Okay, now that the hubbub about what all the stars were wearing at the Academy Awards on Sunday – hubbub that, I assure you, I care very much about (Gwyneth Paltrow, whaaaaat!) – I think it’s time to talk about something a little more serious: how rail-thin some of the stars looked at the awards show.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all about eating healthy and exercising, but some of the women at the Oscars—I shall not name names—simply looked like they were wasting away. The media and the fashion industry don’t help. According to some statistics, in 1960, average fashion models were about 5’7” and weighed approximately 129 pounds. Today, average fashion models are two inches taller and weigh about 114 pounds. Some of the models at last month’s Fashion Week in New York were skin and bones – literally. (Before I get bombarded with negative comments, I understand that some women—including a lot of models—are naturally 5’9” and 114 pounds). And we are bombarded with articles in women’s magazines urging that if we can simply lose those last few pounds, we will have it all—a better love life, a boyfriend/husband who will love us more, children who won’t disobey us, a better career.
And what is this doing to our self image? Well, according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa, 47% of girls in the 5th-12th grade report wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures, and 69% of those girls report that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape. In fact, over half of all teenage girls engage in unhealthy weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, self-induced vomiting or abusing laxatives. What’s even worse is that 41% of 1st-3rd grade girls – we are talking girls as young as 7 years old – want to be thinner.
Meanwhile, only 5% of American women possess the body type portrayed in magazines as “ideal.” So the “ideal” woman is essentially unattainable for the great majority of us! No wonder, then, that we spend much of our adolescence and adult life worrying about our weight, as opposed to worrying about our health. I know that I was definitely a victim of this. Growing up in LA I was surrounded by the super-skinny. Some of my best friends, in fact, were child models and actresses. It was hard for me to be what some people may call “voluptuous” – to be the smart and funny friend. It took me a long time to get over this. To realize that in order for me to have a better love life, a boyfriend who loves me and a better career, I have to first be happy with myself. Sometimes it’s still tough, though. I mean, who doesn’t want to wear the clothes that fall so beautifully on those fashion models? I just have to remind myself that, in order for others to love me, I have to first love myself for who I am (cheesy, but true). And I am NOT—nor will I ever be—5’9” and 114 pounds.
Image via.
Everyones “healthy weight” is different. These charts basing healthy weight on height and weight are a tool, not the written word. They don’t take into account many aspects that should be taken into account. Saying someone is too skinny is just as, we’ll say “not nice” for lack of better words, as saying someone is too fat. Many ppl are naturally rail thin, many ppl naturally have a lil more cushion, and many fall somewhere in between. It’s difficult no matter what size you are. If your tall and skinny it’s hard to find long enough jeans. If your short and voluptous it’s just as hard to find the in between of long/regular/short jean, if you have a big chest tops are nearly impossible, small chest most tops are too baggy…we all have problems, pretty much the same problems, just a little different.lol I myself, if I could just find a jean to fit over my big butt that actually fits my little waist, I’d be happy!lol I get it though. I try not to by judgy, but I must say I get envious when I see a tiny body…then I remember they have their own issues.
[..YouTube..] @MsJenny813 hey! Thanks..you can always join us at the Youtube Weight Loss Community on Facebook if you haven’t aaldrey let me know when you set up your page so I can support you!.
you know what? i think the idea of funning out is lerlay badass; and even though i live in nyc, i know exact;y what she’s reffering to. Look how happy she is.Good for her.
As a baby I was born 5 weeks too early but I had the weight of a fully grown baby. I am always destined to be a bit heavier than my friends. The ‘problem’ is that my friends like and accept me regardless of my fat percentage. It’s ‘strangers’ who judge me on my bigger appearance. You could be as happy as a hippo with the way you look, the sad reality is that human beings still value other people’s opinions more than they trust their own sanity. Some one only needs to mention how they enjoy pinching my love handles and I get a tiny heart attack.
I sort of disagree, thin people are everywhere, not just on magazine covers, it’s not like an overweight person sees a thin person on a magazine and suddenly realizes “omg I’m fat!” people who are overweight think they are overweight because they are overweight. And so are thin women just supposed to hide themselves to make others feel better? I’m not going to apologize to any one for being thin or pretty. The best thing we can do is educate people on how to lose weight jn a healthy way. Some may think obese women should be on magazine covers, but being obese is usually unhealthy, now so is being deathly thin, but I haven’t seen anyone deathly thin on a magazine cover, I see beautiful, thin, healthy women like Zooey deschanel. I’m just saying it’s not magazines or runway models that make obese people feel fat, it’s the fact that they are obese.
Excellent post definitely some food for tgouhht It’s a topic I’ve been thinking about a lot recently. Being a chiropractor I can often guess how much degenerative arthritis someone has before I X-ray them. I look at their posture, the way they move, their habits, history of trauma, stress levels and their weight. I definitely notice that heavier people have more degenerative arthritis (you can also call it osteoarthritis, spinal decay, wear and tear, it’s the same thing). What has surprised me over the years though, is when I see someone who works out, looks great and is carrying more weight due to more lean mass is how often they have pretty horrible looking spines. I’m not talking huge guys either and not very old 40s and 50s. I can think of lots of patients in the 5’10 6 range weighing 180 -210 with very low body fat and unfortunately pretty advanced spinal decay. It’s sad and ironic. Here are these guys doing what they think is great for their health, only to have to stop or drastically alter their training because they’ve worn their spines and their other joints out completely. So I start to wonder, how much weight should our frames actually carry? How do we determine what’s healthy? That’s where something like the Adonis Index makes a lot of sense. It’s probably not just an aesthetic ideal. It’s probably a physiological ideal too. If you don’t think losing (or gaining) 20 lbs has a big impact on your frame. Put 20 lbs in a back pack and wear it around for a few minutes then imagine the cumulative effect of that weight over 10 or 20 years. It’s huge.
