To ask for you to defund 'curvy' to me?

[pizzaorpine]

I'm a bit baffled.

People say it's about body shape and not weight at all but I definitely lose my 'curves' if I become quite thin.

I'm a size 10/12 and I do have a very curvy figure. However, I don't look like that if I lose a stone or so. My curves aren't there, I just look skinny with no definition.

So if it's all about shape and not weight, why does that happen?

I'm not trying to case an argument braces self

Then I see people referring to clearly quite overweight people as curvy and I'm a bit baffled.

I have used it to describe myself sometimes and for me it is about body shape, and I seem to stay the same shape regardless of weight. Basically wide hips and big boobs in relation to the rest of me. I'm short which seems to highlight it further.

Definitely a shape and not a weight. Some fat/obese women are curvy some aren’t. Some slim/skinny women are curvy, some aren’t.

I agree that curvy and overweight shouldn’t be used interchangeably but i think that women especially put weight on their boobs/bum first so those that are just carrying a little bit extra weight (which lets face it is what fashion/media/retail are really advertising to) tend to be curvier than they were when they were within healthy range.

I think it’s about the shape.

I have big boobs and bum and a smaller waist. I’ve always been curvy. I used to be slim and curvy, now I’m fat and curvy.

You can be fat and not curvy. I’m fat and curvy. If anything I’m curvier than before as my waist is the last place i put on weight. So I now have a massive boobs and a massive backside and still a small waist. Fat and curvy.

These women are curvy. Only one of them is fat.

(I don't agree with) friend who insists that "curvy" always means fat and is a damned with faint praise compliment at best.

Everyone negatively saying that fat people use it as a euphemism. Maybe they wouldn't feel the need to if people hadn't spent the last few decades acting as if 'fat' is the worst possible thing a human can be? The treatment of overweight people has been horrific and yet when they use terms like curvy, or become positive about how they look instead of miserable, we act like they're trying to kill everyone by forcing them to be overweight. Why? Because the very skinny people are threatened their monopoly on 'beauty' is gone?

And I'm a size 6.

It's been coopted by marketeers to describe their overweight ranges of clothes. I think it's a euphemism too far but what else would you call them? "Plus size" doesn't scream "buy me" does it? I'm size 10/12 on the bottom half due to chunky thighs and a bum. I lift weights & cycle now so it's more muscle than fat, definitely curvy but if someone asked me to define my figure I'd probably not use the word "curvy" as it's such a euphemism and means fat.

I know size 6 people with curves. Tiny waists and shapely hips and bums, bigger boobs. Unluckily, I was born in to the body of a teenage boy. If I put weight on I just look fat and if I become quite thin I genuinely look like a boy. I'm hovering at a 10/12 at the moment and there's not a curve in sight. Straight up and down. Quite depressing. I would define curvy as slender waist, big hips, big boobs, big bum. Not simply just someone who's 300lbs and slightly deluded.

10/12 is very slender unless you're particularly short I've been 12/14 and extremely lean.

Exercise improves curves tremendously on a slim person.

Round of applause @MsMd. Absobloodylutely.

I think it's about shape... curvy to me is hourglass or similar... I've got big boobs and wide hips. Doesn't matter how much weight I lost, I'd always be 'hippy' (or curvy. I've been a size 8 and I'm now a size 16, people have always said I'm curvy. But I do tend to carry my weight on my boobs, hips and arse.

I personally like the phrase as I don't see it as a measure of weight, but a measure of shape

I also think it means waist to hip ratio. I will never be curvy! I’m 5’2 with a real straight up and down figure, no hips at all to speak of (no tiny waist either). I’ve swung between skinny and a bit chubby (weight clung to my stomach post children) but never, ever “curvy”, I can only dream...

It's a body shape regardless of weight with clear definition of hips/ waist/ bust.

My anorexic friend still had curves because she had a broad hip structure and ribs with a thin waist in the middle. She couldn't see the difference between her bone structure and excess weight and still she rigourously restricted herself (not that an appearence of a straight thin shape would have resolved her underlying mental difficulties and need for control).

It's new, modern, kinder version of "outsize", isn't it? I haven't seen the word "outsize" for quite a while.

Trying on clothes, I'd say curvy means you can't find skirts to fit because if the hips fit it's far too big on the waist. And that was the case when I was an 18 as well as a 10.

RedDogsBeg, wasn't 34"-24"-34" an old standard size 12? I'm not sure I ever had a 10" gap between hips and waist, but often hips on clothes were often loose. Now clothes sizes are all over the place.

I, too, hate the "real women have curves", as I just don't have that body shape. In fact, any extra weight just makes me look fat, as I put it on my upper body and waist, not hips.

nothingtowearever, I think you have to acknowledge your body shape. You sound the opposite of me, as I don't hold extra weight on my hips and thighs, but there's no secret, it's just how my fat is distributed. It's actually much healthier for it not to be around your middle, if that's any consolation.

The word curvy as a body descriptor is a nonsense.

I have yet to meet a woman who is NOT curvy. I've never seen octagonal tits, triangular thighs or a torso lke a dodecahedron. I say this as someone who has been up close and personal with thousands of women whilst working in the rag trade and doing personal fittings.

Every human body consists of curves.

Maybe we should be driving towards a society where we don't feel the need to routinely use terms to describe a woman's shape instead of arguing over the interpretation of those terms.

nothingtowearever have you tried weights? Or a PT?

Oasis do a 'curve' range and the larger ladies modelling look no more or less curvy than those modelling the standard range. I don't like the way it's routinely used as a softer way of saying someone is overweight because I too aspire to be curvy at size 8-10.

Yes as pp have said it’s about shape and where you hold weight, a women who each weigh different amounts could all be ‘curvy’ if they have the same shape, just bigger and smaller versions.

I think some people also use it as a softer way of referring to someone as overweight, e.g ‘she’s a curvy/curvier lady’.

Language means different things to different people generally though, so curvy could be used for a range of descriptions depending on who is using it and their associations with the word.

To me it means having the hour glass or pear shape
It’s not when someone is fat and shapeless and is described in the papers as having “curves”
I’m an apple so if I am overweight I become fat and shapeless ( ) if I’m within a healthy weight I’m boyish | | what can you do🤷‍♀️

Maybe we should be learning to accept our actual body shape as long as it's healthy. In my teens, I thought I needed a flat stomach and full round boobs. Trying for a lean, healthy body, whatever shape, is much better.

Siameasy, I am exactly the same as you. That's my body type too, most definitely not curvy.

MsMD oh please. Slim, healthy people's monopoly on beauty is only gone according to fat activists. Back in the real world, however, humans are still generally attracted to healthy humans.

I'm curvy when I'm slimmer as my weight is on my boobs, bum and hips only. It always goes straight onto my middle when I gain weight. So I go from size 8-10 curvy and slim to size 12-14 I look like a beach ball.

There's a bit in the middle size 10-12 where I sometimes look curvy (because I'm exercising and eating lots of avocados), or 10-12 but I look like a partially inflated beach ball (drinking sugary drinks and lazing in front of Netflix). The dress size is irrelevant then to how "curvy" I am. It's to do with where that weight is distributed.