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.)?

bustoschool - upthread someone pointed out her seamstress said Munroe's waist measurement was 24 inches. Topshop sizing is 25" waist for a size 6. She might not have fitted in size 6 due to her hips and boobs, but her waist was smaller than UK size 6 sizing now.

That said, as others have said, she had a lot of pregnancies that she lost, so in various photos where she's got a bit of a tummy, it's worth noting it could have been one of the many pregnancies she had over the years.

Ah ok makes sense, her life was very sad really wasn't it

Marilyn Monroe didn't take any size because her clothes were made for her by her dressmaker.
My Mum was a teenager in the 50's and the majority of young women weren't curvy then either, at least not in the UK. They tended to be thin and used undergarments like belts to pull their waists in, and padded their bras.
The hourglass shape that you often see in films and that is considered very desirable for women isn't that common naturally, no matter the size.

Dress size depends on your frame. I know women who wear a 10 but have a lot of body fat, they just have smaller frames. And tall, thin women who wear a 14 because they have broader hips and shoulders.

I think underweight or overweight are generally considered unattractive. Both come with health problems.
Jutting ribs and bony hips don't indicate good health, nor do rolls of fat around your middle. Excess weight puts you at risk of stroke, heart problems, joint problems, diabetes etc.

Curves in proportion are universally attractive.

ThisIs, yes re: the shaming! Omg, one of the British girls working for the same Indonesian company as me was about a size 12-14, and the older Indonesian women would poke her in public and loudly tell her off for being fat!

Curves in proportion are universally attractive.

I think that is about right.

See I don't particularly like 'curves' I think athletic figures are far more attractive, we are all different in what we find aesthetically pleasing are we not?

bustoschool we are indeed! And I'm glad someone likes my body type! all of my 'friends' make backhanded compliments and make me feel stabby.

Can a person not be athletic and have curves, though? I think they can.

These women are Olympians. I would call their bodies both athletic and curvy.

SEEing rib and hip bones is NOT unhealthy. Its just that the posters who think that are so used to seeing people with unnecessary extra padding that they are equating common/usual with healthy and you cant do that these days. It is not unhealthy to be able to outline a persons frame through their skin.

It IS unhealthy if a persons flesh is sunken in in between the bones. But simply catching sight of a rib or the edge of a hip is perfectly fine those areas do not need to be so coated with fat that nothing else can be seen!!

Oh they absolutely can, husky, I just don't :( poo!!!

Again it depends on frame size. A large framed person whose bones are visible is almost certainly underweight.

Again it depends on frame size. A large framed person whose bones are visible is almost certainly underweight.

Rubbish. Seeing bones like hips and bottom ribs does not = underweight. Seeing ALL bones clearly defined = underweight, but you are actually supposed to be able to identify the main angles of a persons frame through their skin.

Its not healthy to not be able to tell where someones rib cage ends or pelvis begins because theyre so padded with fat.

If theyre that padded with fat outside their frame then theyre probably also that padded inside their frame around their organs which is not good!!

You can also have visceral fat without being overweight but that doesnt seem to bother many of the shamers. Thats how you know these threads really arent about health.

Husky i would have poked her back.

Husky i would have poked her back.

Honestly, she probably would have taken it in good humour if you had. They are very matter-of-fact about those things.

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.

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

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 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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.