I think the point of the article was about the correlation between how women are portrayed by the media and fashion and how young women feel about their own bodies. You must be lucky to be thin and pretty (and modest, too!), but it is tough for young girls and young women to accept their own bodies when presented with stick-thin models and actresses. I think the best thing we can do is promote that everyone has a body and they should love themselves no matter what.
Some of the most beautiful girls I know are tall and curvy. Sometimes I think i need to loose weight to be pretty…but then I see my friends and I think, hell no. They’re gorgeous! It’s about who you are not how you look!
I am some one who falls in the healthy weight/BMI category but I feel so ‘fat’ all the time…. I hate my love handles and omg, my thighs are the worst!! but I also know there are just some girls that are naturally thin (you know the type, with the natural gap between their thighs that makes skinny jeans look so amazing…)… I understand that they have their body type, and i have my body type and no matter how much either one of gains or looses weight… we will never look the same… what sucks is that celebrities tend to be girls who are naturally skinny… like angelina jolie, i have no doubt thats just the way her body is, when she was pregnant, she still had super skinny arms and legs… but thats just the way her body is. i dont think its a bad thing to want to loose weight or gain weight but i think everyone needs to emphasize that we all have very different body shapes!
We need to change the way we see, not the way we look. Everyone needs to achieve their personal healthy weight, whatever that may be. Thanks Micol!
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MICOL!!! I love you and love seeing you on here! Great article. And so true! I agree with some of the comments above that it does go both ways. As a child, I was STICK thin and would be made fun of because of it. I used to gorge on food and drink weight gain shakes to try to pack on the pounds. That’s not healthy either. It seems silly and not as severe as a young girl wanting to lose weight but I do think the bigger picture is as a country and a world we need to teach little girls to LOVE THEIR BODIES HOW THEY ARE and to be healthy!!!
Thanks Grasie … I haven’t seen you in forever!!! I completely agree. I just think it’s important to teach young girls that they don’t have to be perfect … no one is! We all have flaws, and when we learn to love those things about ourselves, good things happen.
I have to say I’ve always been the “fat” one of my friends. At 5’10″ and 155lbs it really kills me that I need to worry about this. Oh well…such is life, I am thankful that I have a loving family and great self confidence!
I’m beginning to think that we don’t have any designers left with the skills to create something for the real female form. They stick to boyish/prepubescent female bodies that they can just drape clothing over.
I totally agree with your article! But what’s even more scary is that models in magazines are all photoshopped.. the ‘ideal’ woman isn’t even real anymore, which does not make sense at all. Also there are now fashion designers who hire androgyne boys to model women”s fashion!! In holland we even had an advert for a push up bra and the model was a androgynous male.. I think it’s time the fashion & film industry wakes up and starts putting healthy, fémales in the spot light and gives us role models we can look up to.
Body dysmorphia is a very real somatoform disorder that affects woman about 2x more often than it does men. Someone who suffers from this has a distorted view of their own personal image. Most of these people are overachievers who are driven to succeed and the image of beauty has now, indeed, become a gaunt one. It can lead to anorexia, bolemia and a number of other psychiatric disorders. It’s unfortunate that the fashion industry has adopted this look as it can and often does lead to quality of life reducing behaviors for the sufferer.
I completely agree with this, however just because somebody is skinny doesn’t mean it is their choice. Some people just can’t gain weight. I am not trying to be negative at all, but I have seen and heard a lot of women pass judgement on others because they are super skinny and tell them they look sickly, which could be giving those women just as many body-image issues. Although I am comfortable and confident with myself, I try as hard as I can to gain weight and it seems impossible. It’s just a little disheartening going to a store and trying on an extra small and it is still gigantic on me, or wanting to donate blood and I can’t because I am too small.
The thing that a lot of people tend to forget is that the current storm of criticism about being skinny is making a lot of naturally thin girls feel bad about themselves as well. I totally agree with what you’re saying; nobody should ever have to feel that their weight is somehow directly linked to what they’re worth as a human being. But that goes both ways: if it’s wrong to tell girls that they have to be skinny in order to be pretty, it’s also wrong to tell girls that they have to be voluptuous in order to be feminine. In both cases you’re telling people that their weight defines them.
I’m naturally skinny myself, and have been trying to gain weight for years, but because I’m chronically ill that simply doesn’t happen. Opening a magazine these days always makes me feel bad because there’s always some article in it that tells you that real women have curves and that being thin just isn’t pretty. I think it’s great that people are finally standing up against the whole size zero obsession in the fashion industry, but I really think that it’s more important to tell girls that everyone is pretty, regardless of their weight.
Can’t agree more! I am 20 years old and I have a huge behind! And growing up I have always been self-conscious about how big my butt is until recently more and more guys have been complimenting my shape and like that I’m not a stick figure. I even have girlfriends who are stick thin wish they had my curves. So I’m learning more and more to be happy with my curves and embrace them. Also I realize that those who matter will be happy with my curves too.
Good post. Thanks for taking time in your position to highlight this negative trend. Your voice speaks for many struggling men and women.
When I was 4 my abusive mother told me I was fat. I’ve had a poor self-image since then and am suffering poor health because of the anorexia I went through. Thanks, Mom!
Meanwhile, the ad on the left side is about tips for a smaller belly…
How come you didn’t write an article about how some of the stars (Who shall remain nameless…) at the Oscars were unhealthily and seriously OVERweight? Body shaming is body shaming. It goes both ways. How about you do you and let them do them?
Agreed.
Those of us who are moms have the CRUCIAL role of making sure our kids are not bombarded by media and toys that tell them they need to be skinny.