February 24, 2003
Things that scare me

First, take a look at these pictures.. These girls look like they haven't had a decent meal in the last ten years. I could have sworn just two years ago the Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue featured models with at least 5% body fat..

What scares me is that this is what is being broadcast as the standard for beauty. When I hear ten year olds talk of dieting (skinny ten year olds) and then view pictures like this reviled as 'feminine' and 'beautiful' I want to take all fashion designers and fashion magazine editors and drop them into a bucket full of bacon grease. Thanks guys (designers and editors), you're responsible for thousands of young girls starving themselves in a downward spiral of self-beating hell just to look like an escapee from a concentration camp.

Can any men tell me they actually find this attractive? Forget the makeup and suggestive posing.. look at their arms.

Posted February 24, 2003 10:02 PM in Random
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.unix-girl.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/588
Comments
On February 24, 2003 11:18 PM Techie2000 added:

It's the invasion of the midget women! I can see the outlines of their bones...

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On February 25, 2003 01:48 AM jon added:

Personally I find more “womanly” (chubby) gals to my taste.

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On February 25, 2003 07:19 AM Scott added:

I can honestly say I do not find these woman attractive at all. I have worked with woman who *think* they have to be thin and as a result that is all they can think about. Makes for shallow conversation and a shallow person. Give me a *real* person.

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On February 25, 2003 08:11 AM Cliff added:

They look great.

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On February 25, 2003 08:25 AM Mike Short added:

Not my kind of thing at all. They look ill.

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On February 25, 2003 08:33 AM j added:

I personally find them very attractive. I guess it is all personal choice. I, however, would never want any young girl (or guy for that matter) to starve themselves to look like someone in a magazine. Some people are just thin. Some are not. Should it really matter what you weigh?

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On February 25, 2003 08:57 AM Draco added:

These girls are beautiful and they would be also with 10 kilograms more. I prefer girls not so thin, but it's a matter of taste. Anyway, I think that men's preferences don't decide the standards of beautiness, but the Fashion World does, compossed mainly by women and "femenine" men. Women can be more exigent with a woman than men.

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On February 25, 2003 09:27 AM Chris added:

Yes blame the entire result of the fashion industry on men, thank you very much. Yes Sports Illustrated has very slim girls and most of them I find very attractive, yet the fact is how many young girls (or even women in general) read Sports Illustrated? Hardly as many who read Glamor and Cosmo and the like. And guess what the majority of those articles are about? Dieting, how to look great and lose weight. The ads? Tons of skinny girls modeling WOMENS CLOTHING. Guess who owns those magazines? Generally women. Don't dump the whole load on men...its not our fault. Oh partly yes, but women are just as guilty.

Personally while I find supermodels attractive I would never go out with one, obviously. Not my type of girl.

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On February 25, 2003 09:45 AM Lance added:

As the father of two young girls (one recently turned 10) this is a concern to me. She has already made noises about needing to lose weight even though she is a beanpole. However, I don't know how much of this is due to cultural influences, or her mother's occasional self-image issues (she is overweight - but who cares I love her anyway!).

I can only hope that my obvious love for my wife shows my daughters that weight is not an issue; how naive, as we all know that is her peers who will influence her the most for the next 12 years or so. In about 15 years she'll (hopefully) come to the realization that her old man was right ;-)

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On February 25, 2003 09:45 AM kasia added:

I'm not blaming men! I'm blaming fashion designers (who want good-looking clothes hangers-- the thinner the better the clothes look) and fashion magazine editors that sell this to the masses..

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On February 25, 2003 11:00 AM apokalyptik added:

well... as long as society if fed bass ackwards ideals like this we'll live in a twisted place... personally weight isnt a factor in wether a woman looks good or not to me. when you look at someone you think "hey, [s]he looks good" and the person next to you could be thinking "woof"... but, as an overweight male living in USA, the pressure isnt just put on women. I'm lucky enough to have a group of friends and family that do love me regardless, but some circles are not so forgivving. Also, it might be interesting to contemplate how this relates to the rising level of obesity in america... while not an appealing thought, it would be interresting to know the psyhological significance

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On February 25, 2003 11:25 AM Harald added:

Yes, those girls are too skinny. But North America has *two* eating disorders: eating too little, and eating too much.

