's beautiful and healthy and normal. You need to work on your self esteem instead of attacking others.

Size 16 is overweight, very overweight. On most women in the more 'normal' height range, size 12 is overweight, we are just so used to seeing it that it doesn't look it any more.

Size 14 is about what a size 18 was just 15 odd years ago, but vanity sizing has skewed our perception of it. I can't get into my DMs stuff from the 80s and even the 90s, which is the same 'size' as i am.

Marilyn Monroe had a 22 inch waist. Sizes have got bigger, she'd have been a size 2 in today's clothes. Which was a 12 at her time.

I'm a size 10, 5 ft 5 and 9 st 9 - i am definitely overweight, by at least a stone if not more.

Marilyn was a U.S. 16!!

Uhm thank fuck no one has said the idiot phrase "real women" yet

I'm 5ft 8in and a 10/12. You can see my collar bones. And my hips. And my cheekbones!! I would look shit (and did indeed look shit and fat) at size 14/16.

So sick of all the bashing of non-large women.

It's not muscle either op, not from a bit of swimming and walking.... We all walk. It's what humans are designed to do, it's not 'noteworthy'. And low fat?? Don't get me started.....

That picture of GA is perfect! Not honey just because you can make out her frame

That picture is not showing someone underweight, she looks definitely in the normal range.

Olympic athletes.... Are they all unhealthily too thin?

I'm a size 16 and I'm 5'4 and just over 12 stone. I am perfectly healthy! And a lot more attractive than skin and bones.

As a size 10, 5ft 8 and 9st you'd probably call me unattractive. Can you just think how unreasonably offensive you are being?

On the OP's point, I disagree. Children are getting fatter not thinner. The new "normal" is significantly larger than it was 20 years ago. Anorexia is a problem, but we can't let that stop us tackling poor eating habits and lack of exercise.

Childhood (and adult) obesity is a ticking time bomb with consequences for all of us.

Op, can you post a picture of someone you consider to be a healthy weight?