It's funny because I've never seen more than 15 minutes of Less Than Perfect, but I've seen the actress doing interviews. It's true I wouldn't peg her as "overweight" if I saw her on the street. I do get the feeling that she's supposed to be an "average" woman, with weight problems, job struggles, etc.

Roseanne and Oprah are another two big tv presences who are larger sized women, both of them went through public weight losses too (Roseanne less than Oprah). Can you imagine John Goodman (the husband from the Roseanne show) being publically pressured (and made fun of) to lose weight? Funny how the wives of the men of tv characters who are large still have to be thin too (King of Queens, According to Jim).

Ok, now I'm wondering if I watch waaaayyy too much tv

Dawnyal, I see these reports about how woman have such a hard time looking in a mirror and seeing their true body size (almost always they see themselves as larger than they are). Very sad.

Less Than Perfect - one of my favorite shows and they NEVER talk about dieting or weight. ROCK the frack on!

In film and photography, we discuss the "dead woman" look. It is so incredibly popular in advertising today. Open up a magazine and flip through it - look at the ads. How many of those ads show women who look dead? Spaced out staring off, looking bored. Listless. Or worse, look at the coloring. Are they the colors skewed to show their skin and lips in a blue color. This is the dead woman look. Here's the freaking part. This is a turn on. Some think it's because they are showing the ultimate submissive woman - uber rape fantasy (ewwww!). Others think it is because the mindess, thoughtless woman is more sexual because there is no fight left in her - she won't talk, she won't fight back, she won't rag you about the dishes. Some people think that analyzing ads like this is "reading to much into things." But they don't spend millions on advertising not to know exactly what they're doing.

Sad but true...that sounds like the psychology behind it that I have learned about as well. We also discussed the fact that there is an increasingly popular type of pornography (mostly popular in the middle east, but spreading) where all of the women look like concentration camp victims--skin draped on nearly protruding bones, eyes sunken in...you get the idea. There is a name for this type of disgusting porn, but I don't remember what it is. It is quite disturbing, and yet the demand is growing. Wonderful, the things we learn about in college nowadays, eh?

Disgusting porn is a good name for it. I can't believe what people find sexualy exciting.

I do admit I think she's really pretty. Maybe part of that is because I always wanted to have red hair.



wasn't it in the late 80s and 90s that "heroin chic" was the big thing in modeling? emaciated girls that looked all used up by drugs. nice thought, that.

Yuck to the gross porn! Jillybean, I'm surprised that it originated in the Middle East--are you sure about that? My husband is Middle Eastern and definitely has a preference for, um, more amply endowed women (lucky for me!).

And I LOVE Less than Perfect! Both of the main actresses are gorgeous!

when i was really young (like 13-15 or so) i wanted to be thin more than anything in the entire world so i quit eating and i got thin. i still thought i was fat. when i see pics of what i looked like back then i can understand why people thought i was on drugs. i looked NASTY!!!! i read some of the articles about those actresses and wanted to puke! they are nuts but i can understand their thinking because i thought the same things.