She weighs 105lbs...

[likelysuspect]

The film Angel Face - Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons 1952

During the start he is describing his girlfriend and mentions she is 105lbs

I thought I'd misheard and maybe it was 125lbs but no, 105lbs

Thats 7 and a half stone.

Seems very tiny but AI tells me that is the usual sort of frame and weight to height ratio for actresses in those days. The actress playing the girlfriend was 5'4 apparently. So slight frame but not underweight

I was a bit surprised it was so low a weight.

Rationing post ww2 didn't fully end until 1954, sugar was rationed until 1953. As someone mentioned upthread our food has changed. Much more ready made, upf's, high flavour, high sugar, calorie dense foods in our diets so it's no wonder weights have risen.

I’m that height and was bang on 8 stone when I was 18-21. 8.5 by late 20s, and I was by no means the slimmest girl in my class. I had a uni friend who was not allowed to give blood as she was considered underweight but seemed perfectly healthy and active to me.

Oh interesting, AI has it wrong again. Yet again.

20+ years in the film industry here. Even now I still get surprised how positively doll like many actresses are when you meet them in real life as opposed to when you see them on screen. That old cliche about the camera adding 10 pounds is very real. Often they're slim, certainly; but very petite in their build as well- the convention is that it just films better (unfortunately for the rest of us...)

It applies to men as well, I often find male actors are much more petite than you would imagine when you meet them in real life.

Hollywood actresses wouldn’t have been subject to rationing?!

I was a couple of pounds more than that at 5'4" before I had my first baby in my late twenties. I never went back to that weight, but varied between about 110 and 118 lbs through most of my thirties and forties. I have put a bit on in my fifties, but after a lifetime of eating what I want, I'm not going to starve myself to get back to that weight.

Remember Bridget jones being 136lbs (9.5 stone) and the character is whinging about being fat. And the media banging on about how the actress put on lots of weight to get ‘fat’. Not being funny but Bridget jones in that bunny costume looked fire !

In her younger days my mum was 5'3 and 7.5 stone. She's very elderly now and I'd say she weighs even less, but looked a very healthy weight back then.

I’ve learned that men, and some women as well, will comment on and criticise your weight whatever it is!!

At 19 I was 5’4” and 7st10lbs, it was about 1996 and I worked as admin / receptionist for a software consultancy.. the men in the office would criticise me for being ‘too thin’ and having ‘skinny legs’ so I was actually to embarrassed to wear a skirt!

Then I got to 9 stone at age 23, and worked at a factory.. the men said I had a nice figure but 1 of them criticised me for having a ‘round tummy’ as I obviously ‘didn’t go to the gym enough’.
Also I started uni at 24 still 9-9.5 stone, a girl in my shared flat said she ‘would kill herself’ if she was ‘as big’ as me.

After age 25 I got to 10 stone then beyond.. have been criticised for having a ‘fat bum’ at 10 stone (by an overweight man!)..
Now I’m 50 I’ve been taking anti epileptics & anti psychotics since my mid 30s & now am menopausal & have hypothyroidism so I’m just under 14 stone despite eating fairly healthily so I do unfortunately get some people (mainly teenagers) commenting negatively on my weight in public; and if I’m bloated then I get older ladies asking when the baby is due!!!

As well as weight, I have very fine frizzy / curly hair so many people have felt able to comment on that, am ‘too’ pale skinned as well… basically some of us just can’t win!! Yet some women I know never have their looks pulled apart and commented on by randoms, colleagues, ‘friends’ & acquaintances, so strange.

Im 5'2, 39 years and always been between 7st 10 and 8st 2.

Any higher than this and get a belly and handles,I can feel the extra weight and its uncomfortable.
I have a sporty job and it effects how I work.

BMI charts say I can go up to about 10st and still be healthy. I cannot imagine this.

I’m 5.4 and I weighed 7.5 stone for most of my 20s and early 30s. That’s a normal weight unless you’ve been brought up on UPFs…people are much bigger these days and have corresponding rates of diabetes and cancer because of it. It’s a big problem.

I'm not sure which way round you mean, but yes I agree with that sentence.

A person at a healthy weight should have some visible bone-outlines, for example collarbones, elbows, metacarpals on the back of the hand; there also should be some visible muscle definition eg at the shin, calf, upper arms.

But now when we see all that we call it underweight. It's just because median weight has changed so much in the last 30-40 years or so

That was me until I got pregnant with my youngest. I wasn't that different to most women back then.

Im that height and that weight. I eat 3 meals and 2 snacks a day. I'm just slightly built. Being light isn't always drug abuse.

I always thought that was very weird. The whole point of the daily weight recoding in the book by Helen fielding was that Bridget wasnt fat. It was to demonstrate She was neurotic and supported the theme of pressure on young women in London in the 90s to be a certain way

My mum was slim like that, fine boned. I’m not, I’m tall and large boned, nothing like my mum, unfortunately. She was about 5’6” tall

Well it's not abnormal, but it's certainly not an average weight for someone of that height, or even an average weight for a slim person of that height.

It’s classed as underweight by the NHS

Similar here it’s normal @likelysuspect things have changed but normal for the time

also no labour saving devices so harder to do ordinary things.

Yes, I was about to say this!

I'm 5'4 and had always naturally been around 8-8.5 stone. I've (unintentionally) lost a bit of weight and am now around 7 stone 11lbs, which puts my BMI in the underweight category.

136 lbs is 9 st 10 lb, and lots of people would feel they were fat at that weight if their usual/preferred weight was much lower, although for lots of people it wouldn't be.

I work in vintage clothing and size 6 in 1950s clothing is the norm

I think there is huge pressure on both female and male actors in Hollywood not to gain weight, unless they are comedy character actors or for a specific role.

I weighed that when I married at 23 - I had never dieted in my life.

My mother was the same height about 7.5 stone. She was quite petite but not bony looking at all. I'm 5'8, 9 stone, 1 lb this morning in my early 40s. I was almost 10 stone a few years ago but it spreads out because I'm taller, I don't think I looked too much different. But I felt big and tall next to my family. My Nana told me I was getting fat in my early twenties. I've never forgotten it, I was under 9 stone then. Awful.
Vintage clothes are tiny so it doesn't surprise me tbh.