To wonder if this Zara model is a healthy size?

[MondayYogurt]

Most models are tall and slim but something just made me stop and look at these pictures for longer, wondering.

Is it just photoshop?

It's a great thread to show the double standards.

Women who are slim are fair game and can be criticised and abused.

This is a forum where posters love to pretend a size 14 is slim, being overweight is "healthy", women buying clothes in kids section are "lying" and everyone having a different opinion or a different body is fat shaming.

@Beannag

Stop body shaming thin women.

Someone who has chosen a career as a model, gets paid lots of money to be photoshopped to push an ideal that is unreachable to many young people is not the same as body shaming someone. Its really dangerous, and no doubt they are as much of a victim of the industry as those looking at home and developing unhealthy view of their body and of food. Of course being overweight is also unhealthy, and you'll find plenty of people comment negatively on plus size models, not sure why people assume it's always positive, and neither should be pushed as aspirational to sell clothes.

Yes, it is still body shaming. You are not just shaming the model, but also everyone who is as thin as her. Plus size models are not getting as much grief as thin models these days. Plus size models are referred to as real women (are slim women not real?) and they are celebrated for showing off their bodies. Slim ones aren't.

I've just tried to complain.

Oops! But can't find an email address. Their customer chat ignited me after I said what the issue was.

I think she looks normal

My wrist bones and legs look the same.
When I was a pregnant last year, I gained 3stone (20kg). Way more that actual baby weight. Yet my ‘bones’ still looked like that at 40 weeks with extra weight and swollen with excess water.

Sorry, *@Iminaglasscaseofemotion’, but that’s just not true. Maybe in some cases, but certainly not all. You’ve evidently never met anyone who truly does eat plenty but remains extremely slim.

The ‘5 sugars’ bloke I mentioned earlier, told me that when he was an invariably very slim child, his mother used to make a sandwich to leave on his bedside table every night, since he would always wake up hungry in the middle of the night.

An extreme case, I dare say, but a fact. He’s in his 60s now and with a bit more meat on his bones, but still slim.

Oh come on, the first picture is photoshopped. They nearly always are. I’m very small boned and have a background in ballet. Plenty of girls / women who would be considered very thin by any standards. But those legs in the first photo are blatantly photo-shopped and that is a different issue to “some people are naturally slim.” This is what these companies do.

She does look pretty unwell. There is no way someone could naturally be that way without serious effort.

I'm that sort of weight, sadly not beautiful like a model but definitely those very slim legs, arms, boney wrists, elbows etc. I'm in my mid 50's and have never weighed more than 7.5 stone, have 2 late teens. It's no effort whatsoever for me, in fact I'd love to weigh another stone to stop the cruel comments I have received over my lifetime if nothing else but guess it's never going to happen if it hasn't already.

@khakiandcoral this is not about body shaming or criticising the women. This is aimed at Zara who are deliberately choosing to use underweight and extremely thin models across their website. They have been doing it for years.

All of the examples people have given re people they know who are very thin, even when eating loads are exceptions and we all know this. These women are not representative of the general population, and we all know that constantly seeing very thin models makes our normal sized kids feel fat, and lots of them stop eating, or become bulimic. And for what it's worth I was always very skinny and hated it when people commented.

I'm not saying thin people should be locked away or never used as models. I'm saying that an entire website of them is just not good, or realistic.

I also disagree with companies that have entirely overweight models because that sends an unhealthy message too.

We should have a cross section, of all shapes and sizes. People our sons and daughters can recognise as them and their friends. People we adults can look at at go 'yes that's me'! As long as unrealistic images are rammed down our throats all the time we will become obese/bulimic/anorexic in our droves, and it needs to be stopped.

My brother is very very slim. My m is always telling me "but he does eat". He eats, but when you actually analyse what he eats, its not enough for a 24 year old 6ft male.
Most people who are extremely thin don't wat enough. No matter how much people protest that they eat loads, rat like a horse etc. Its not true.

