Does anyone else feel like...

If you're not underweight, you're overweight. At least by the media's current standards. Every time a celebrity is actually at a healthy weight they get described as "curvy" or get praised for being able to carry off the "extra pounds". The last time I saw Jennifer Love Hewitt at a healthy weight she was completely crucified for it, and whenever a celebrity's described as "perfect" or "healthy" they're usually at least 5lbs underweight.

And it's not just celebrities. All my friends I know who are currently at healthy weights are miserable about it and say they need to lose 20lbs because they're way too fat. I'm trying to keep my head and not go back to my old ED ways but it does feel like underweight is the new healthy and you have to be underweight by at least 30lbs before people actually describe you as "too skinny".

Original Post by hannahboots:

If you're not underweight, you're overweight. At least by the media's current standards. Every time a celebrity is actually at a healthy weight they get described as "curvy" or get praised for being able to carry off the "extra pounds". The last time I saw Jennifer Love Hewitt at a healthy weight she was completely crucified for it, and whenever a celebrity's described as "perfect" or "healthy" they're usually at least 5lbs underweight.

I so totally agree with you on this.  The hate that was directed toward Jennifer Love Hewitt and Britney Spears made me sick.  I think they are both beautiful, healthy looking women just as they are.

For the media to say what they did about Britney Spears was particularly cruel - she's had two children, for petes sake!  I can only hope I would look half as good as that if I had kids! 

I applaud Jennifer Love Hewitt for fighting back, too!

You are right, though.  Hollywood is still very two-faced.  On the one hand, they speak out about female celebrities needing to set healthy examples for girls and women, but on the other hand, they tell anyone who's bigger than a size 2 that they're "fat," even though said woman may look like a toothpick.  Not every woman can be a size 2.  Healthy women have a few curves and come in all sizes!

Who cares what the media think or say?  Really...   When did we start taking the contents of silly gossip pages and taking them seriously?  When there are so many more urgent and important issues in the newspapers... global warming, wars, famine, job-losses, banking crisis.... why does anyone care what size Jennifer Love is?  (With the possible exception of Jennifer Love's agent?) So what if some movie star is so thin they slip through a drinking straw.  Freak!

Most worrying...  if girls can't see further than the bathroom scales what does that say about their lives?  You've got to be living a pretty shallow, empty, goalless existence to be quite so unhealthily preoccupied with your body.  Is there nothing else going on for this girls?  Nothing to aspire to?  

There was something called Women's Liberation that happened last century.  Women fought hard to throw off the repressive chains of the past, get out from the kitchen sink and enjoy independent fulfilling lives that didn't not rely on them snaring a rich husband or cooking the perfect soufflee etc.  And yet now the sum total of too many young girls' ambition is to 'be thin' and 'marry a footballer'... Neo Stepford Wives!!!  Straight back to the 1950s.  Where's Germaine Greer when you need her?

Any young feminists out there that want to kick off, rebel and say a big fat 'NO' to all this passive-submissive rubbish?

"Most worrying...  if girls can't see further than the bathroom scales what does that say about their lives?  You've got to be living a pretty shallow, empty, goalless existence to be quite so unhealthily preoccupied with your body.  Is there nothing else going on for this girls?  Nothing to aspire to? "

Totally agree!  Get a life...seriously. 

"You've got to be living a pretty shallow, empty, goalless existence to be quite so unhealthily preoccupied with your body."

That's nice ... after I said I'm recovering from an eating disorder. You're quite the people person.

Setting aside from the fact that you know nothing about me or my goals in life, and also the fact that at no point did I say that I had any desire to actually be 30lbs underweight, let me try to clear things up a bit for the "feminists" here. I was merely trying to capture our society's current collective understanding of what it means to be "healthy", and how far removed it is from the medical understanding of the world.

But apparently the main principle of feminism is: "Don't try to question or change society's treatment of women." Ooops, I must have misread something along the line. My sincerest apologies.

I *really* don't think she was personally attacking you, Dear.  Though I can see where you'd feel that way. Though I've never had an ED, I don't believe your disorder lets you decide how preoccupied you are about your body image.  I'm pretty sure most people know that. 

What I got from that post is that there are so many other disasterous events going on in the world. We should try shifting our efforts on not ONLY becoming healthy, but doing our part as women to help in other areas.  At least that's what I've sifted out of her SUPER feminist opinionated post. (Not that there's anything wrong with feminists, just not my bag.)

:)

I hope I wasn't out of line... just my observation.

GL everyone!

I couldn't understand what their big deal was with Britney, I remember seeing her terrible show at the music awards and going, well yeah, it's bad.. But why do they keep saying she's fat?? I believe that was fairly soon after she had a child, and besides that, her body didn't look bad. Tasteless clothing on it, but the body itself was nothing to be hollering "yuck" at!

I must've missed the Jennifer Love Hewitt thing.

