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Skinny people have it bad, too

created by flyingfish

(idea) by flyingfish (1.4 y) (print)   ?   1 C! I like it! Sun Jun 25 2000 at 0:29:03

I am not in possession of what would be called a "perfect" body. Then again, I doubt anyone is. I'm not morbidly obese, and I'm not waifly skinny. I can sit back, comfortable with my moderate size, and relax. I also get to philosophize about the plights of those to the right and left of me. So I continue...

I've noticed that much of the media place the blame of most eating disorders on the slight figures of today's models. Granted, most of these models probably do have at least one, if not numerous, dysfunctional eating manners. It's the models or the actresses or the musicians who are just naturally skinny that I feel sympathy for. I'm sure they must endure horrible personal blame for what society has told them, and what they may have come to believe, is their fault--the ruin of the public's self-image and the mental problems of uncountable people. There are people who simply cannot be fat unless they compromise their healthy eating habits and succomb to the wiles of the fast food and junk food that dominates our society.

These people don't have a voice in the media. When a person in showbusiness is thin, many pass the judgement of "anorexic" or "bullemic" instantly without thinking that the person might just be skinny. A double standard exists--I've heard image counselors on popular television shows and in various publications state that no matter how hard they try, some people are just not genetically able to be skinny. This is true, but it works both ways. I know people who could eat constantly everyday of their lives and not gain a pound. That's just the way their metabolism is.

Never assume that just because someone does not have the same problems you have their life is instantly better.


(idea) by psydereal (2.1 y) (print)   ?   I like it! Sun Sep 17 2000 at 0:27:47

You say that models, actresses, and musicians that are naturally skinny get unfairly labelled as anorexic and bad influences which is probably true, but many of the actresses and musicians are not naturally skinny. Jennifer Aniston who is riding the stick thin look lately used to weigh 30 pounds more than she currently does. She lost the weight, and lo and behold, her career took off. The only way to succeed the 99.9% of the cases in the entertainment field is to be underweight no matter how much talent that you possess because of the fat phobia prevalent in our society. The same magazines that decry anorexia and poor body image in teenagers in a three page article have an eight page fashion spread later that features a model who's 5'9 and weighs 109 pounds, so my whole problem with the media labelling celebrities as anorexic is the hypocrisy of it all.

(idea) by enkidu (10 mon) (print)   ?   I like it! Mon Jun 11 2001 at 20:20:21

I do feel sympathy for extremely skinny entertainers (or any other skinny people) who are labeled anorexic when they are in fact healthy. But would an entertainment industry filled with healthy people who are naturally super-slim really be any better? We'd still have huge numbers of people anchoring their self-perception on a tiny subpopulation with the genetic programming to have this unusual body type, as well as the time to work developing it. Most people would still have to be anorexic to look like that, and so the damage would be nearly the same.

note: I don't mean to place all blame for eating disorders on the media; there are obviously biochemical and evolutionary factors as well, and the media only represent a portion of the social contributions in play.

(idea) by morganlight (2 wk) (print)   ?   2 C!s I like it! Mon Jan 17 2005 at 5:24:50

I thought I would add a node from the point of view of a naturally skinny person - that person being me.

I'm 5'9 and I weigh 115 pounds. When I forget to eat my weight drops to 110 or lower.

I wire the world, thin, jagged, like electricity. Like a radio antenna. My feet stick out like boats on the bottom of a ship mast. My head bobs like a buoy on an anchor chain. My ribs could be played like an uneven xylophone. My neck is long. My breasts are close to nonexistent. My hipbones could cause mass destruction when I jut them forward. I often joke about killing people with them.

And I must say, honey, that growing up with a physique like this is no easier than growing up overweight.

There is, for example, the matter of bra size. This world celebrates big boobs. Breast implants, anyone? I never entered a Victoria's Secret as a teenager, not so much because I didn't like lingerie, but because my breasts did not exist to them. The nicest bras don't come in 32A. In fact, I wore a 'nearly A' for years. How's that for self-esteem-inducing?

There is the notion of being 'womanly'. Many claim that the model physique is 'ugly' and 'disgusting' when compared to what women are 'supposed to look like'. That would be, I assume, large hips, large breasts, tapering legs, rosy cheeks, and no bones in sight. Well, I thought. So much for being a woman. In fact, my boyish figure contributed somewhat to a gender identity crisis I went through in my late teens (in addition to not fitting any girly stereotypes or relating to women at all). I couldn't deal with romance, sex, relationships, or anything else involving love, because I just couldn't handle the idea of being 'the woman'.

There is the societal bias towards losing weight. I work at a bookstore, and you can imagine the amount of men and women buying diet books that come my way. Occasionally I'll get one who asks for advice. Never having read a diet book, I say something like, "I'm sorry, I can't really say."

The reaction is always one of disdain. "Oh, I guess you don't have to worry about dieting, do you?"

"Actually," I say, honestly, "I have trouble keeping weight on."

"Oh, you POOR thing." Sardonic. No sympathy, or even a touch of kindness.

Can you imagine the reaction if I said something similarly sarcastic to a person trying to lose weight? It would be considered incredibly rude. Taboo, even. Why the double standard?

When I started paying attention to fashion, I was affirmed for the first time in my life. Here was a group of women who were not only accepted for their thinness, but celebrated for it. I discovered that I can wear clothes well. I saw symbols of sexy on figures similar to mine. I came across brand advertisements, men and women on display, models without curves being the center of attention.

Fashion gave me physical confidence. People who blame fashion models for eating disorders are looking for a scapegoat, because the figure type is arbitrary - the real problem lies within.

printable version
chaos

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