DISCLAIMER: The generalizations in this thread are describing American society as a whole, NOT the people on this forum!!
I'm pretty sure that we are all under the impression that most people in Hollywood are entirely too thin. I'm also pretty sure that we are well aware of how waistlines around the world are rapidly expanding. It bothers me that to be considered societally beautiful (despite all the fat around us!), you must be under a size three. That's right. Three. Today, I heard three stupid college boys within an ear shot talking about a girl who was sitting at a table across the street. She was pretty, and looked like she was a size 4-6. She was healthy looking and a bit toned around her arms. One of the guys said, "Dude, she's hot." The other two? "Dude! She's FAT!" "Uh yeah dude she is sort of chunky, like thick." The "thick" they were speaking of was MUSCLE, as she did not have an ounce of squeeze-pudge around her midsection or anywhere else that I could see!
It really, REALLY irks me when people think healthy, athletic people are "fat" and "chunky"! Healthy looking people are SO few and far between these days, anyway! It seems as if we are either THIN or FAT with little room in the middle... and despite having plenty of theories, I truly do wonder why.
I don't want to be skinny. I want to be fit and healthy! I wish fit and healthy would somehow become something people actually strive for, instead of setting irrational ideals for themselves. People always describe others as "thin" and "fat" - what the **** happened to in between? You know, the size more than half of us would be if we actually took care of our bodies? (Taking care of your body goes both ways: eating proper portions, proper nutritional value, AND eating enough to keep your body satisfied, as well as regular physical activity.)
In our sick obsession with vanity (one I've been guilty of on numerous occasions), we as an American people seem to forget that health should come first. I wish Hollywood as a whole would conduct some sort of rebellion against this standard, but instead of going to the opposite extreme and making a statement by being fat, I wish they would just embrace some healthy habits, LET themselves EAT, and realize some of their crazy 5-10 hour a day exercise schedules are RIDICULOUS.
For a brief second, I was disheartened to know that even when I reach my goal weight of 125, I won't be sexy because my skin won't be glued onto my ribs, my hip bones will not jut out inches past my abdomen, and I won't have a hollow face.
Then, I laughed at myself because despite the crazy standards American society sets, there will always be the rebels, outcasts, individuals, and free thinkers who find them as sick as I do.
I don't want to be skinny. I want to be fit and healthy! I wish fit and healthy would somehow become something people actually strive for, instead of setting irrational ideals for themselves.
Word! I was just describing in another post how Woman's Day had an article about women with anorexia, with a plum shocking before-and-after photo of a woman who wasted down to 48 # before she got help and saved her life, on the skinny scale OMG she was past looking like Supermodel, Junkie and Holocaust Survivor and looked like Starving Ethiopian, and then 2 pages after the end of the article was a preview of next month's issue and one of the articles was "Walk Yourself Thin"! "Thin" is a body type that some women are lucky enough to have naturally while others, however they try, will never get there unless they get cancer or something, but "fit" is something anyone can achieve if they apply themselves. There was a time I never thought I'd have it in me to apply myself, but suddenly I had to and found it wasn't as daunting as I'd feared; in the last 18 months I've lost 40 #, I have my ups and downs but I'm still trying!
You know, at times like this, you have to admit that at least those guys were striaght forward about it. One of my best friends has a crush on this male idiot. My friend is a size 16. He's prone to liking girls size 4 and under. He told my friend that to him, girls' sizes don't matter, hollywood sucks, etc. He obviously won't say it in her face to hurt her feelings, but I hate it more when they just won't tell the truth. He doesn't want to date my friend because secretely he prefers smaller girls. I don't like the fact that he thinks "fat" is over size 4, but I hate it even more that he keeps this a secret (not to his male friends, only to his female friends)
I totally agree. I know a guy who, just when he was about to get married, told his mom, "I hope (my future wife) doesn't get fat-- I don't know if I could still love her if she got fat."