Original Post by gi-jane:

Who cares what the media think or say?  Really...   When did we start taking the contents of silly gossip pages and taking them seriously?  When there are so many more urgent and important issues in the newspapers... global warming, wars, famine, job-losses, banking crisis.... why does anyone care what size Jennifer Love is?  (With the possible exception of Jennifer Love's agent?) So what if some movie star is so thin they slip through a drinking straw.  Freak!

Most worrying...  if girls can't see further than the bathroom scales what does that say about their lives?  You've got to be living a pretty shallow, empty, goalless existence to be quite so unhealthily preoccupied with your body.  Is there nothing else going on for this girls?  Nothing to aspire to?  

There was something called Women's Liberation that happened last century.  Women fought hard to throw off the repressive chains of the past, get out from the kitchen sink and enjoy independent fulfilling lives that didn't not rely on them snaring a rich husband or cooking the perfect soufflee etc.  And yet now the sum total of too many young girls' ambition is to 'be thin' and 'marry a footballer'... Neo Stepford Wives!!!  Straight back to the 1950s.  Where's Germaine Greer when you need her?

Any young feminists out there that want to kick off, rebel and say a big fat 'NO' to all this passive-submissive rubbish?

 Thats a little harsh I feel.

I agree with hannahboots-not because of what the media has told me so. or because Im passive-submissive... To me, "the healthy range" is overweight. Even at the lowest weight that is healthy for me-I feel like a WHALE. I dont need a lecture about what this may or may not say about me-I just am only posting because, I think its nice to know that other people feel the same way. I wish I could look at myself if I weighed 140, and say I look good, but I cant.

Point of the matter which is pretty much a fact..people are too celebrity obsessed. It's almost like a sickness. We have to know what weight they are, whom they are dating, what they were doing last night, the last time they took a ****. If people could focus on more important matters instead of these freakishly ideal standards of what someone must look like (which is utter crap...HollyWEIRD..does not have a good picture of health more then half of those women are very sickly looking probably in person.) then I think girls would feel at more peace with themselves. I mean culture has always been pretty celebrity obsessed, but think about it back in the day celebrities had more meat on their bones and they were beautiful they didn't look fake and people weren't so obsessed with weight..if you think about it the obesity issue was less abundant as well.....

I say...it's more exhausting trying to be something you're not. Accept yourself, even for the flaws you may have as even those *celebrities* have them too. Everyone has their own look and their own story embrace it. Everyone was not broke out from some cookie mold we were supposed to be different. After all we all have different preferences in what we like as well..can you image if we all liked the same things? Life would be rather boring. People have different desires when it comes to choosing a partner as well...Some women like a muscular man, some like Brad Pitt, Some like Pete Wentz, Some like Jack Black..etc...and I'm sure the same goes for guys some like curvy, some skinny, etc....and one day the person who is meant for you is going to like YOU for you. Just the way you are. :)

Just to reaffirm ... I am not and have never been celebrity obsessed, and have never in my life bought a gossip magazine. The only magazines I have ever bought are Kerrang! (a kick-ass rock music magazine for those of you who live in countries that don't sell it) and SFX (a geeky sci-fi magazine),neither of which could really be called gossip. I think the the current cultural stands of what is considered "healthy" are in themselves sick and need to have attention brought to them so that they can be altered. So I think that, for example, an attitude of "so what if some movie star is so thin they slip through a drinking straw" is the WRONG attitude to be taking. So what? So girls and women of all ages are told by TV, magazines and their peers that this is what they should be aspiring to, and that's a problem.

"I *really* don't think she was personally attacking you, Dear."

Thanks, I wish I could believe that but from this:

"You've got to be living a pretty shallow, empty, goalless existence to be quite so unhealthily preoccupied with your body.  Is there nothing else going on for this girls?  Nothing to aspire to? "

I couldn't help but take it personally, especially when followed by the next poster's response: "Totally agree!  Get a life...seriously."

But I'm in a generous mood so I'm going to give both posters the benefit of the doubt and assume that such insensitive, judgmental **** is out of character. You're welcome.

You, your, you've = second person plural... i.e. the general collective 'you',  not you second person singular.   "If you're not underweight, you're overweight"..... you used it yourself line one, paragraph one.... no-one took that personally did they?   And 'this girls' was a typo for 'these girls'.  Obviously hit a nerve... do lighten up dear. 

You (second person singular) were upset that your healthy-weight friends were whining about needing to lose 20lbs and I heartily agreed.  Why wou ld normal people think they were fat if they're not?  If someone above thinks people who are a healthy weight are 'whales' then that is an unfortunate prejudice based on physical appearance.  If you, I and others can see a very skinny celeb and think they are freakish rather than to be emulated, why can't others?

I thought the point of your original post was to engender some intelligent, lively, controversial discussion on the role of celebrity, media influence and the self-worth of young women.  That would have been an interesting debate.   But if it's all got to revolve around second-guessing people's feelings and if you're going to resort to childish name-calling then let's not bother shall we?  Go back to the usual beige outpourings.....  

