H & M model photographs

[Clafoutie]

I realise this isn’t a new thing. And I realise that H & M are not alone in this. But my eye was drawn by an H & M advert on this site and when I visited the H & M website I was appalled by the photos of models there. A lot of them are no doubt AI generated and modified, but they are presenting images of women who look unwell. I thought the fashion industry was moving on from representing women in this way. I was naive.

You look lovely but honestly, you don't look the body type of the girl in black.

As I say, that isn't to say you don't look just as lovely.

But I do sometimes wonder when people say "I look/looked like this" if they really do and, speaking frankly, to me you don't.

The body type isn't simply slim - which your photo is. The girl in black has a very different aspect around the shoulders, neck and collarbones.

ETA you look more to my idea of healthy and lovely!

They are slim. Probably slimmer than most of the population but that does not mean that are unhealty.

The models look fine to me.

They have obviously been chosen to be models because they are tall and slim - probably taller and slimmer than most women - but that doesn't mean they are unhealthy.

I am another slim, flat chested woman. I don't even fill an A Cup bra - I wear bralettes marketed at teens. You can see my upper ribs, and my collar bones protrude. I have a sizable thigh gap. My spine sticks out. I'm a totally healthy BMI! (I don't look like the models, as I'm 48 and my proportions are odd - I've got really long legs but a very short body so don't have that lovely long torso that models tend to have!)

And I would add to this, I think this is some of the problem. We all glance and think "Oh yes, my DD looks like that and she's fine" or whatever.

But some young people scrutinise these photos as a kind of obsession and want the same depth of collarbone sticking out etc, and you can tip quite easily off the healthy end into something that isn't.

Those of us with healthy attitudes just look and think "ah yes, they all look slim" but there are subtle indicators where it starts to tip.

This thread is bonkers. What’s with all the threads bashing slim, healthy women this week?

The models look perfectly healthy. The problem is that society has lost sight of what’s healthy, because around two thirds of the population are overweight or obese. I assume that a lot of posters are trying to convince themselves that they’re not unhealthy by having a go at those who are naturally slim.

Can we also remember that those models are real people just doing a job. How would some of you feel having photos of your body being torn apart and criticised? It’s thoroughly unpleasant and, to be honest, downright nasty.

I'd say she looks slim, not thin.

Thank you, that's really kind and sweet of you to say. I'm very flattered! 😳😊❤️

I agree with you, my body type is definitely different from the models, and of course that might be more to do with how "healthy" (or not?) I/they look.

But for a reference pic, I think it's probably important to show "real life" people who once were slim (and wish that they still were! Lol) just so people don't see "just" the model type body shapes. I think it would be amazing if I looked as slim as those models now, and how i used to look when younger, but it might push me into an eating disorder as a perimenopausal woman if I tried 😅 🤔

The problem is that society has lost sight of what’s healthy, because around two thirds of the population are overweight or obese. I assume that a lot of posters are trying to convince themselves that they’re not unhealthy by having a go at those who are naturally slim.

I think anyone who is genuinely unhealthy could not compare themselves with these photos. I think your line is a throwaway dismissal.

As I have said above, I think, on balance, these models look fine - so no tearing apart of individuals. The lady in black has a very thin neck and shoulder area which could well be angle in that photo.

But just lumping every thin person into the "thin but healthy, and anyone who says otherwise is plainly either jealous or delusional" basket means we miss the subtle shift into a problem area - an area that takes lives just as obesity does.

It's a really lovely photo of you @ForeverDelayedEpiphany .

Yes I think we all have to accept with age comes wisdom and a bit of aging. Who was it that said there comes a point when it's either your bum or your face?!

But I do worry about this shutting down of discussion of weight by the increasingly tired "we have lost sight of normal weight" brigade. There are still young girls who have lost sight of normal weight and not in the way those people mean it. Yes, ED is a MH condition but it is fuelled and abetted by body image norms.

it looks fine to me. I'm around that weight to look at but shorter and in the middle of the normal BMI range and I'm not anorexic at all.I used to be 15 stone and my blood pressure was 200/150 and I was advised to lose weight before I had a stroke.
Now my blood pressure and all my other indicators are normal and I'm no longer borderline diabetic.
As long as they remain normal I'm staying this weight.

