I've seen a few, but not many. However, I saw a magazine not too long ago that had women posing in their bra and undies in all different shapes and sizes. And that was very refreshing. They called themselves REAL women. No boob jobs, no tummy tucks, no facelifts... and they were all beautiful in their own way. Some of them were overweight. But they weren't ashamed to pose half nude. They were proud of their bodies because they had learned to accept themselves for what they were. And that's the whole thing, acceptance. It's hard for some of us to accept ourselves when 90-pound women are on the cover of every magazine.

As for men, I don't know a one that likes rail-thin women. My husband AND his best friend, Sean, have said several times they like a woman with "meat on her bones."

As for the male body, I personally don't find overweight men attractive. Not even chunky, really. I don't like big muscles, but what I find attractive is TRIM (not thin) and smooth muscle definition. I've never been into the big muscular body-building types. I just don't think it's attractive.

Linda - I think the ads your talking about are Fruit of the Loom, I've seen them too....to me those women look very REAL. My hat is off to them.
As for men, I like my DH. He is about 30 pounds overweight and has a belly (not from beer). He's like a teddybear, but right now he is losing weight with me.......I don't like big body building type men (not that it matters)...lol

Yes, I've seen the Fruit of the Loom ads, those are great too

But this was a magazine over at my MIL's that had pages and pages of "real" models. It was very cool.

"Not that it matters", lol, that's a good one. Yeah, same here. But hey, I still like to look. Not too long ago I was shopping and this guy walked past me that was stunningly gorgeous, I almost tripped over myself looking at him. Boy that was fun, lol!

There aren't many men on the planet that can cause a woman's jaw to drop just looking at them.

The unrealistic images in magazines have been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. I once heard of a top model (sorry I can't remember which one) who went to bed crying every night because she was so hungry--and it wasn't because she couldn't afford the food!

Has anyone seen this link? From normal to glam (including several figure "enhancements") in a few clicks of the mouse. This is what we're up against:
http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=14537 , click on "retouch site >>" to see how it's done.

Remember those interviews Jamie Lee Curtis did? She held up an enhanced mag cover of herself and said something like " .... you can't look like this. I don't look like this."

Linda - Was the magizine of the real models "More" I get that mag and they did that too, it was too cool......they took normal middle aged women and glamed em up.....awesome!
About Jamie Lee Curtis - ever since she did the Unenhanced" thing I have loved her.....lol

That is pretty funny considering Jamie Lee was born a man (XY). "She" is used as an example in medical school classes of "testicular feminization", a condition where a man develops as a woman because of a mutation in his androgen receptors.

Oh my gosh, I never heard that before....Are you trying to fake us out?

Heh heh, hairy shorts...

Well... one thing is true... cameras add ten pounds. A two-demensional image will make somebody who is at a 45-degree angle to the camera look fatter, because you don't see the curve of her waist, or arm, or neck. Instead, the body looks flat, and the curves just look like wide body parts. So I understand why models and actresses might have to be ten pounds thinner.

But ten pounds thinner doesn't have to mean a size 2. And ten pounds thinner doesn't have to be ten pounds thinner than a normal weight... we could still have big girls in the media. Why don't we?

Advertising is supposed to make us crave things. We are supposed to feel inferior to the person who has the product in the picture. If the person in the picture is impossibly thin and beautiful, we can never look as good. We will always feel inferior. And we will want some way of making ourselves look just as good... We can't be perfectly thin and beautiful, but we can go out and buy things... so we may as well buy the product advertised. Sneaky, eh?

Oh, and media reports about anorexia really bug me! They're like an eating disorder training manual. On the other hand, it's good that the media is noting that even celebrities can be too thin.

You know, the era of the too-thin model just might pass. As Americans become fatter, they will want more media that represents them. Hm. Not that the growing obesity rate is a good thing, but it might lead to more fat acceptance.

*shrug* Complicated issue! Let us know what your conclusions are in your paper, 'k?

You know, I don't remember

Linda - Again - Not that it really matters (about which magizine)...lol
Robert - Ok I checked your Blog and I know your not trying to misinform us.....sorry. Nice Blog!

They're not size 2 women - they're size 0.

I found a website once that had figured out the BMIs of several celebrity women. All the same ultra-thin women were on there - Callista Flockhart, Paris Hilton, Nicole Kidman - but there were also "normal" women like Halle Berry and Jennifer Lopez. Even Jennifer Lopez is underweight for her height (although it was only by about 5 pounds), and she's considered curvy!

My boyfriend's jaw hit the ground when I told him that. He immediately began to tell me how he didn't want me to look like J. Lo! That's something every woman should hear.

I have to say that I agree with this quote. I used to be very thin and even a little bony. When I gained weight, I got a lot more attention from men than when I was skinny.

I just wanted to comment...I know my fiance has told me a lot that he doesn't want me to be like the models on tv, that they are indeed too skinny. He also has said that he doesn't like their faces, etc (possibly too thin of a faceline? too angular? semi-androgenous?). But I think the difference is with men and women appreciating models that men are visual creatures. I think in a long term relationship they can come to love and be attracted to just about any shape, but on strangers they will first notice what their eyes show them. Women may have physical preferences, but I think it's slightly less to us and we can ignore visual impulses if we choose to.

I'm a bit confused as to where everyone thinks these images keep continuing from then. I agree it's a bit of women competing with other women for men(in some kind of unconscious way). Men are competitive, but not in "looks". I also agree with whoever it was that said that men may get self conscious while staring at a magazine, but will tend to forget about it later. Not that they don't have their own problems with self confidence...but it's not based purely on a weight or muscle issue. I wonder though, if it isn't men that don't like all these thin models, why are they everywhere? I think men are better at separating tv-magazine fantasy from reality than women. Women see that and get self-conscious. A man can see it and be attracted to it, without wanting to actually be with a woman who in reality looks like that. Make any sense to anyone?

Have you noticed that the very thin models and actresses never look very happy (in fact, they often look downright miserable - i.e. Kate Moss)? On the other hand, larger sized models and actresses are usually smiling in their photos.