Well H.B. it's obvious you follow the gossip if you knew the reports on Jennifer Love Hewitt (Hey S.B.P. didn't know about it though. )and what was said of Britney.....Especially if you are even making this post based on what? Celebrities and their body types.

Hey look, I went through an ED too..so I know what it's like..and I agree HollyWEIRDS distortion is out of wack and it isn't healthy most of those girls aren't healthy because they are underweight..but because people (not you) are so obsessed in celebrity culture we go by what they consider what's healthy and go by that then by what a doctors standards are. This is what my point is about.

Original Post by gi-jane:

You, your, you've = second person plural... i.e. the general collective 'you',  not you second person singular.   "If you're not underweight, you're overweight"..... you used it yourself line one, paragraph one.... no-one took that personally did they?   And 'this girls' was a typo for 'these girls'.  Obviously hit a nerve... do lighten up dear. 

You (second person singular) were upset that your healthy-weight friends were whining about needing to lose 20lbs and I heartily agreed.  Why wou ld normal people think they were fat if they're not?  If someone above thinks people who are a healthy weight are 'whales' then that is an unfortunate prejudice based on physical appearance.  If you, I and others can see a very skinny celeb and think they are freakish rather than to be emulated, why can't others?

I thought the point of your original post was to engender some intelligent, lively, controversial discussion on the role of celebrity, media influence and the self-worth of young women.  That would have been an interesting debate.   But if it's all got to revolve around second-guessing people's feelings and if you're going to resort to childish name-calling then let's not bother shall we?  Go back to the usual beige outpourings.....  

 If it genuinely wasn't a personal attack then I take back all my comments and apologize for them. One of the risks of debates that happen solely through text is that there's plenty of scope for misinterpretation. I am the first to admit that you did hit a nerve ... 2 years of self-starvation with my so-called friends and family calling me stupid and shallow and vain is quite the nerve.

The use of "you" took on a different context to when I used it because it was a reply to a post as opposed to a general opening post. And the difference between "this" and "these" had a major impact on the tone of the post overall (not that this is your fault, I am a typo-fiend myself). This is probably why I and at least 2 other posters read your post as a personal attack.

For  fallingstars27, though, who read it as a personal attack and then supported it, everything I said still stands.

On with the show...

Original Post by gi-jane:

You, your, you've = second person plural... i.e. the general collective 'you',  not you second person singular.

Although you are technically correct on whole you/you're thing, in reality people tend to take things personally when they see those in the message. So it's best to avoid their usage.

Original Post by fallingstars27:

"Most worrying... if girls can't see further than the bathroom scales what does that say about their lives? You've got to be living a pretty shallow, empty, goalless existence to be quite so unhealthily preoccupied with your body. Is there nothing else going on for this girls? Nothing to aspire to? "

Totally agree! Get a life...seriously.

wow, this was harsh enough the first time around.

some people have disordered eating and distorted body images and very much wish that they could forget all about their weight and body. (i know at times during my ed that was part of the goal. i didn't want a body. i just wanted to disappear and not have to worry about even having a body or weight to deal with at all.) but if it were that easy obviously people starving themselves to death wouldn't be a problem.

i think that this poster was just trying to show her frustration with society's portrayal of being underweight as healthy and a healthy weight as being large. especially since an ed recoverer is easily triggered by that kinda thing.

and i think that the person who posted 'if girls can't see further than the bathroom scales what does that say about their lives?" was trying to say something about how pretty much all girls define themselves by how they look. that's true. and it shouldn't be that way.

but when someone has an ed it goes beyond a simple "i want to be thin so boys will like me." it's something that is needed by the sufferer so much that they go against their natural instincts and a lot of them die because of it. these people know they are dying, their hair is falling out, their heart hurts, their weak and cold all the time, their digestive tract never works properly and all they can think about is how fat they are. that is most worrying.

but to say "Any young feminists out there that want to kick off, rebel and say a big fat 'NO' to all this passive-submissive rubbish?"

wow.  i wish it were that easy. maybe then i wouldn't have f***ed up my life and body so many years.

i'm so glad you've made it so simple for all of us who obviously just don't get what being a feminist is all about. insulting girls that have serious life threatening diseases by reminding them that women''s lib happened and that all we have to is just realize that we don't have to be thin.

ugh.

^^^ So perfectly put. Thank you.

Unfortunately celebrities are there to take the spotlight and be someone who you want to look like. Not normal... because if they were normal, what's the point of looking at them? We have the next door neighbor/ourselves/random people around us to look at. They are there for most people's visual pleasure afterall. Just take it or leave it, media industry is obviously not about being 'normal' or being healthy, they overexaggerate and push everything to the edge because they gotta sell.

And the interesting thing is underneath it all since they exaggerate it so much you can clearly see what a normal person hopes to look like, they just make it blantly obvious for you. It's not healthy but most people want to look like that and that's the truth.

Don't like it don't read it don't look at it and move on, lol