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AIBU?

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Original poster

to think Duchess Kate is worryingly thin?

578 replies

louny · 29/12/2018 21:56

Just saw pictures of the Royal Family coming out of Church at Christmas and was struck by how incredibly thin Kate is, especially around the waist and hips.

I'm sure I will be accused of just feeling jealous, but honestly I would be concerned if I saw an 18-y-o girl that skinny, let alone a woman in her 30s with three children. I can't imagine how severely you have to diet to be that thin so soon after giving birth. I know she is naturally slim but even so, I am worried the constant media attention is having a bad effect on her self-image/mental health.

OP posts:
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13
kooshbin · 29/12/2018 23:51

The Middletons all seem to have a slim physique. Plus both Kate and Pippa were very into sports as teenagers, and teenage girls who do sports tend to have a somewhat narrow silhouette into adulthood if they keep on keeping fit. Regular physical exercise also helps with deportment, and Kate "walks tall" - the occasional wearing of a tiara helps in that. As does tailored clothing.

If you look at the exhibitions of clothing worn by the Queen and Princess Margaret, you'll see small waists and narrow-ish hips. Sure, some of that might be down to corsets, but that's not much different from strong abdominal muscles through regular exercise.

Kate doesn't look like catwalk models who have thin arms and legs and flat chests. She looks like someone who exercises regularly and eats healthily.

ttheycantalk · 29/12/2018 23:51

Being this thin has already aged her quite a bit (as has the tanning and smoking) so there’s unfortunately a trade-off with all this.

Because of course, how a woman looks is the be all and end all and is the most important part about her and God forbid women should age.

IdaBWells · 29/12/2018 23:51

The social culture surrounding us is important in terms of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and therefore weight. In Japan 3.5% of people are overweight. So it is just not true to assume that as we get older we automatically gain weight and lose our healthy figure.

Klobluchar · 29/12/2018 23:52

Why would anyone thin-shame a size 10 person as claimed by a pp?

iLoveFoood · 29/12/2018 23:55

How dare you say she's far too thin, that's hilarious. I'm a size 16 and I know I'm not curvy, I'm obese!

Kate Middleton is the weight a healthy female human should be! However a lot of us consume too much, sit too much and aren't as active as we should be, get over it and accept it. Sometimes I get shocked looking at mine and others bodies, knowing what a woman should actually look like in terms of her physique

I don't try to sugar coat my own weight problem by calling women at a healthy weight 'far too thin'

Notcontent · 29/12/2018 23:56

I am in my 40s and I am very slim - have been like that all my life. The difference is that 20 years ago I was a size 10 but now I am a size 6 - even though I am actually the same size.

The truth is that most women in the uk are overweight and it’s nothing to do with having children or getting older - it’s all to do with eating too much of the wrong food.

MissusGrinch2018 · 29/12/2018 23:58

*LaurieFairyCake Sat 29-Dec-18 23:26:16
It's definitely a posh and wealthy thing. And a London thing. *

Beggars belief - being slim is NOT a bloody posh or wealthy thing - I live in the northeast and am average salary. I am NATURALLY thin - i.e I eat lots, don't particularly like sweet things and am thin.

PineapplePower · 29/12/2018 23:58

it's beyond a joke how some women think it's acceptable to throw nasty remarks. It smacks of jealousy. I do not consciously try to stay slim. I just am.

I feel sorry for that, it happens to me from my family as well. But I’m not going to pretend I have it harder than they do, being an obese woman in this society is no joke. Thin privilege is real, and we’ve benefitted from it

Nutellalovesme · 29/12/2018 23:58

Out of curiosity to the posters saying she is slim not thin.... who or what is your definition of being thin?

whosafraidofabigduckfart · 30/12/2018 00:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

IdaBWells · 30/12/2018 00:01

Notcontent absolutely. Otherwise all nations should look roughly the same as they age and they don’t, because what we eat makes a big difference to our bodies. My focus is not “thin” but healthy. Catherine is clearly healthy and has lots of energy and doesn’t seem to suffer from any health problems so she therefore is not “too thin”.

Peregrina · 30/12/2018 00:01

Most women of my mother's generation (war generation) were that slim and no one worried.

Because they all wore corsets and many had been undernourished growing up.

formerbabe · 30/12/2018 00:01

Beggars belief - being slim is NOT a bloody posh or wealthy thing

Obviously not all thin people are wealthy and not all fat people are poor.

However, obesity is closely associated with poverty and that's a pretty much accepted fact as far as I'm aware.

LaurieFairyCake · 30/12/2018 00:02

Missus

Sorry if it's not obvious, I meant statistically. Very few of the wealthy in London are overweight.