Who are you to decide that your brother doesn't eat enough though? Dies he function perfectly ok? I know I do and no I don't eat like a horse, I eat until I'm full and I have a very small appetite but have had children and run ultra marathons so presumably I'm eating enough to function perfectly normally.

Agree with @lightlypoached

The point isn’t whether this is natural/unnatural/whether one’s own wrists are like this/how many sugars or how little exercise. The point is that it’s dispiriting to open a clothes site to be met with images with which I can’t empathise, and which depict a reality which (for me) doesn’t exist.

Why can we have models which depict the average weight, +/- 2 standard deviations from the mean? Too large, as well as too thin models, are not healthy representations of a healthy weight.

I don't really like how either look, personally. I know people come in all shapes and sizes including very thin, but the absolute thinnest (where thighs are almost narrower than the knee) who really do like they perhaps have barely enough body fat to menstruate, are so over represented in the fashion industry.

I wonder how many people know that generally women need around 22% body fat to regularly menstruate. We literally need a healthy level of fat that is quite a bit higher than men need.

This statement is awful. In the same explanation you’ve said PP shouldn’t face the judgement but that the model with the same body type is encouraging anorexia. Are plus size models encouraging people to lead unhealthy sedentary lifestyles?

You're missing the point. What I'm saying is that some girls/women are likely to find this body shape aspirational and seeing it depicted in the media could spur them to attempt to create a body shape that they're not physically capable of attaining. For some this could lead to anorexia.

I don't judge the model for her body shape. I judge the retailer for promoting a body shape that's unattainable for many. And at the opposite end of the spectrum, yes I do think plus size models could also lead some to aim for a body size and shape that isn't healthy for them.

It would be a better world if body sizes/shapes weren't a topic of discussion or judgement, but that's not the real world. Many people are easily influenced by what they see in the media and that will never change. The media has a responsibility to not promote images that might be unhealthy for a person to try to attain, and they mostly ignore that responsibility imo.

She is very slender. But whether she is healthy - well, I can’t say. That requires a doctor. There’s much more to health than leanness or fatness.

Lots saying "but some people are naturally thin". If the thread was about a plus sized model and some said "but some people are naturally fat" they would be shouted down.

@Snoken thank you! My thoughts exactly.

But we all know that models aren't generally representative of your average human, they are mostly prettier (or more striking looking), have better bone structure, are taller, nicely proportioned, flawless skin, glossy hair, etc etc in addition to being very slim

Some brands (eg Zara) favour very slim models, other brands favour a more hourglass figure

Commenting negatively about any individual's weight, shape etc on a public forum is not very kind regardless of whether you think they are healthy or not

@Hestartedoffsowell
It's no effort whatsoever for me

I know I do and no I don't eat like a horse, I eat until I'm full and I have a very small appetite but have had children and run ultra marathons so presumably I'm eating enough to function perfectly normally

"Its no effort whatsoever" would suggest that this is your normal weight regardless of what you ate etc....but having a very small appetite and running ultramarathons is surely making an effort to keep a lean physique?

@MondayYogurt

On closer inspection I think the thing that triggered my yikes button was her wrist bones in the hand resting on the car. But perhaps that's just the light and bones are just like that?

What utter rubbish.

Im 10 stone and a perfectly healthy BMI and my wrists look exactly like that - nice to know strangers are judging me for my bone structure though.

@bringincrazyback

This statement is awful. In the same explanation you’ve said PP shouldn’t face the judgement but that the model with the same body type is encouraging anorexia. Are plus size models encouraging people to lead unhealthy sedentary lifestyles?

You're missing the point. What I'm saying is that some girls/women are likely to find this body shape aspirational and seeing it depicted in the media could spur them to attempt to create a body shape that they're not physically capable of attaining. For some this could lead to anorexia.

I don't judge the model for her body shape. I judge the retailer for promoting a body shape that's unattainable for many. And at the opposite end of the spectrum, yes I do think plus size models could also lead some to aim for a body size and shape that isn't healthy for them.

