where does the "pressure" to be slim come from? the media? the medical profession? our partners ogling skinny

Question

women?

Answer 1

It comes from the fashion industry. They want women who are so thin that they're basically living clothes hangers. Clothes hang flat on them and show off the designer's art without any actual body to take attention away from the clothes. Any doctor worth their diploma will tell you that those women are extremely unhealthy. The media has perpetuated it by glorifying these pitiful emaciated things. Even most actresses dislike the pressure to be so thin (I've read quite a few interviews with actresses who say that they feel better about themselves when they're at the higher end of their natural weight, after being told to lose weight for some role or other). Men in the real world began lusting after them because they were programmed to by the media. However, lusting after something on television/magazines/movies is often different from what a person desires in real life. Almost all of the males I know lust after these skinny things on-screen, but would rather have a real woman in a relationship. They don't even realise how much it damages real womens' self-esteem to see them drool over those things.

Sorry, but I'd much rather have a nice, chubby, curvaceous girl to curl up with at the end of the day, than to risk having an eye put out with some 63 lb girl's rib. ;)

Answer 2

I would say the media.

I can't see why men would ogle skiin women, they have no boobs!! Ok, they may be beautiful models (some of them) but at the end of they day, men like a handful of boobs.

I'm not skinny by no means, but I think the desire to be thinner is in all of us. I don't know why we think it's more attractive - probably because we earn around £14,000 in average jobs where as models can earn an extra £100,000 in a month. I think that's what we find attractive about being thin.

Celebreties seem to having a race to see who dies first & weighs the least and they are all hanging around with the likes of Orlando Bloom, Christian Slater, Johnny Depp Justin Timberlake, and we all want to be part of that.

It's a sad state of affairs.

I can't see where the medical profession come into this? Their only desire is to stop obesity I was actually told to put on weight before starting fertility treatment. I had to put on two stone.

Go back to the cavemen days, women should be curvy :-)

Answer 3

I don't know where it comes from. In the past, being fat was great because it meant you were influential and rich. Fashions came and went; it was a cycle - rich people could afford healthy diets and fitness regimes and so skinny was "in". I really think this is silly. What the media does is to find a scapegoat. They want to please everyone now that your body shape no longer relates to how rich or poor or successful you are.
I am a skinny woman and have been so, all my life.
I am healthy and have a lot of muscle. I think the models on the cat-walk are gorgeous and graceful. I think ballet dancers have the best physiques of all.
It is true that tall and skinny women are the best for fashion designers to use, as the clothes just look so good on them.
I am not tall, so I am not blowing my own horn. For every purpose, every shape. Big busted women find a place in the porn industry; buxom women in movies; fat women are loved by many. No matter what shape, there is someone who will love it. And there are literally thousands of others to each individual, who can see deeper than the shape and love what lies inside.
I have no problem with the way I look, although at times I have wished I could be taller. Sometimes even plumper. But I was made this way. I eat anything I want and the only exercise I do is swimming and cycling to tone my muscles. I am in middle age now and my waist-line has spread from 24 inches to 27. I like it! I feel sexier. But my hips and bust have stayed at 34 inches ... so the ratio is not good. Work this out and imagine how horrible it will look in a few years' time! But so what? I aim to stop that if I can because it will be grotesque as I wasn't made to be that way.
It scares me. Probably I can't. How I wish that middle-aged spread would go to my boobs and hips, like with so many others. I can't imagine having a 34-34-34 proportion in old age! But if that is what I end up with, I am not going to blame the media or the medical profession or anyone else. That was my genetic make-up and I hope I will still be loved for what I am inside!
I have friends who are fat and friends who are curvy and i think they are all beautiful.
My point is - as long as you are healthy, be happy with whatever shape you are.
My next point is - I really fear this attack about the so-termed "skinny" models is the latest witch-hunt of the present. They have run out of victims to attack and now ... well, let's attack the skinnies! Yeah! Hurray!
Some of us think these girls are really beautiful. My husband does, so it isn't only females. If other people can't tolerate this and think it is abnormal and not healthy, then they need to focus on ways to love themselves just as they are.

And please don't say it is because they are causing teenage girls to become bulemic or anorexic! If those girls are doing that, the problem is not the models, nor other women who happen to be skinny. The problem lies with not loving yourself and via that maybe with the parents attitude.
There will always be a scapegoat in society. So sad it is now the turn of graceful and delicate waif-like models, who are so beautiful!
Maybe my real answer is that the pressure to be slim comes from envy and self-hate.

Answer 4

Fashion magazines who deny any involvement or influence. Some are better than others. Cosmo has curvier models.

I think the best way it was put was something about how affluent societies idealize the slim look because it is rare and hard to obtain in a world of abundance, while the curvier, heavier look was much more popular in the nineteenth century because food was sometimes scarce or not in season, poverty and disease were rampant and most people were thin. They also had much more of a vegetarian diet then. Fit for Life 1 and 2 suggest adapting a diet without meat for yourself, your health and the planet.

Answer 5

Many of the designers are male and gay; therefore their ideal is the slim adolescent boy shape - hence the females that model their clothes are unwittingly coerced into adopting a body shape more suited to 17 year old boys. This has a knock on effect to young girls. If fashion designers were truly thinking about clothing the female form, they would be in love with the sensual curves of the feminine, and drape their creations around them to accentuate the woman. The majority of women are a size 14 and up. Many teenage girls are thin as they have not hit puberty and the laying down of fat around the hips, shoulders, thighs and breasts that evolution has created to be attractive and healthy in a prospective mother.

Answer 6

There is medical pressure to avoid obesity, but I think it is mostly a media thing, which it turn represents a strange form of inverted snobbery. In some cultures, (That of Tonga, for example) being overweight is a status symbol, it means you can afford to eat plenty, and you have no wasting illness, so it is considered attractive.
In our affluent, food-rich society, it actually takes more effort to be slim than to be fat, which is very atypical of human societies throughout history. You need to have the time and money for exercise and the means to be selective about what you eat. So being slim has become the status symbol.

Answer 7

It is not the question of slim. Your body should be healthy for which your weight should be according to your age and height. At the same time time you should be healthy also. So it s not the pressure but the advice from the Medical profession. for the person to be healthy and strong.

Answer 8

Mainly ourselves..we are our own biggest critics...I had Anorexia when I was younger and let me tell you, I didn't feel as sexy then as I do now that I'm an average size. I'm happily married now...as a skinny girl I was lonely...Most skinny girl's I know are very beautifully but they always talk about wanting to put on weight so they feel more feminine..
I bet you are gorgeous and you are still insecure about yourself..Your own body will tell you what weight it feels happiest at..listen to it and relax...your body will find its own balance if you respect it..I'm talking from experience, I don't want anyone else going through the years of self torture I went through...Love yourself..you are precious..email me if you need more support.

Answer 9

defiantly media and fashion.
If you ask any heterosexual male he would prefer a woman with a few nice curves on her. The stick insects on the catwalk look more like boys, which personally does nothing for me what so ever!!! Obviously there is the other extreme but 1 stone over your ideal weight for height is not a crime either, better that than 3 stones under it!!

Answer 10

Lately the pressure to be slim has moved from all the things mentioned in your question to simply being healthier. Being too slim is also frowned upon now so again it goes back to just being right for your build-which inevitably means being slim.