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Model with flabby tummy shocks the world

302 replies

MmeLindt · 03/09/2009 08:06

According to the Daily Mail

How sad is that? That we are so used to the airbrushed perfection of models that a tiny pic of a normal woman causes such a fuss.

She is 5ft 11in and 12 1/2st and is considered too big to model plus sizes

I think she looks fab. I have a wee tummy just like hers and she has made me feel much better about it.

OP posts:
LouLovesAeroplaneJelly · 03/09/2009 13:05

She looks fab. I wish I could look like her.
The fact that media and people in general are making such a big deal out of this is why there are so many body issues at the moment. I am 5'7. Weigh as much as a small horse yet if I drop to below 70kg I look gaunt and pale and down right awful. I am built for farming potatos, having 14 children and dragging the plough for my husband (damn Irish heritage).
Anna, if I lived life by your rules I would anorexic and dead!!

OrmIrian · 03/09/2009 13:08

I think she looks fine. In fact I find it hard to beleive she is that heavy. I suspect I look more or less like that (not facially unfortunatel) and I'm 11st.

theDMsaSHAMazade · 03/09/2009 13:13

i think the model looks great. i could instantly tell that was excess skin as have the same. i'm a size 8-10, 7 stones 10 (5 feet tall ) , do lots of high impact aerobics, resistance training and running and i have a tummy like that. in fact, it actually looks better (my tummy) when i gain weight in that area rather than lose weight.

TheDMshouldbeRivened · 03/09/2009 13:19

'French women tend to be thin but very unhealthy as they usually smoke heavily to curb appetite.'

such a myth. In Paris women are all shapes and sizes like here. Out in the country the same.

MissAnnesley · 03/09/2009 13:28

LOL - hollowly - that that article carries two ads, one featuring KK with Photoshop-boosted boobs and one with Dove real women.

Bonsoir if you have any daughters I hope they are getting a balanced view. I don't think it's wise or kind to have such a harsh attitude to other people.

The model is beautiful and is a more accurate reflection of women's figures than most of the doctored images scattered over the glossies. And she has a wonderful, happy smile.

oneopinionatedmother · 03/09/2009 13:33

hum, on the one hand, as a nation the UK has got an awful lot more plump than it used to be (which is why i find the 'size zero' debate a red herring: those used to be the measurements for a UK size 10 - it shows us the population is fatter, not that models are thinner) and anyone watching old news clip will notice that the average tracy or Dave from the 1970's-80s was considerably slimmer than now.

On the other hand it is much easier to make most clothing look better on a slim, toned model. So I thnk that if the job of the fahion industry is to flog us clobber, that purpose is best served by slim models. For health purposes though, there's a whole bunch of research that shows a bit lardy is better (though i wonder how they factor out weight loss as a sign of disease..being very underweight might not only make you vulnerable to infection but also be a sign you're already ill)

Bonsoiranna is in france, and back on my first french exchange i felt enormous as a 9 st 5'4 14 year old...the girl i stayed with ate dried biscuit for breakfast, didn't touch the (massive) school lunch and ate a minimum of dinner.....though if UK 12 is the average hat must show they've got a good bit podgier too. Not sure about chic - everyone was wearing skin tight levis and nothing else.

PinkTulips · 03/09/2009 13:35

MissA.... the ads are part of the article, you might want to read it if you're going to comment on it

TheDMshouldbeRivened · 03/09/2009 13:41

sad that that french girl felt she had to semi-starve herself. I bet french men don't.

GetOrfMoiLand · 03/09/2009 13:48

I think it is a fallacy that size 0 didn't exist years ago. OK, so size 0 didn;t exist as a dress size, however I do think that all sizes were a lot smaller 20 or 30 years ago than they are now.

I have been going through my gran's wardrobes, she has dresses from the late 60s - late 70s, and they are tiny. The labels say size 10, however I am convinced that they are smaller than say a size 6 would be today.

And I think that when people go on about a size 0 they mean an American 0, which would be a UK 4.

PinkTulips · 03/09/2009 13:48

just managed to get that link to work.... pear shaped? the girl's a stick insect, blardy hell!

OrmIrian · 03/09/2009 13:51

Agree getorf. Mum still keeps the dress she wore when she was presented to her Maj. It's got a narrow waist and wide netted skirts - the New Look I suppose - even at my slimmest in my teens I struggled to get into it. And it's labelled as a 12.

belgo · 03/09/2009 13:53

When I was a teenager I was a size 12.

15 years, three children and about one and a half stone heavier, I can still buy some clothes with a size 12 tag on them.

