Tanya Gold's Telegraph article re obese mannequin

[KatnissMellark]

Has anyone read this? I can't out my finger on why it tiles me so much but there is something underlying it which feels very anti women and it's really grated on me.

Why shouldn't there be an obese mannequin? Plenty of larger women participate in sport and surely more would do so if comfortable functional clothing were available to do so, in their size. I'm a healthy weight myself but love seeing people of all ages, sexes and sizes participating. Why not?!?

Put my finger on

And

Riles me

Stupid autocorrect!

www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/obese-mannequins-selling-women-dangerous-lie/amp/

Sorry don't know how to do a clicky link

Tanya Gold makes a very good living from expressing her strong opinions. I've read the article myself but I'm afraid I paid it little mind because (in my view) much of her output is confected outrage meant to grab attention.

Ah I thought that might be the case. Don't subscribe to any particular newspapers and try to read a good range but hadn't read much of her stuff before. Seemed a bit Katy Hopkins-esque to me.

Yeah shes a shitter Katie Hopkins. Shes previously written a piece for the Daily Fail 'in defence of our fatties' about how far she is. She can get in the bin and I refuse to click to read her latest piece of crap.

I can't see the whole article, but it's clear that Gold has a problem. Apologies for the Fail link, but...

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1088455/In-defence-fatties--Let-eat-cake.html

I can't out my finger on why it tiles me so much but there is something underlying it which feels very anti women and it's really grated on me.

It’s the descriptions.

It reads like she really turned herself on writing that article.

She's also factually incorrect often enough to make me question how much time she spends on actual research but she can, on occasion, be mildly amusing. Yes, Katie Hopkins is a good comparator. It's the print media equivalent of click bait.

Nothing to do with feminism, but I do have a bit of a problem with "obese" models. On the one hand we've got junk food ads banned on the tube and schools making efforts to plug the healthy eating mantra etc, and then on the other there seems to be a movement to make being very overweight seem... trendy , which is just as bad as using clearly anorexic models.

Again and again on the television I've seen adverts with the "love yourself" message featuring models who are not just a bit chubby, but in some instances morbidly obese.

Funny how I've yet to see one single advert featuring a fat bloke. Where's the love for a big beer belly hanging over some swimming trunks?!

Tanya Gold has ishoos and is a wannabe professional troll who would write anything for money and infamy.

I don't see it as making being overweight seem trendy. It's just representing the broad spectrum of bodies that are out there. I think it actually helps tackle obesity if we take some of the shame out of being overweight. It's bloody hard to go to a gym and work out if you don't feel there is gym wear out there for you. Seeing a mannequin like this is going to inspire people who are overweight to go and buy some gym gear and give it a go - a good thing surely?

If there's one thing I've learned in my many attempts to lose weight, shame and self disgust don't help. You need to love your body and want to nourish it and keep it healthy instead of wanting to punish it through starvation.

Great post @marvinmarvinson I couldn't agree more. I'm in a few women's running groups and it really saddens me when people ask if they're too fat to run, too slow to join in....sport is for everyone, and you're not going to get any faster or fitter by not giving it a go!

I feel really mixed about this as well. I often do wish mannequins were more realistic, because sometimes I look at them to see how the clothes they are displaying fit, and a lot of the time when you look closely not only are they abnormally thin, they have to pin up the clothes so you have no idea how they fit. I imagine that women in all sizes would like to be able to look at the clothes and see how they actually fit.
I worry though about obesity as a health problem. It always strikes me when I look at older photos of crowds what a widespread problem it is, and I think we don't notice in part because we become used to what we see all the time.

I think of body fat as a bodily resource we can utilise! Stored energy. But carry too much and it can be bit of a heavy burden for the body. I think it helps to emphasise the practicalities of the issue to get rid of /minimise the shaming. My body fat is mine and I invested in that energy store! When I run it gives me the energy to carry on even before breakfast! Brilliant stuff! Without energy storage facilities we would just have to eat 24/7 which is just not practical or desirable. Regarding plus size mannequins, as a previous poster said, it is important to see all types of body represented in an active healthy lifestyle. So people are not made to feel out of place doing the normal activities which are good for health and well-being.

Why shouldn't women of all shapes and sizes have an idea what clothes are going to look like on them before they try them on?

She used to write for the Guardian (my DH buys it, I find it too try hard) and it was all ''look at me! Aren't I just the most adorable fuck up!

Really, really annoying.

@IrmaFayLear

Playing devil's advocate though what would you have obese people do instead?

Hate their bodies?

Speaking personally the worse I feel about myself the worse my eating habits are (as they are psychologically driven). The better I feel about myself the better my eating habits are.

When I want to exercise now I can actually buy clothes to exercise in...only a few years ago the message was that I should be exercising but you couldn't find exercise clothes in my size which was pretty shit and demotivating.

I don't have any links to hand but research shows that making people feel ashamed of their weight is counter productive - it doesn't get them to change at all.

It is a very difficult line to tread. Making people ashamed - obviously not good. But celebrating "curves" as they seem to be called - equally not helpful. Some of the models in adverts are not curvy or plump, they are very overweight.

Seeing how one looks in clothes is also a hard one. I'd never buy a single thing ever again if clothes were modelled on a dumpy pear... ie me!

Seriously - one larger mannequin is not going to incite a generation of kids to think being obese is a great look to aspire to, it goes against a seriously ingrained culture that thin=good!

The truth is that there are all sorts of body shapes and there needs to be more acceptance of larger ones so that the focus can be on health rather than aesthetics. Diets do not work - so the focus needs to change from weight loss to good lifestyle choices, this means healthy eating (not restricting but good choices), exercise, not smoking and minimal alcohol. Better to be overweight/obese and be ticking all of the other lifestyle boxes than skinny and eating crap, not moving and smoking and drinking. People make all sorts of assumptions about larger people's lifestyles and personalities (as does the awful TG here) but rarely do they do the same for very slim people.

Tanya Gold has ishoos and is a wannabe professional troll who would write anything for money and infamy.

This.

It’s actually been years since I last read one of her “controversial” opinion pieces. Where has she been?

I agree with Marvin. There are many reasons why people get fatter and cake is only one of them. I have put on weight due in part to an underactive thyroid, and it is hard to lose. I am not huge, but I am fatter than I have ever been and it does make me feel too embarrassed to swim or run etc, not helping at all with the weight and fitness. If I feel that at a size 12 ( from a small size 8) , then I assume I am not alone.

Surely Nike making exercise clothes for bigger sizes is a good thing.

I have never heard of someone eating more to look like an overweight model, but many will starve themselves to be skinny.

SirVix

...that's how you feel at a Size 12. I've gone up from a Size 10 to a Size 20 due to binge eating disorder and medication for bipolar disorder.

I've had people men shout at me in the street when I've gone out for a jog to try and lose weight

@wheresmymojo if it makes you feel any better, they're not shouting at you because you're big, they're shouting because they're twats. I am frequently shouted at (at least once a month) and vary from a size 8-12. Some people are just knobs! Know that for every person shouting derogatory stuff there are ten internally cheering you on.

I am a chubby 12 though, not a slim toned 12 . I have a small frame. I know it is stupid, I know that I should feel fine, but I feel shame. If I see women of any shape running or swimming I think they are great, so I don’t know why I feel like this, I think it comes from my first boyfriend who was deliberately critical of me and all women. (I was a size 4 at the time) .