But the average salary (and the low salaried) are much more likely to be overweight

Like me Grin

TheyMostlyComeAtNightMostly · 30/12/2018 00:02

I have 3 sisters and all 4 of us are skinny as f**k and very exercise-shy. It's just our genetics I think. We're all healthy though.

PineapplePower · 30/12/2018 00:02

To add; people do not see behind the curtain when it comes to celebs, Hollywood and the like. Some obliquely refer to it (Lady Gaga once tweeted #popstarsdonteat and I don’t think she was joking)

Punters like to buy into the fantasy for some reason and insist it’s all real.

makingmiracles · 30/12/2018 00:05

I think she looks healthy. Slim but actually good definition etc on holiday snaps, she doesn’t look gaunt, just slim and toned. The Christmas card pic she looks the perfect size too. I say this as someone who’se grossly overweight.

It’s a bit like my cat, I was worried the vet would say he was underweight but the vet said he was the perfect weight and that we’ve just got used to seeing overfed cat/dogs so it skews our perception. The same I think applies to humans, so many of us are overweight nowadays, be it a couple of pound or stones and stones, that slim people seem oddly thin.

stopgap · 30/12/2018 00:06

*nutellalovesme, I would say Rachel Zoe, Tori Spelling, Jodie Kidd at the beginning of her modelling career, and Victoria Beckham at various moments.

raffle · 30/12/2018 00:07

I always think that her ankles look like they might snap if she went roller skating. She’s beautiful though, I envy her hair Envy

Lomondstripe · 30/12/2018 00:09

Gosh, threads like this never end well and you always get the same replies:
Of course she’s not I weigh 5 stone she’s clearly a robust size 10.
How dare you skinny shame her?
Yes she’s so gaunt and drawn and aged.
Etc.

She’s clearly slimmer than she was at university - that said, I am a completely different shape and size ten years after university - less alcohol and crap food, a longer commute, less long lie-ins, a gym membership etc. It’s not a concrete fact that you put weight on as you get older.

She is very slim - I think when you can see how tiny her waist under a thick coat fabric that much is clear. She is also healthy enough to have 3 babies (through which was was, if you remember, extremely unwell) and keep up what appears to be an active lifestyle running after them and having PT sessions. I’m sure if there was any issue she has all the help in the world there ready to advise her.
Her parents and siblings are slim. She’s under the constant scrutiny of the world’s press.
I’m trying to lose weight that I know I don’t really need to for my wedding, so I feel comfortably in the knowledge that I can’t be caught at a bad angle by the myriad of cameras around - imagine that pressure everyday in life!

WaitroseCoffeeCostaCup · 30/12/2018 00:12

All the people who are saying she's naturally slim and looks perfectly normal. Do you honestly believe she isn't working hard to be that weight/size?

Honestly yes. I walked out of the hospital wearing my pre pregnancy clothes after every one of my 4 children. I have the body of a teenage boy despite eating more than most people I know. Everyone's different. And that's ok.

Lomondstripe · 30/12/2018 00:12

Also, people hold weight differently. Gosh I’ve lost and put on the same stone for years and I’ve had different shapes and silhouettes every time. I am at the higher end of a normal BMI and probably best described as ‘solid’ - I am frequently described as ‘bird like’ which is hilarious: I do have slim arms and legs, particularly around the joints. If I was to lose 5 lb my chest would be bony, my wrists and ankles would look like they would snap, but I still wouldn’t fit into anything less than a size 12. Humans are weird.

TheyMostlyComeAtNightMostly · 30/12/2018 00:13

Gosh, threads like this never end well and you always get the same replies

Really there should just be one type of reply for any thread about a celebrity's appearance:

Who cares? It doesn't matter. Why are you making a thread about this?

canigetaliein · 30/12/2018 00:13

I find it so funny that people say oh she’s just like me or people I know.

How many people have seen her or an A-Lister in real life? The camera adds weight, she is very lean for someone of her height. I used to a little bit of modelling when younger, the world is really not full of loads of women post children who are 5 ft 8 plus & size 6-8.

MissusGrinch2018 · 30/12/2018 00:13

LaurieFairyCake Sun 30-Dec-18 00:02:11
Missus

*Sorry if it's not obvious, I meant statistically. Very few of the wealthy in London are overweight.

But the average salary (and the low salaried) are much more likely to be overweight

Like me grin*

It's not obvious to me - the more impoverished people in the northeast in my experience are the 'skinny' people you've talked about - certainly not wealthy etc.

Would I be ok telling a woman she looked fat? I don't think I would. But you and the OP think it ok to call Kate too thin while I and other posters have explained how we are naturally thin and that it's offensive. Do you disagree it's not ok to call someone too thin?