MeAndMyMonkey · 03/09/2009 13:57

No need for people to be rude to Anna on this thread - her points are as valid as anyone else's, and I do think that it's true that Parisienne women are incredibly svelte as a rule - as are women in Milan and Barcelona in my experience. I guess they just don't shovel down the junk like we do.
For what it's worth I think the model in the pictures looks lovely, but she is definitely not thin. Her tummy is a little podgy - not unhealthily so though.
(Disclaimer - I cannot shift my post-pregnancy tummy 3 years later so am not saying this from a 'skinny' perspective.. but like everybody else, i wish I was a bit thinner. It's natural to want to be slim, isn't it?)

TheDMshouldbeRivened · 03/09/2009 14:03

I think we are all taller too, on average than 30 years ago. Better nutritiojn.
Having been to all 3 cities you mention Monkey, normal everyday women are the same. Maybe businesswomen or models or fashion industry types are all thin but women in general were the same as here.
What you didn't see was fat children like you do here and larger women crammed into strappy vest tops with enough cleavage hanging out to lose a goat in.

GetOrfMoiLand · 03/09/2009 14:07

PMSL at losing a goat in your cleavage.

Also don't see why people are having a pop at Anna. Yes, sometimes her views clash with what is viewed as a 'normal' opinion on MN, however don't just judge her on some of her more inflammatory comments, she is a good egg as a rule (is on another thread in active convos being very kind and helpful to a worried MNer)

Lizzylou · 03/09/2009 14:09

Pink Tulips, she is not a stick insect. She has a lovely shape, she looks more hourglass in those pics, a small waist and curvy hips.
Apple/Pear/hourglass whatever are all just descriptions of body shapes, whether you are a size 8 or 18.

missorinoco · 03/09/2009 14:09

I don't think she's fat. Her stomach isn't toned, but that's as far as you could go.

And I'm another who's a size 8 with a podgy belly, even pre childbirth and cs. Bits of me are now so scrawny my trousers fall down, but I still have my belly.

MeAndMyMonkey · 03/09/2009 14:12

Riven I take your point - perhaps there is an element of better dressed-ness in general, but I am convinced that most women are slimmer (not in the French countryside maybe) than we are. Even as a size 10 I felt fat trying on clothes in Italian and French boutiques, which is crazy, I know, but I think Anna is right in that being around slim well-dressed people kind of 'ups your game', as it were.
Although when I look at the holiday pics now I do think wtf was I ever worried about!

MilaMae · 03/09/2009 14:14

I think she looks lovely.

Not having a dig at Anna but personally I'll never buy this French women are more healthy thing.

Having just returned from France I found it almost impossible as usual to find w/m bread,whole grain cereals and food not laden with added sugar and salt.

As We're on holiday I go with the flow the first week and do the French thing but by week two I'm gagging for the healthier food I normally eat.

I know French women eat smaller portions(allegedly) but they do and half eat a heck of a lot of cheese and meat and buggar all fruit, veg and whole grains. 1 stuffed tomato plonked on to a plate almost entirely meat focused does not a portion of veg make.

And don't get me started on breakfast I crave Dorset meusli by the time I leave France. A puff of French bread/ croissant and coffee is NOT a healthy breakfast.

I have to saw in the South where we were there was an awful lot of women way bigger than the model in the picture.

GetOrfMoiLand · 03/09/2009 14:17

Yes also to people being a lot taller. My gran was considered very tall back in the day (she was five foot 9) - she remembers one of her friends was a bluebell dancer, she was considered incredibly tall at 6 foot back in to 60s.

I am 6 foot and there are several women at work taller than me. DD is just shy of 6 foot at the age of 13, and amazingly she is not the tallest girl in her year group, loads of girls her age are big and lanky.

Buying trousers in our house is a bore

LaurieFairyCake · 03/09/2009 14:17

Just to go further with custy's point about bmi - dd is 7 and a half stone and 5ft 1". (aged 11) She is a proper stick, 26/22/27 measurements. A size 6 in adult clothes.

And that would put her into the upper end of BMI - what a pile of crap

Nancy66 · 03/09/2009 14:18

French women aren't healthier - far from it - they're just thinner. And it's def not a myth, the French obesity rate is half ours.

MilaMae · 03/09/2009 14:20

I saw quite a few very over weight children too but as Riven said not women oozing out of clothes too small.

One thing you can't take away from French women is they do know how to dress.

OrmIrian · 03/09/2009 14:21

getorf - I get freaked out by the general increase in height in since I was a child too. I'm 5'11 and as a child I was way taller than most of my friends, incl the boys. But I remember walking my DS to the CMs on the way to work 10ys ago and passing a group of Yr 11s from the nearby secondary school - many of the girls were my height and above.

LaurieFairyCake · 03/09/2009 14:21

As far as I can tell french women don't eat croissants and white bread.

They eat much more protein (meat/cheese) and much less carbs. They eat more veg than fruit (which is much better).

In general they follow a Montignac diet (very Atkinsy) with much less sugar and carbs.

They are also obsessed with lingerie which does not seem to be made in larger cup sizes