Sharon in Eastenders 40 years ago

[Happyearlyretirement]

Having watched old Eastenders, do you remember Sharon was said to be fat. Looking back now she’s completely healthy or am I misremembering this. Also who remembers Special K can you punch more than an inch advert.

I'll have to see if I can find my old albums with photos in from those days!

That said though teen DD 17 is slim as are most of the girls she knows and other girls at her college

They're all normal slim and healthy looking looking girls

What has changed is the reduction of the relentless harassment and abuse of women’s bodies and looks in the media. Remember the magazines that used to shame female celebs for having the audacity to go outside without make up or not losing weight immediately after giving birth.

I remember the constant bombardment of what women should look like and the constant criticism of anyone who wasn’t thin. Women’s bodies come in all shapes and sizes and that’s ok. I think a lot of the women who were criticised as being chubby were all quite short and busty and that’s a body shape that is hard to carry off under a lot of fashions.

Thankfully, that sort of behaviour isn’t acceptable now. That doesn’t mean being obese is ok but it also doesn’t mean we should be able to shame people.

I think a lot of it is because she is big busted and has wide shoulders it makes her look big,where as her bottom half has always been quite slim.

I think it's mostly her bone structure. She has the square face and wide shoulders that give the illusion of being bigger. She is someone who can actually say is "big-boned".

At that time, 'busty babes' were very popular anyway, such as Sam Fox as said, Maria Whittaker, I think Linda Lusardi was that period too.

I think she just had big hair, big boobs and a round face. Her actual body wasn't big.

One thing I’ve noticed these days is that even the slim girls have ‘flabby’ bottoms and lots of cellulite, we are living in a society that is harming us with lack of exercise/mobility and shit food and pretending that Sharon in eastenders wasn’t fat doesn’t help.

I don’t know why, but this sentence really made me laugh. Even if for all of the wrong reasons 😂

Plump does not equal unhealthy.

It continues on MN, as we can clearly see on this thread.

Women commenting on the shape of a woman’s body from over 40 years ago! They should be utterly ashamed of themselves.

@JohnTheRevelator have you seen the episode of tales of the unexpected where a woman joins a diet club because she weighs ten and a half stone? That's less than some people's target weight now! I know they were just stories but they are indicative of the culture at the time.

I got to be size 14 in my early teens/puberty years. I was thought to be huge. I didn’t think about my body until that happened, and then I was taught to be ashamed of it. Then of course I developed a lot of disordered thinking around food which was not helped by things like ‘the cabbage diet’ or ‘the boiled egg and grapefruit diet’ or the 80s ‘health food’ diets (and shops). My worth was measured in numbers on a scale. A most toxic time. I’m still not completely free of disordered thinking about food.

@Gnarab24
One thing I’ve noticed these days is that even the slim girls have ‘flabby’ bottoms and lots of cellulite

Erm, some of us just look like this despite eating healthily and plenty of exercise (and being generally slim). Nice to know I'm being judged for my healthy body.

I always thought her clothes and hair made her look older than she was, and while not obese by any standard, she wasn't exactly slim either. She's quite busty too, which made her seem fuller overall.

I remember seeing her in a London bar in the late 80s, she was dressed as Sharon and she wasn't working. Big gold clip on earrings and one of those huge clip on satin bows at the back. I think busty and a round face made her look bigger than she was.

She doesn't look chubby at all really just normal in this 1985 photo

I was thinking the exact same thing when I watched the episode they showed the other day when she had an affair with Phil.

She looked fab - nicely dressed and well-groomed.

Glad you arrived so quickly to inform us all we've lost sight of what a healthy body looks like, everyone except you is fat & flabby, and Sharon was the size of an elephant 😂

B&W 1985, colour 1999.

1980s fashion was quite puffy - there's a photo of me in balloon-leg paperbag jeans and a fluffy sweater, looking rather expansive. I had anorexia at the time.

She looks normal in both photos

I'm glad she's still in EE it wouldn't be the same without her

People certainly have forgotten what a healthy body looks like, but not in the way they seem to think.

Women are not at optimal health at "skinny" , or even "slim". Those are aesthetic choices.

Agree.

I’m not sure what year this is from, but she is not remotely fat! Look at those forearms. I wasn’t even born back then, so can understand that the lens was very different in comparison to now, but (aside from her naturally chubby cheeks) I can’t understand how anyone can look at this pic and say “fat”, even back then.

Naturally slim women are making an “aesthetic choice”? WTF mate?!

People have different body types, different heights, different bone structures. You and I could eat exactly the same and do the same amount of exercise, we still wouldn’t look exactly same on it.

I was going to post this same photo. There are plenty that show she was far from fat, had great legs but usually big batwing or puffy tops that made her look much bigger, and a rounded face. I can't find a single photo of early Sharon where she genuinely looks fat.