To wonder why 'thin is in'?

[loverofchoc]

DH and I were discussing this with a group of friends earlier today - why are all models now expected to be so thin?

Normally, nobody finds it attractive (obviously bar a few exceptions). The majority of men prefer at least some moderate feminine curves and the majority of females feel slightly sick looking at a really clinically underweight model. It's extremely damaging for these women who starve themselves to be in that profession and surely we'd all be more persuaded to buy stuff if the person modelling it looked happy and healthy...

I don't mean naturally skinny like some people who struggle to gain weight . I mean really, really, anorexic thin like a supermodel.

Any theories?

Victoria's Secret models look like they spend every waking hour in the gym to me. That's fine if they want to but most of them are not curvy like, e.g. Kelly Brook

Dr.an evolutionary perspective, surely historically underweight women have been less fertile and therefore some fat/curves would have been desirable?

Miss Watch - we are not cave people any more. Some women don't even want children.

And many do. For those who do it is in their interest to stay at a healthy weight

A healthy weight is subjective though. What I object to is the idea that what men prefer should drive the way women want to look.

Agree lottieandmia

The argument is a bit muddled. Is it about how women are being told to look by the fashion industry that's the issue? Or whether they're attractive to men? Models are there to showcase clothes.

Google 'pig nose girl dating experiment'

Absolute proof it really doesn't matter what a woman looks like

I think you're right with your take on models, op. Have recently dropped from size 18 to size 10 (5'8") and finding it pretty difficult to buy new clothes.

I used to look at models and basically ignore the picture and visualise what the clothes would look like on porky old me.

But now - I think it was Gap last week? - I see someone modelling who is a bit taller and a bit thinner than me (according to the caption) and looks awful and I worry that I would look like that. Is that what people are really saying when they say 'wow you've lost weight'?

Nobody decent would refer to any woman as 'pig nosed girl' so I think I'll not bother

That's the name of the experiment. If you care to see it you'll see why

It's a bit stupid to say an ideal weight that men prefer. When I was a low as 9 men didn't want to know, and as for being more fertile my periods had stopped.

Missswatch - what does this have to do with the thread?

I think you're wrong that men don't find it attractive - and I don't care what men think, it's just in response to the OP.

I'm 5"4, 164cm, 8 stone 4/53 kg.
I'm not thin. I'm a almost overweight. I exercise almost daily. I'm a size 6.

That says everything about how sizing works in the UK.

I have to agree with you op. I went to the hairdressers today. It's the only time I ever read fashion magazines. They all seemed to be full of models who looked like moody emaciated plain little girls in really odd frumpy stuff. I guess that's high fashion for you?

The problem here is not skinny or fat or too toned or tall or short etc. It's that society continues to dissect women's bodies in this way.
It's so sad. Preoccupation with thinness, fatness, height, boobs, bum, even 'curvy' or 'normal and healthy' (whatever that is) all has the same effect, which is to reduce a woman to being valued primarily for her appearance.
I hope that one day we can see female beauty in a range of ways and stop over-anxiously measuring, comparing and criticising, it's so awful. What about what women do or what they say?

Placemarking in order to RTFT tomorrow and add my thoughts then.

@lovelymonkeyninetynine I agree with everything you said.

However part of the reason we're having this discussion about female models not male is that there doesn't seem to be quite the same pressure on male models to be thin.

(prepared to be proved wrong with lots of links to underweight male models now )

I've read interviews with former models and they have complained about the huge pressure to be underweight. How they eat nothing but apples and diet coke, how they take drugs to stay thin, how they are so hungry they literally faint. So many of them are anorexic or bulimic. It's not healthy at all. It really makes me sad that anyone would think that that is ok, that it's fine to treat women like that. Many fashion designers don't want the strong, powerful supermodels anymore. It's a huge problem and many people in the fashion industry have spoken out about it, yet the problem persists.

Busyboysmum - I give you that she looks grumpy but if that's emaciated then I'm in trouble and so are many many others. I have slightly bigger boobs than that model, but I'm pretty sure the rest of her body is about where mine is. I eat healthily, but certainly do not watch what I eat, I eat three very square meals a day and I snack mercilessly in between, I'm about the same height and probably weight as that model looking at her body shape and I'm in the healthy range bmi wise.

Yes, she's slim, some may say very slim, but there are loads of women who are naturally that slim and perfectly healthy. It's so unfair to assume she's 'emaciated' and so clearly unhealthy because it's very possible that's how she is naturally.

Catwalk models, yeah that can and does get ridiculous, but then there are obese models out there clanging on about how fabulous and healthy and curvy and happy they are, so it goes from one extreme to the other. I don't think you can be disgusted at one and not the other, because they're both attempting to sell the idea that an unhealthy lifestyle is desirable and fashionable when actually, at those extremes it's very very dangerous.

I'm 5"4, 164cm, 8 stone 4/53 kg
I'm not thin. I'm a almost overweight. I exercise almost daily. I'm a size 6

That says everything about how sizing works in the UK

Sorry, on what planet are you almost overweight? Your BMI is 19.7. Did you mean almost underweight?? And I would expect you to be a size 6 at that weight and height, so what is your point about sizing?

busyboysmum I don't think that model looks too thin at all.

Catwalk fashion seems to be a bit more like art than reality. It's not like you would ever wear most of the clothes on a designer catwalk - some of them are really out there! It seems it's more like a mood board that then goes onto inspire the more mainstream clothes that make it onto the shop rails. That being said, I'm not sure why the trend is for that 'art' to be modelled exclusively on what sometimes appear to be underweight individuals.

If you look at catalogue models for popular stores, whilst still usually on the slimmer side (although we're increasingly seeing more of a variety which is good), they are usually much more healthy looking than catwalk models.

busy She's not too thin.

Also couture and ready-to-wear are different.

The crazy, too out there to wear clothes that designers make are for their couture collections: they are one-offs and dresses etc. will go for upwards of $50,000 if someone wants to buy them.

Ready to wear is tamer and is in designer stores, but it's still not going to be bought by 99.9% of the population.