To wonder why we hate our curves?

[malificent7]

Ive been reading the beauty myth by Naomi Wolf and she makes some very intetesting points about the diet industry.

In the 1950s etc when women weren't in the workplace, curves were celebrated. Monroe was a size 16.

Since the 1960s when Twiggy was a role model, women were more succesful at work so the patriarchy had to make women slaves to being thin to keep them in check.

So do men prefer curvy women? Isn't fat on females healthy? Ive read on here that men stop fancying their partners when they put on weight?

So are thinner women more attractive or is that just what society wants?

From experience and after reading threads on here, dieting makes us miserable and we have a bad relationship with food..so why hate our natural curves (not obesity rolls of fat.)?

[Yazoop]

OP - You can be attractive with or without curves, thin or fat. Women of all sizes attract partners. Certain figures might be in "fashion" at any given time, but that doesn't mean you are not attractive if you don't conform to that ideal.

So no, I don't think thinner women are necessarily more attractive but I think it is also wrong to insinuate that curvier women are, either. Attractiveness is in the eye of the beholder. Popular culture can have some influence on this, but in my experience individually we are all attracted to different "types" and it is rarely solely dictated by what's in the fashion magazines.

[MsHarry]

Yes I agree!!! No Yes la free!

[MsHarry]

Monroe wasn't a size 16. I've been to see her clothes at an exhibition in bath. The clothes especially around her waist were tiny.

Yes Ia free but remember they would have worn 50s style undies /girdles that pulled you in at the waist so clothes fitted that silhouette rather than her natural one.

[bustoschool]

Yes ok Husky maybe does depend which sport, I am thinking running, heptathlon that kind of thing as what I enjoy watching.

[Jaygee61]

I am currently slowly losing weight - at 5ft 1.5 and 9st 6lb I am a healthy weight. But my target is around 9st. Bearing in mind my frame size (medium), shape (hourglass) and age (late 50s and post menopausal) and my quite chunky .muscular build I think I look absolutely fine at that weight. When I weighed 8.5st after doing Weight watchers 5 years ago my face looked a bit pinched. If I went down towards 7st, the minimum for my height, I would look as though I'd been very ill. It would put years on me. It is unfortunately true that when you get to a certain age you have to choose between your face and your arse (unless you can afford surgery of course).

[TalkinPeece]

I am naturally not curvy.
But its the flab that needs to go.
Flabbiness is unhealthy. Full stop.

[ushuaiamonamour]

HuskyMcClusky Yes, indeed. I follow World Cup biathlon avidly. The sport is possibly the most demanding one of all & requires astonishing fitness in every part of the bodyarms, legs, core. The range of the athletes' builds and shapes, in both sexes, is a wonderful thing; skinny, stocky, curvy, straight up and down, large-thighed, etc. etc. (As for their performances, it's swings & roundaboutsa heavy athlete has one sort of advantage, a lightweight one another.)

[HuskyMcClusky]

That photo is of two 'curvy' athletes but they are unusual, mostly very athletic women are very straight up and down

I’m not convinced at all. I think a lot of women athletes look curvy. Of course, it depends on the sport - e.g. swimmers tend to have broad shoulders and narrow hips.

I think if you are naturally curvy (broad shoulders and hips, narrow waist), fitness and low body fat accentuates that shape.

[StickyPlum77]

I have a pair of size ten flared trousers I wore in the late nineties. I wear a ten now, sometimes an 8. I couldn't fit my left toe in said trousers. As someone above said, vanity sizing is real.

[Forevertired19]

Monroe wasn't a size 16. I've been to see her clothes at an exhibition in bath. The clothes especially around her waist were tiny.

Honestly.. I think curves are being more celebrated now if I'm honest. Its that beautiful figure of a big bum, boobs and a tiny waist. The exaggerated hourglass to me. Also big thighs as well, especially where I am.
I just wish more women would be comfortable within themselves. You cannot change your body type really. So dress for what you have and keep yourselves healthy.

[ThickSocksWoolyHat]

I think it's more about being aware of your health. I've had people telling me I look better & healthier with a bit more weight on - I'm nearly 2 stone overweight & frankly, was a lot more curvey when you could see I had a waist.

[gamerwidow]

I see no reason to love or hate my curves there is no ‘better’ body type there is only healthy or unhealthy. If you are well and healthy and can do moderate exercise without feeling like you are going to die then your body is just fine. What’s in fashion changes all the time, embrace what you’ve got.

[MsHarry]

I love my curves. By curves I mean what makes me a woman. I am a size 10/12 but shapely. I don't like excess fat on my body, that is different to curves. I hate the way people use curvy to describe fat.

[ilikebread]

I love my curves if you mean hips, boobs & bum - fat belly’s, fat arms, face Face however is not curvy - it’s just fat and unattractive because it’s unhealthy.

[bustoschool]

I am horribly thin to look at, but seemingly totally healthy have had children, very fit etc. Always been the same size.

That photo is of two 'curvy' athletes but they are unusual, mostly very athletic women are very straight up and down, like Paula Radcliffe for instance.

[Blahblahdoll]

For me to have bones showing/thigh gap I would have to be so thin as even as a teen doing a bit of modelling (5ft 9 & was 9.5 stone then) I didn’t have them. Now I’m older & heavier no chance! I have friends who have less fat then me who are a size 12 due to their build whereas I have fat to pinch at a size 12.

[SpringHen]

I think you have a very narrow idea of what a healthy person can look like
Its still significantly broader than posters who demote all people with visible hips to "dangerously skinny/underweight".

As I said before, we're no longer that used to seeing normal healthy frames.
When I took DD to get checked because she looked so much skinnier than her peers to find out she was ideallt proportioned for her age, I looked back over my childhood pics and we were all elbows and knees back then (and my family & friends werent deprived/poor, food wasnt scarce). Bones werent shocking.

[BeyondThePage]

I'm fat - I am a size 20 - fat...

you can see my hip bones and my collar bones, you can see where my bottom ribs are.

My belly, my boobs, my bum, my thighs - are fat.

[Jaygee61]

I think you have a very narrow idea of what a healthy person can look like.

[SpringHen]

Basically if your benchmark for what = underweight is being able to see where someones frame begins and ends then your idea of what a healthy person looks like will in most cases actually be overweight & not healthy.

[Jaygee61]

You seem to interpret not seeing evidence of bones as being fat and I don't.

[SpringHen]

SpringHen in your mind people seem to be either skinny or padded with fat.*

Only because you interpret seeing evidence if bones as = "skinny" and I dont.

[SpringHen]

And actually you can be thin and have visceral fat. you can and in which case you can also still outline the frame.

Its normal not "dangerously skinny" or underweight to see hips and bottom ribs.

Posters saying seeing hips = underweight have a distorted idea of what a healthy weight looks like and are using the mean/median instead which no longer works

[SpringHen]

Shaming = "OMG are you really going to eat that? Im stuffed" etc
Not "curvy means something different these days"
Hth.

[Jaygee61]

SpringHen in your mind people seem to be either skinny or *padded with fat.

And actually you can be thin and have visceral fat. It's all to do with where you store it not how much you have. Visceral fat and subcutaneous fat are not the same thing at all.