John Lewis Website models TOO skinny? TW

[Lovethatforyouhun]

Thought I would add one for John Lewis as people were discussing M&S models.

JL landing page really shocked me.
The arms.
I know we should celebrate all women, but I find this rather a disturbing and retrogressive look.
Disclaimer:
Yes I understand thin women are real women, no I do not celebrate morbid obesity and yes I am a tall slim woman who lived through heroin chic 90s and the stick thin 00s size 00 Rachel Zoe celeb craze and it harmed my body image and resulted in an ED.

Now even JL is trying to be down with the kids and high fashion, thrusting this look in my face. Has nothing been learned?!
Not sure why I blurred some of the faces. I don’t want to attack the individuals but the overall look of the site.
If JL see this- It reminds me of ED thinspo pages from back in the day!!!!!

CLICK TO OPEN PHOTOS FULLY.
Am I being unreasonable to expect more responsible imagery from JL?

They do look very thin. I'm a size 6 and clinically underweight at the moment and my arms are fatter than that. I know people have different body shapes and all that, but they do look extremely thin to me.

I'm size 6 aged late 50's and my arms are that thin, hate them but they're definitely like that. I have no waist though ..ha

I don't think we see many healthy/thinner people very often these days, it's a shock when we do. Hopefully there'll be more of this- healthy.

They just look like naturally slim women to me. The issue for me is that generally it's only 5'9 slim women who model clothes when most women aren't. I'd like to see more 5'3 average build women so I don't have to guess what clothes would look like on me!

This. ^ I 100% agree with you @Lovethatforyouhun

There are plenty of curvier women on their bras and knickers pages.
They also do a range of clothes for larger women- can't recall the name but something like 'Live'.

The photos look pretty normal to me, of 'thinner women ' but we've all got used to 'normal' being (evidently) a size 16 and 70% of women overweight /obese. Skews perception?

The photos don't show much of their body- it's head and shoulder mainly. If they were 6' tall which models are, and slim, they look ok.

They seem fine to me, tall with slender gamine body shapes. Honestly it's nice to see people who're a healthy weight.

I'm all for regulating the industry to only use models whose BMI is within the Healthy range.

Ofc that would also outlaw all the overweight, obese, and morbidly obese model images which are currently so popular. Is that what you want?

Young women are slim

No they aren't. Those models are very very thin and tall.

Of course it isn't. They're generic models that no one knows, not aspirational celebrities portraying an ideal body shape. They've been chosen because someone thinks the clothes hang better on tall angular bodies, not as representatives of the epitome of female beauty. I'd be surprised if the woman in the street looked at those pictures and felt shamed that they weren't 6 foot something with long thin arms. Anymore than they'd look and feel shamed that they weren't 20 something with a quirky pretty face.

Yes, models are known for their healthy eating habits and lifestyles.

@IBlameYourMother I’m not ‘one of those people’ - why is you have to put others down? If someone doesn’t have your opinion then they’re competitive underwater and have eating disorders. I already posted about how attitudes like yours hurt me many times when I was younger. I was naturally thin so I had to have an issue. Nope, it was natural and you know what? I can support bodies like mine because there is nothing wrong with them. They’re natural and normal, same as lots of other sizes. Your attitude is just a thinly disguised way of saying ‘anyone that thinks just have eating disorder’ and it’s a hideous attitude.
I said in another post that yes we went through a damaging stage of size issues, but JL has a whole range of bodies. So the two photos the OP posted isn’t representative and it might just be that JL has bodies from thin up to larger so they’re representing everyone.

Your attitude is not okay.

BINGO! Where's my prize?!

Oh don't be so silly. She's right that's why people say it so often

Lots of brands on John Lewis website, such as Good American and L K Bennett now model the same item of clothing on two models, one slim and one with a BMI clearly in the overweight / obese category. It would be interesting to know how it influences purchasing decisions.

😂

haha me too, I am currently underweight (not through dieting) and my arms are thin but not sinewey.
I also think the models in the OP are very unusual regardless of age.

I think those who are defending it are actually overweight and suffering stockholm syndrome or something!

As a fat woman they look normal/slim/toned to me. I wouldn't have given them a second thought.

Hmm I think the black model is possibly just super tall (as well as slim yes but maybe not unhealthily so), I would agree that the white model’s upper arms look overly slim in this photo, but I’m not sure I’d have noticed it if it hadn’t been pointed out.

If you read further in to the thread I actually went to check out the website, and stated that they had a wide range of body types and I retracted my previous attitude about John Lewis.

I apologise if you felt personally attacked, but there are some unhealthy attitudes towards eating on this site from some posters who tend to pop up on these threads. Being naturally slim is different to a modelling culture which promotes being underweight and eating disorders. I have no desire to see that 90s culture come back, as a teenage girl in the 90s I struggled with an eating disorder which was massively influenced by models and the media.

They probably just seem too skinny to you because we are so used to seeing big men and women.

People think I am an unhealthy weight - I am a size 10!! It’s because compared to most women, I probably do seem too small. It’s about perspective.

My bmi is 19 and my arms don't look anything like this. I think they look unhealthy and emaciated.

I'm a size 8 and my arms often look like that in photos, depending on the angle taken. So now I look unhealthy and emaciated when I'm a healthy BMI? Nice body shaming thread here, but it seems body shaming is fine when it's against someone with a smaller frame. Body positivity isn't for everyone at all is it?

I can imagine that people that are naturally thin maybe upset by this post op.

I haven’t particularly noticed super-skinny, but I’m a bit fed up with seeing an invariably grumpy looking model often featured by one of the very few companies I buy online from.