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.

Toads, so if we accept that eating disorders are rife amongst celebrities, doesn't that give some cause for concern when these same people are held up as role models, or as having bodies to aspire to?

I don't know a couple of people the op mentioned but Amanda Holden has definitely not always been as thin as she is now.

OP According to the BMI calculator your BMI is 29, that is very overweight.

30 is classed as obese.

You need to lose some weight!

Maybe not but maybe Amanda is menopausal? That can affect weight too

Both ways, it's a myth that it's harder to lose weight past 40

a 5 ft 4 you need to be under 10st 6 to be in the "healthy" weight range - 12 stone is severely overweight, borderline obese (BMI=28.8) - it is no wonder you are finding skinny looking actresses shocking, your personal viewpoint is skewed. It is you who is seeing yourself as a hippo - no one else...

I am in the same place weight wise (with a size 4 DD and mother) but people think of me as "the big lady with the shiny hair, always helpful, knows what to do in a crisis?" "oh, that's Somewhere"...(I overheard a conversation recently )

not "the hippo" - stop feeling like crap and dig out those good points.

And I get so cross with all the skinny bashing. I'm always being told I'm too skinny.

My 24 year old dd gets it a lot and has been bullied at school about it, being called anorexic etc. she eats like a horse.

Don't be so judgemental.

I don't know why OP , but I get the feeling from your original post that you are looking for a scapegoat for your size 16 ishness ? Unless the women you have mentioned came round your house and force fed you lard , you are the reason you are a 16 , only you . If you are happy with being a 16 , marvellous , I am sure you look lovely ( and I say this as a size 22 ) BUT let's not pretend that someone who is a size 10 is less healthy than you , because unless their diet consists wholly of marlboro and Bollinger , it probably isn't

Not skinny bashing (am just about smaller than the ops thin end) but my word if I look at the recent catwalk shows how not just thin but actually sick the catwalk models looks, drawn faces , pin thin legs etc, showing what they generally are - anorexic teenagers rather than even very slim women

I am also still absolutely shocked that I didn't ping back to shape post baby, after having split stomach muscles and breastfeeding and never will I hadn't spent enough time around normal mothers to realise the post baby on the beach shots of major celebs are not normal but now I realise cost a lot of money, time, and probably a tummy tuck. It may have saved some anguish if if I had realised that in my life if was not possible

Toads, so if we accept that eating disorders are rife amongst celebrities, doesn't that give some cause for concern when these same people are held up as role models, or as having bodies to aspire to?

You do realise that not everyone with an eating disorder is skinny, right? It's not unusual for people with bulimia to actually be overweight. And even when they're not overweight, they still tend to not be underweight either.

If we accept that eating disorders are rife amongst celebrities then all celebrities should be held under the same scrutiny, not just the skinny ones.

Yet funnily enough you don't ever see people wondering if Adele might be bulimic because she's overweight yet plenty of people with bulimia are her size. You don't see people speculating whether Kate Winslet might have bulimia because she's a healthy weight and there are people her shape who are bulimic.

Yet it's only the skinny women who are get judgment for this and have to justify themselves even though overweight and healthy weight celebrities are just as likely to have an eating disorder as they are.

Evening all

Op where have you gone?

Hello Olivia.

Olivia this thread isn't 'real' is it?

I think the Marilyn Monroe comment was a good indicator...

< tries to stop bingo wing undulating and skulks off >

Toads, but you also don't tend to get huge amounts of media coverage about how sexy/incredible Adele looks, whereas the skinny ones do have wall to wall coverage encouraging this adulation.
i just don't think 'we' as a society have a very healthy balance, particularly in the media, and I think the media does glorify people who quite probably have reasonably serious eating disorders and hold them up as something to aspire towards. It just can't be good.

Toads, but you also don't tend to get huge amounts of media coverage about how sexy/incredible Adele looks, whereas the skinny ones do have wall to wall coverage encouraging this adulation.

Actually skinny celebrities tend to be bashed and criticized for how they look. Just look at the crap Keira Knightley gets for being skinny.

Ignoring the obviously goady and offensive OP...

I think airbrushed celebrities are the problem. Whether you're the smaller or larger end of healthy matters not. Women come in a range of shapes and sizes and shouldnt receive criticism based on their appearance either way.

Making slim women's stomachs and thighs look thinner and removing cellulite and blemishes is what causes the real harm.

OP YABVU for the body shaming but I don't disagree with the one size idea of beauty being the only one we ever see. And comparing seeing bigger people all the time in the street isn't the same, they aren't held up as what we should aspire to. I don't believe that all those tiny celebs (and they are tiny) stay that way easily. And to put them into perspective, look at the ones we would recognise as 'curvy'-Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez and Lawrence, Sophia Vergara...probably none of them bigger than a size 8-10.

But here's the thing with all the categorisation of overweight/underweight etc. You cannot tell anything about a persons health purely from their BMI. And if you have someone who has a BMI of 21 and one with a BMI of 28, all other lifestyle habits being equal (good or bad), then the 'overweight' one is likely, statistically, to live longer! Weight (up to a considerable point - morbid obesity) does not correlate with health and people need to look at their lifestyles, not the scales, to judge how they are doing with it.

Size 16 may be average....but the average woman in the uk is overweight. You are not healthy, you need to accept that, and stop disguising plain old envy by making out that slimmer people cause women to have eating disorders. So annoying when bigger women do this

And a lot more attractive than skin and bones.

You think you're more attractive than someone else JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE A DIFFERENT SIZE? ODFOD

I don't care what size you are, or anyone else for that matter. Just like I don't care how much you smoke and drink as long as it doesn't affect me.
I do care if you judge my attractiveness and worth by the size I am...

FWIW I'm 33w pg, 5'7" and nowhere near 12 stone. I can't imagine being this weight not pg. On the other hand, some peoples target weight is what I am now... Who cares?

Stop bashing slim women. Some are slim, thin, skinny. Some are fat, large, podgy...live and let live. You've made it clear how healthy and attractive you are- good for you

The average person in the UK is overweight. Our perception is totally messed up, so many people say size 16 is fine that it is average. Well the average height for women in this country is 5'4 so size 16 is overweight for the average woman.
When people do see a person who doesn't have that much excess weight they are quick to say skinny etc when she is actually a very healthy size.

And to put them into perspective, look at the ones we would recognise as 'curvy'-Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez and Lawrence, Sophia Vergara...probably none of them bigger than a size 8-10.

I always thought curvy was a shape, not a size. In which case, what is shocking about a size 8/10 being considered curvy?

You are deluded, op.

To elaborate, you can be a size 12/14 but not be curvy at all. Likewise you can be a size 8 and be curvy. Curvy refers to a body shop. It doesn't mean "bigger" .