To think vanity sizing is not just about people being fatter

[goddessoftheharvest]

Not really a taat- I've been thinking about this every time it pops up on MN

Any thread about weight, there's always comments about how vintage size 12s were tiny, and the equivalent today would be a size 16. This serves to point out how people are getting gradually fatter without really noticing.

Aibu to think that might be a bit simplistic?

People nowadays have access to almost unlimited junk, yes, but they also have access to affordable vitamins, milk etc

My great granny was tiny, but she was raised on bread and tea in a slum with 8 siblings, two of them had rickets, and she was riddled with arthritis from a relatively young age

My gran (her daughter) had a marginally better upbringing, but not much- less children, better housing, more to go round, but still a restricted diet, no heating etc. She is a little taller than my great granny, about 5'3. Much healthier too, as she has had access to better food and living conditions from young adulthood

My mum is 5'4, and although she's still small, she's not as noticeably tiny as the other women in the family. Was still very poor through her childhood at times

I have had access to better food and housing etc than any of them, and I am much bigger. I am 5'6 and even at 7 stone I couldn't fit into some of my mum's clothes because my shoulders are so broad

My dad's family were poor, but they were country people. They got fresh air, sunlight, grew their own vegetables, liberated the occasional pheasant. Anecdotally they all seemed a bit taller/longer lived than the town lot

Also I see loads of old photos where the women are short, but quite round/stocky. So not necessarily fat, but not sylph like size 8 either

So aibu to think it's probably down to better nutrition and lifestyle as well? I see similar with friends my age too. We are all taller than our older female relatives. One of my friends is a power lifter and she would never fit into vintage clothes, but she is super healthy and just pure muscle- that would have been unusual back then too

Oops double post, sorry guys, but I was the same size give or take in the 90's and was 10/12 I'm now a 6-10 dependent on God knows what!

Stoneagemum I have a 25 inch waist but I don't have a problem finding clothes, although i do have pretty large hips, im normally a size 10 unless it sits entirely on my waist. Most size 10s are built around a 27/28 inch waist? Where are you shopping? My housemate is very slim, but quite straight, has 27 inch waist but slim hips/bust is a size 8/10 and size small so I'm really surprised you are struggling with your measurements.

My hips are 12 inches bigger than my waist and it is a constant problem to find trousers that don't gape massively at the waist, or dresses that don't have loads of extra fabric around the middle.

Where are you getting clothes shaped correctly for your 25 inch waist and pretty large hips charlie?

I'm not really, I have baggyness around the waist so have to wear a belt but I tend to wear very stretchy trousers haha 😆 mostly topshop

I do have slim hips, 35", my local cheep shops are Asda & new look m, I can do dresses, trousers are the problem as having no hips to hold the fabric up it just falls down.

Size small exercise leggings smallest available in my local asda fall down when I move, they are sized as 10-12 which I agree I should fit but experience tells me it doesn't work that way

I got excited today as I found a pair of their xs wonder jeans (6-8) the fit well apart from the distance between crotch and waist, they sit like extra low rise, another of my bug bears I need supposedly 'high rise' just to get jeans to sit over my hip bone. I only have a 4" gap between rib cage and hip bone, who the hell are these clothes cut for?

Barbara I have 15 inch difference between waist and hips, and a waist hip ratio of 0.64. And an 11 inch difference between waist and bust. I wish more than anything that someone would start making clothes for different shapes- as far as I can see vanity sizing mainly affects waist sizes. I think Apple shapes are more prominent than before but there must still be lots of pear and hourglass shaped women around. I'd be willing to pay premium prices!

I tried on my mum's size 12 wedding skirt on my wedding day when I was 9 stone 3 and a small size 10. I couldn't do it up - and she was never under 10 stone.
As a teenager in the 90s I don't remember many people wearing an 8 - possibly because of the grungy fashions of the time you'd just wear slightly bigger jeans with a belt.
I think people were definitely thinner in the past, but also you had less extremes.
Waist size has definitely increased. I have/had a relatively small waist compared to my hips but even at my thinnest ie a teenager with a flat stomach it's never been smaller than 27 inches. So it could be damaging for girls to hear that a size 10 in the olden days was a eg 22 inch waist.

Try Pepperberry- part of Bravissimo. They size by curviness. My friend is a super curvy hourglass and swears by them.

I find insufficient crotch a pain (sometimes literally when sitting ). I'm well upholstered at the back and seem to need more fabric than most. At least higher waists are easier to find than a few years ago, especially now I have a post-CS spare tum to tuck in.

The only women I know who maintain slender frames, bar one who does a lot of exercise and is always "on the go", significantly undereat, skipping meals and so on

Really, though? Really? I guess it depends on your definition of "significantly undereat", but all the slim people I know eat well. As in, normal healthy food, three meals a day.
I mean, they don't eat biscuits and cake and chips every day, but not eating crap doesn't constitute undereating.

