Calling pedants, teachers, wordsmiths and class warriors.

[shylock]

I have a question.

Anna's DP's lunch parties sound like a laugh a minute

Oh, you and me both MrsBadger. Especially as hurting people's feeling is simply a cultural convention.

Paris gives me the eebie jeebies. I think Parisian women who persistently purse their lips at women who wear the wrong shade of lipstick or are 3kg heavier than before should remember that they will get 'bj lines' arpound their beautiful, simpering, lipsticked mouths.

She certainly sounds a bit stereotypically Parisian Marina.

tamum - yes of course it's very healthy, everyone eats healthy food, does sport, is well etc because everybody is constantly showing everybody else how much they love and care for them by paying attention to their health

Just because Parisians of all people think it is OK to behave like this anna, doesn't make it right or good.
I work with a number of French nationals, mostly young women, and fat or thin they all find the image culture in metropolitan France so hideous they have no intention of ever going back

Paris isn't all of Fraqnce though is it!

Go out to the towns and villages and you still see plenty woman who look beautiful, happy and oh... 3kg overweight[pmsl]

I meant emotionally healthy, not physically healthy. Obviously.

As in cruel, judgemental and psychologically damaging. So, not especially caring.

The UK obesity crisis is one hell of a lot further down the line than France's...

consolation most Parisians smoke and think they still look beautiful

marina - is it cruel to look after your children and your partner's health? Or is it kinder to ignore it in case you hurt their feelings?

z - less and less, there is ban here on smoking in public places

Zippi - spot on.
Look at frieda Kalhlo, Paula Rego.....

One of the things that makes art interesting is that it finds beauty in places unlooked by the rest of us, and reveals it.

One of the things about fashion and the 'beauty' industry is that it defines the utterly obvious and predicatable as beautiful.

Because France uses surgical intervention in cases that NICE will not do so in the UK. Including teenaged children.

Some people who have surgical solutions are never able to eat solid foods again.

That isn;t a healthy answer in my book - not at all!

And travelling way too fast on the down line is France's terrifying obsession with keeping women stick thin. There is a middle ground that neither nation seems able to find...obesity problems in the UK don't validate the French mindset of maman garde sa ligne so she can get osteoporosis and crumble away at 55

Anna - and the link between anorexia / bulimia and all this constant commenting and judging would be.....?

It is cruel to 'look after your children and your partner's health' by pointing and laughing if they put on weight and/or by implying you won't find them attractive / acceptable / loveable if they do so.
It is not cruel to help your family eat healthy food and exercise.

ime parisians are not big on taking any notice of no smoking areas

i wa shocked that they sit amongst their beautiful things at eg maison et objet and smoke

and in their lovely restaurants

Not at all. You can have happy, healthy, strong children on a regime of a good diet and plenty of exercise. Surgery and fad diets aren't the answer.

marina - I NEVER MENTIONED SURGERY OR FAD DIETS

Other people did, but that was not at all the point I was making.

All I ever said was - tell people when they are looking well/not so well/a bit fatter (or too thin) don't keep them in the dark

Yes - smoking is a nightmare too!

Was sitting with DH sharing a bottle of champagne at Butlers Wharf last week - outdoors having a lovely time. Then came along a French family - two teenaged girls and mum and dad. All sat down and lit up (all of them) at teh table next to us - was horrible. We had to go inside to sit so we weren't fumigated by their bloody smoke[yuck]

So anna you don't see a link between constant commenting on people's weight and appearance and what criticised wives or daughters might feel they have to do to conform to this pressure? Really?

Blu - all I ever advocated was getting to a concept of a healthy body (which is scientifically easier to assess these days, WHO does loads of work on this) and that commenting on people's weight was useful in promoting a healthy body image, providing we have an idea of what that healthy weight is