I think we ascribe too much weight (no pun intended) to the impact of seeing these images. I also have a beautiful teen who is also stressing about her body shape, but for the opposite reason. No matter how much junk she eats, during her teens and 20s, and probably 30s going by my own experience, she is going to look slim and attract shitty comments about not being a real woman/starving herself. Seeing images of models with a similar body shape has no bearing compared to people in real life telling her she is underweight and abnormal. (They are wrong.)

I am the exact same size as the woman in the black playsuit thing and I can now only buy clothes that fit me in h&m because in other shops a size 6 has a 28 inch waist.

I'm slim but I eat 3 meals and 2 snacks a day, chocolate, crisps as well as healthy food. A balanced diet. I'm just an ectomorph. Really offensive posters on here calling the model a prepubescent girl or having an eating disorder and assuming if you're slim you must have an ED. I'm just from a slender lanky family, eat what I want, don't overeat, don't drink.

The world has gone mad if we think all slim women are emaciated when you can clearly not see any bones and they have full faces and healthy flowing skin.

This thread is mad.

She’s talking crap and stereotyping black women as overweight and/or curvaceous. Not true in much in my case, all the women in my family are slim.

But the actual audacity to weaponise racism to win a MN thread (all whilst insulting other body types). This really is the thread that keeps on giving, it’s brightened up a slow work day!

Its giving mean girl… or I was bullied and haven’t gotten over it so need to lash out.

Thank you again 💓

Absolutely, we need to keep discussing this as it's important, I agree.

Equally, I had a bit of unreasonable worry about my weight as an extremely healthy and slim teenager, and looking back now, I truly wonder why! It also makes me remember that line from the brilliant song "Sunscreen", which says about how people shouldn't read beauty magazines as "they will only make you feel ugly - you are not as fat as you imagine!" Wise words from the lyrics I wished I'd listened to more as a young woman! 🤔😅

The world has gone mad if we think all slim women are emaciated when you can clearly not see any bones and they have full faces and healthy flowing skin.

Well I agree with you that "lumping" of "all" thin women is the issue - treating all thin women as the same. In reality, some are healthy and some aren't.

I don't personally think this thread has photos of unhealthy models, but to suggest that pointing out unhealthy examples is a case of jealousy is equally madness.

I agree. On another thread I was just mentioning a photo I had stashed away for years because of my "inflated" belly. When I found it again, I realised how emotional and subjective body image can be. The belly was positively concave!

Most people would like to be slim i imagine, but catwalk models were always very tall, thin and gangly, not a look that most people would aspire to imo. I dont think they look unhealthy though tbf, just thin.

Quite - I was ridiculously skinny as a child - ate perfectly healthily, exercised, just had a naturally fast metabolism and came from a family with skinny genetics.

I was bullied mercilessly, called anorexic, unhealthy etc.

My DDs are both super skinny as well - eldest DD is a climber so has amazing muscles but the tiniest waste ever, youngest DD eats us out of house and home, dances several times a week and is healthy, but just really really slim (almost 15 but still wears age 10-11 in some tops).

Both of them were bottom percentiles at their reception and year 6 weight checks to the point we got school nurse calls to check there was nothing else going on.

Some people can be skinny without being unwell and the name calling is nothing but bullying!

You do look lovely and very healthy but you do not look like the models, who as much as I am defending do look much slimmer.

seperaratly I’m shocked at the focus on beauty standards,anorexia on here, quite frankly that’s not our societal issues. It’s obesity. With younger women getting fatter than ever.

that’s not our societal issues.

It might not be your issue in your circle.

But that doesn't mean it isn't very real. What are you actually saying? The people who have those issues amongst their family and friends simply don't count?

And to this I would add, when an ED really takes hold, it is a quicker and more direct route to death than any case of obesity.

I think there will always be models in the industry who are too thin and get there by not eating enough. However, when I was a teen I was very very slim, I ate all the time so no idea why! I even had teachers pull me aside and ask if everything was ok at home and was I eating ok! I was a size 6 and very bony. So when you say how you’d never want your DD’s to aspire to this kind of body please remember for some people it’s their natural body shape/size.

Skinny is back in fashion. That's all there is to it... it's damaging to young girls and woman but it makes money and H&M do not care about you, me, us - they care about money.

Sorry but I'd definitely be borderline overweight at a size 12 and definitely overweight at a 14 which isnt particularly healthy

They aren't skinny at all ! Whats damaging to young people is that we now have the first generation of children who's lufe expectancy is lower than their parents due to obesity