I laughed so hard I almost wet my pants when I heard that. Ironically, she got pregnant on their honeymoon! Ha!
(His mom told him, "you better think long and hard about what you mean by that before you get married.")
These people who are obsessed with stick-body-image (I won't even say beauty, because I am gorgeous and I'm a size 14 right now--men do double takes in the grocery store at me, even though I'm toting around a 6-month-old) must be very unhappy, shallow people who do nothing but watch TV and read Star magazine and think that perfection MUST lie in a thin body. Hmmm, how many times have we seen these thin bodies emaciated from drug overuse or self-starvation and eating disorders? I don't think that is perfection or happiness, do you?
There are plenty of wonderful men out there who will think you're beautiful when you're overweight, no makeup on, and in sweats. Ditch those shallow teenyboppers who don't know what they're talking about. They've got it coming to them. They expect perfection, but... hello! They're usually kinda IMperfect themselves, and they will, as I like to say, "get their comeuppance" for their hyper-criticism. What goes around comes around.
It just hit me- did anyone see the newest weight watchers commercials? None of the women there are anywhere even CLOSE to "fat"; in fact, they are all pretty thin!!! All of these women talking to the screen are barely over 140 lbs and it pretty tells me that weight loss is also for vanity besides health. You can tell how much it's promoted these days. Ever notice the diet supplment ads sometimes feature exotically hot women (swedish blondes) stepping on the scale? It's not like they actually need to lose weight, but many women out there like the idea of dropping few sizes. This whole thing has just become a cascade effect. I'm not surprised at all with society.
Last edited by veggielover; 10-11-2007 at 05:12 PM.
I am sure glad the people I know and hang around like " healthy ". I hear from them, men and woman both. How that girl needs to put some meat on her bones far more than i hear that girl isn't skinny enough.
Funny enough, thru out most of my sons life, I have weight just about what I should weigh. Only recent years I have put on all this weight.
He has always liked big woman. One day not long ago I asked him about this. He said mom you are beautiful now you were beautiful when you were thin. Its all good. I just happen to like a woman with meat on her bones lol.
Last edited by Shy Moment; 10-11-2007 at 08:07 PM.
I also look forward to your new threads, NShane!
I always know it's going to have guts.
I share your feelings.
It's crazy, especially the Hollywood thing. It seems like there is a 3-lb range of optimum acceptability on a person. A pound more and the reaction is "they're fat!" A pound less and it's "anorexia alarm!"
I know of one lady had her five year old daughter counting calories and watching what she ate. Her boys grew up watching the obsession. Now they're the "she's fat!" type and the daughter is a certifiable lunatic when it comes to food, nutrition, and looking fit versus being "thin".
Have you actually seen some of these so called "thin" people in person? The ones I've seen do look good, as long as they don't move. There is zero muscle tone under that skin. So the minute they move their body is doing pretty strange things, especially if you happen to be behind them for the show! Try it sometime, see if you can see it for yourself.
I love my dad to death, he's my best friend, but sadly he's one of those men...the one whose always commenting on women's appearences and weight, it drives me crazy! But the reason he's like that is because his mother, my grandmother is obsessed with her weight and always has been. He grew up with a woman who was always striving to be stick thin and thought anything more was disgusting. He also said I hope my wife (my mom) doesn't get fat after they got married...(ugh). I'm just happy to be married to a man who loves me no matter what...I got up to 202 pounds with my first pregnancy and he thought I was the most goregous thing he'd ever seen. Thank you Shane for this post, you're awesome.
My goal is lean and athletic, and like a lot of women here, I have no need to be "skinny".
I do think though, that if you are going to depend on college age boys to project healthy attitudes towards weight, then you are going to be sorely disappointed. I also think that you'd get even nastier responses from college age girls. Girls are merciless.
What happened to healthy looking people??
It is just insane some "mind sets" of people. Kinda really SAD and kinda really SICK at the same time. Big Sigh.