If you're anything other than a standard size, I think you have to get clothes adjusted to fit. Manufacturers are never going to be able to accommodate every size and shape.

I just wish more women's stockists did trouser size and length, the same way men's do. Jeans come in different sizes and lengths, but really, that's about it. You can
SOMETIMES get petite, regular and long length, but everything except the regular is pretty much always sold out (or not even stocked in the first place).

I think most slim people I know, just eat when they're hungry and stop when they're full.

Also the whole 'skipping' meals thing depends on which way you look at it.

Is it right to say someone who doesn't eat breakfast because they're never hungry in the mornings, is actually 'skipping' a meal?

That's kind of like saying someone who doesn't drink, is 'skipping alcohol' imo.

most slim people I know, just eat when they're hungry and stop when they're full

What Worra said.

My local Supermarkets don't stock any bras under a 32" back

That's nothing to do with vanity sizing and everything to do with the old way of adding 4-5" to underbust measurement to obtain band size. Many retailers are yet to get the memo.

Lying Witch you really dont think its going to affect somebody who keeps on seeing "size 14 is fat" touted on here on a regular basis when they are a size 14 Really?

My weight loss has been an incredibly positive experience in RL...... on MN .........not so much.

Charliebear i completely agree It reads like an ED forum on here at times and i suspect that someone who challenged it on there would get patronized and their feelings minimized as well.

And i think what some on here cant deal with is the fact that im not joining in and nodding along vociferously with the status quo as a "reformed fattie" Much like reformed smokers do when they bang on about how cigarettes are disgusting. My experience in RL has largely been positive apart from one woman who is 5 stone heavier than me criticizing my small amount of loose skin.

For me to "bang my drum often" Lying Witch is because im responding to the same kind of thing which always gets posted on here which Captain Brickbeard explained very eloquently.

After all if the same comments didnt keep getting posted i wouldnt have anything to "bang my drum to" in response.

From my own anecdata of one, clothing is generally larger now than in "the past" - I co-incidentally have the vital statistics and height that was exactly the average for the women of the nation in 1945, but I am often too short for off-the-peg trousers and dresses here in 2016.

Lying Witch you really dont think its going to affect somebody who keeps on seeing "size 14 is fat" touted on here on a regular basis when they are a size 14 Really?

I've only ever seen it in context to be fair.

How can anyone say a size 14 is fat or not, without knowing the person's height or frame?

And if that person is only 5 feet tall for example, why is it not ok for someone to state their opinion, that yes they think they probably are fat?

I think all of these things need to be read in context.

Im 5 foot 5 and LENGTHwise i can just about wear the trousers from New Look without them dragging on the ground.

Charliebear i completely agree It reads like an ED forum on here at times

We must be reading different threads then (unsurprisingly, because there's thousands of them!).
People do say obesity is a growing problem etc. It is.
But overwhelmingly, people are kind, supportive and helpful, especially in the weight loss section. You get a few knobheads, of course, but they're a minority.

There was a woman the other day who posted a picture of herself in S&B saying she felt fat and disgusting. She must've been a size 14 at the most. Everyone piled in to tell her she had a great figure. Surely if this place was more like an ED forum it would have been quite the opposite.

Worra Ive always found your posts quite measured. Its the sudden influx of posters who are posting things like "You are fat Sorry" that im getting suspicious of.

Re. what Lying Witch said
Maybe i do mention my weight a lot but its my biggest acheivement. I didnt go to university or do a PHD or a Masters but ive seen other posters mention that they have more than once. But i would never accuse them of "banging a drum" Because thats their huge achievement.

Well my weight loss is mine.

You know what the worst thing is to get? Work trousers. What the hell is going on with them? They make no sense, none at all. They either don't go over my thighs, or they slip down my arse at every step. There is no in between

RunningupthatHill Style and Beauty is a completely different board to AIBU.

Shapes of clothes do seem to have got very odd. I tried a pair of trousers on in M&S (sadly the shape usually is the least bad match for me) and they fitted great round both waist and hips for a change but were too tight in the calf! I don't have stick-thin calves but I definitely don't have large ones.

I get what you mean about the influx, but I wonder if it coincides with the rather new phase of people posting their photos on weight threads?

I often wonder if some other overweight posters feel it's in poor taste, considering the photo posters hardly ever look anything other than a bit chubby?

Not that it gives them the right to be mean to the photo posters, but weight threads seem to bring out the green eyed monster in a few people.

Personally, I take nearly everything I read and see on here with a pinch of salt, as no-one really knows what size anyone is or if they are what/who they claim to be.

And that includes whether they have a PHD or a Masters