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Is anyone else cross that the Next model looks on the verge of anorexia?

189 replies

WilfSell · 09/01/2010 18:02

I think the catalogue one of the most widely recognised retailers in the UK, pored over by countless young girls no doubt, should NOT feature a model who is so thin she looks ill.

Her upper thighs and arms are just about the same or perhaps thinner than the lower and her face is getting that 'stretched' look where you can see odd muscles.

I really don't think it is on.

OP posts:
MerlinsBeard · 11/01/2010 14:54

sorry - bowing out now. don'[tw ant to get into the what is too thin thing.

CarmenSanDiego · 11/01/2010 16:26

Well, not really. There are fairly well established medical guidelines for a healthy body. I'm talking about models who are underweight and unhealthy. Fashion shows have made efforts in the past to ban models based on bmi so it can be done.

Either the media should be pushed to show only healthy models, or preferably represent a whole range of figures imo. Why do we want to torture ourselves with unattainable underweight models? Why do we want to attain that size, anyway?

And yes, I know bmi is flawed but it is still well established and generally accurate enough.

badietbuddy · 11/01/2010 16:40

mom, you do know that the first one is obviously (very badly) photoshopped??
Why link these images? I do warn anyone who has not opened them NOT to.

pofarced · 11/01/2010 16:44

I'm reporting your posts and links mumofmonsters.

Beachcomber · 11/01/2010 16:45

I'm of the opinion that it is all about body type and age.

A naturally very slim person who eats normally and exercises normally but who is still tiny will look healthy and attractive. I have a mate who has had 3 children, eats the same as me and who is probably a size 6 at about 5 foot seven. She looks great because she is the weight she is meant to be. She looks strong and healthy but just happens to be very slim.

Same for another friend who is probably about a size 16/18. She eats healthily, exercises and is probably more toned than me. She looks great as she is also the weight she is meant to be.

I think what people take issue with is when women who are probably natural size 12s or possibly bigger are celebrated as being beautiful because they have managed to starve themselves down to a size 6 or smaller.

That these women are being shown to us as an example of what looks good and as a look to strive for is madness and pretty insulting to womenkind.

darcymum · 11/01/2010 16:52

I wish I was skinny like the Next models, even though I completely agree they do not promote I good image of womanhood.

I know I shouldn't think like this... but I do!

AnyFucker · 11/01/2010 17:13

well, if I wished to be that skinny, it would only be so that I could eat lots of pies and doughnuts in order to gain a couple of stone

morningpaper · 11/01/2010 17:15

I know just what you mean AnyFucker

I wish I was that then and then I could have a lovely project of eating my way to a proper 'slim' shape...

AnyFucker · 11/01/2010 17:17

yup mp

I once was told I had to gain half a stone (long story)

bloody hell, it was like a feeding frenzy of doughnuts and Galaxy

pofarced · 11/01/2010 17:40

Once you get that thin you would not be able to eat normally for a very, very long time. your organs would not be able to cope with it. And not really a laughing matter.

MerlinsBeard · 11/01/2010 17:46

The links were relevant - the thread was talking about the models being skeletal. I linked to girls who actually were. The next models clearly aren't.

There was a warning not to click and it was clear what the images were.

Curiousmama · 11/01/2010 17:49

I emailed and complained to Next. I told them to look on here too and see I'm not alone. Awful

morningpaper · 11/01/2010 17:53

funnily enough, mum of monsters, that last pic you linked to is a person on my marriage bed from my first marriage

pofarced · 11/01/2010 17:58

oh for goodness sake mofm - the women in the links were near death [first photoshopped obviously] The next models without clothes would be seriously underweight -ribs and hip bones showing. But not near death, if that is the point you are trying to make.

Seriously confused [and intrigued] by MP's statement though...

pofarced · 11/01/2010 17:59

The second two, especially the last one, were in danger of their organs failing. I seriously doubt the model in the Next pics menstruates.

pofarced · 11/01/2010 18:02

Actually having looked again the middle link is not very different to the Next model. The last link shows someone whose organs could fail at any time.

MerlinsBeard · 11/01/2010 18:21

Pofarced your idea of skeletal and mine are different. The next models are skinny yes, skeletal no.

The issue of possible organ failure is irrelevant.

MP I reaaaaally want to ask WTF?!

pofarced · 11/01/2010 18:30

It doesn't really matter what our ideas of skeletal are. It matters that your links show a woman in danger of losing her lives, and the NEXT links show underweight models and present them as the ideal.

WilfSell · 11/01/2010 18:42

How on earth can you say 'possible organ failure' is irrelevant?

We can't judge the models in terms of whether they're anorexic or not. That happens in the head, after all, and then translates into real life practices. But think of some of the danger signals and ask whether you think you these models do these things:

  • not eating
  • eating non-food items
  • cutting food very small, playing with it, moving around on the plate and generally...
  • trying to appear if you're eating when you're not
  • avoiding eating but cooking lavish and complex food for other people
  • obsessive calorie counting
  • obsessive exercise
  • competitive thinness with other very thin women (in RL or online)
  • skewed judgements about their own body, and what is a healthy weight

Do you think the first woman in the catalogue can manage to be as thin as she is without some of these things?

I think the pro-ana movement has a lot to answer for. It defends extreme thinness without doing so explicitly, and is supported in doing so by our culture (which after all lauds 'free choice' and individualism). The points MoM made about the 'lifestyle' choice of extreme thinness being somehow different from the 'illness' shows she is somehow embroiled in it all perhaps.

Pro-ana rather insidiously attempts to legitimise 'living on the edge' and encourages women to develop ways of being extremely thin safely. They fail when they succumb to illness, but even that is portrayed as society somehow 'misunderstanding them', just like sick anorexics for years have done. They try further to legitimise this with another version of 'hey, fat is bad too: who are you to judge' and 'you're just jealous you fat cows'.

Don't be disingenuous with the pro-ana nonsense, even if you don't (yet) recognise it as such. Get a therapist instead. Women, grown married women with children, and young girls, die of anorexia, as well as ruining their fertility and other aspects of their health, permanently.

OP posts:
WilfSell · 11/01/2010 18:43

Directed not at you pofaced: sorry.

OP posts:
pofarced · 11/01/2010 18:59

didn't think it was Wilf. Good post.

MerlinsBeard · 11/01/2010 19:01

Is that aimed at me wilfself?

AnyFucker · 11/01/2010 19:23

mp, you have to explain your last post

AnyFucker · 11/01/2010 19:25

mom, is your middle link actually you ??

MerlinsBeard · 11/01/2010 19:33

Lol no not me!! I just did a google image search