It would be a better world if body sizes/shapes weren't a topic of discussion or judgement, but that's not the real world. Many people are easily influenced by what they see in the media and that will never change. The media has a responsibility to not promote images that might be unhealthy for a person to try to attain, and they mostly ignore that responsibility imo.

There are annorexics, there are feeders and eaters, theres are people obsessed with the gym, some get plastic surgery to have bigger boobs, smaller noses, rounder bums etc... what your saying is NO ONE should ever be in the media incase someone finds them a body inspiration.

The world would cease to function under that view... no one is to blaim for how someone else views their body.

I have to say I was mercilessly teased throughout my childhood for being skinny. I was called Skeletor, compared to Ethiopian famine victims, call knobbly knees. I was teased for having no breasts and having a late period. I had people following me around the playground singing rhymes about "fatty and skinny" because my best friend was the "fat girl". At college I was called anorexic and told I should eat more regularly by anyone and everyone. EVERYBODY felt they had a right to comment on my appearance. I had no self confidence because I thought I was a freak.

When Kate moss came along (I was in my 20s) and all the controversy about heroine chic it was genuinely a positive thing for me. For the first time I could look at someone who was famous and in the public eye who was exactly the same build as me being confident with her body and being celebrated by others.

I never had an eating disorder or any issues with food. It's quite frustrating to see people on here saying that these women are clearly unhealthy when there are multiple women on here saying they naturally have that body type without being eating disordered.

Despite all of this I can see that there is an issue with the fashion industry. They are clearly obsessed with only one body type which is not achievable for most women and I agree that it may contribute to women trying to achieve unattainable standards of slimness. It would be great if the fashion industry would diversify a little. Seems to me that they only want super slim or plus size and nothing in between.

[quote lightlypoached]@khakiandcoral this is not about body shaming or criticising the women. This is aimed at Zara who are deliberately choosing to use underweight and extremely thin models across their website. They have been doing it for years.

All of the examples people have given re people they know who are very thin, even when eating loads are exceptions and we all know this. These women are not representative of the general population, and we all know that constantly seeing very thin models makes our normal sized kids feel fat, and lots of them stop eating, or become bulimic. And for what it's worth I was always very skinny and hated it when people commented.

I'm not saying thin people should be locked away or never used as models. I'm saying that an entire website of them is just not good, or realistic.

I also disagree with companies that have entirely overweight models because that sends an unhealthy message too.

We should have a cross section, of all shapes and sizes. People our sons and daughters can recognise as them and their friends. People we adults can look at at go 'yes that's me'! As long as unrealistic images are rammed down our throats all the time we will become obese/bulimic/anorexic in our droves, and it needs to be stopped.

[/quote]
I dont get upset on Bravissamo or Simply be but they're a website full of people that dont represent me at all.

I just dont buy from sites clearly not designed to cater to my body.

Do slim women (of which there are millions) not deserve representation and clothing too?

If something isnt aimed at you dont get upset just use the countless other sites that ARE aimed at your body type - its that simple, cant believe it needs explaining.

All size 6 women who are nearing 6 ft tall have improbable proportions, but not every one of them will be malnourished -- some women really are that tall and thin naturally, whereas some would have to starve themselves to maintain such a small dress size.
You'd require a doctor to tell which.

As a tall slim woman, I'm sick of the body shaming. I also feel deeply for the people who starve themselves.

Yes, it is still body shaming. You are not just shaming the model, but also everyone who is as thin as her. Plus size models are not getting as much grief as thin models these days. Plus size models are referred to as real women (are slim women not real?) and they are celebrated for showing off their bodies. Slim ones aren't.

The companies using super thin models and then photoshopping them should get grief, it's hugely damaging.

Why is it 'body shaming' to discuss what's healthy? We are bombarded with images of women that are not confected with our good in mind. Let's talk to each other about any concerns? Not be silent and bombarded.