Guess which group is larger (pun intended)?

Those girls may be to skinny, but being too fat kills. That there's a happy middle ground is the message that I feel is getting lost amid all of the rhetoric. Fad diets and other weight loss gimmicks are certainly not helping matters.

Eath healthy, exercise, live longer...

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On February 25, 2003 01:59 PM Dan Isaacs added:

The desire to be that thin has killed more teenagers than being fat.

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On February 25, 2003 03:28 PM Jeremy aka bad-magic-number added:

WEll, all the women I like are on the fairly thin side... Personally, when a chic stretchs and you can see ribs its a major... nevermind. I guess I just like small women.

As for the chic on that cover... I'm not really I dig her...

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On February 25, 2003 03:30 PM Jeremy aka bad-magic-number added:

err, yeah... not really digging her... Try typing when you spill Earl Grey tea on yourself in a public place.

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On February 25, 2003 03:33 PM 0116 added:

Dan Isaacs, you're wrong. Overeating is the prime source of death in Ameria.


In fact,some studies have shown that obesity is more dangerous than heroin addiction.
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/graphs/08.htm

It's true. thousands of millions in the us die due to obesity related issues.
Only 2000 die from heroin.

you might say that the figures are disproportionate- but the fact reamins that it's harder to stop overeating that to quit heroin.

As far as how those girls look- they look great. The silicone tits are sexy. The airbrushing done on the skin and faces is superb. The contact lenses and eye drops to make the eyes bright are of superior quality.
The bikinis manufactured by third world slaves compement the bodies quite well. Note the wonderful round shape of silicone implants of disproportionate size.

And anyone dumb enough to read sports illustrated and consume other mass media feed doesn't deserve anything but annihilation

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On February 25, 2003 04:41 PM Scott Johnson added:

Anyone seen hollywood actresses lately? They make this crop of "women" look well nourished. Lara Flynn Boyle anyone? No? Ok then you don't like women that look like victims of starvation. Pass Go and Collect $200.

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On February 25, 2003 05:26 PM Frank added:

The girls shown there were not skinny. They had pretty much perfect bodies and looked very healthy.

In my experience, I've found that most people who complain are simply envious.

It also seems to be a typical girl bitching thing. Men don't seem to feel the need to put down somebody who has a better body than them.

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On February 25, 2003 05:54 PM Steve added:

I don't believe that anybody is "doing this" to society: instead you are seeing a reflection of the tastes at large by those who are catering to the preferences of their customers.

Personally, I have never thought that Kate Moss was in any way attractive, and I don't know any guys that agreed but changed their minds because they were "supposed" to think she was pretty.

Just why this is the norm I don't know, but it's a systemic process, not an articulated plot.

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On February 25, 2003 06:26 PM Gerret Swearingen added:

Two words for these models: "eat something". My wife just stopped renewing her fashion magazine subscriptions for this same reason. These models look like the characters at explodingdog.com. Women are attractive because thay have curves.

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On February 25, 2003 09:54 PM Apokalyptik added:

yep... even women agree... woen are more attractive! why? IMHO it's most definately because of the curves! guys are more cubed, and girls more ovular. besides who wants to see a girl who's bone-rather-than-flesh outline makes her look like a horned demon?

red hair, green eyes anyone? :P

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On February 25, 2003 10:04 PM Techie2000 added:

On a side note, I believe we have a new record for number of comments on any single entry in Kasia's blog...

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On February 26, 2003 10:52 AM Dan Isaacs added:

I think upon reviewing my intitial statement you'll notice a caveat:

The desire to be that thin has killed more teenagers than being fat.

So as of now, I am not yet wrong. Obesity is indeed a far greater public health concern, but it doesn't kill too many teenagers. Nor does it kill billions (thousands of millions) of non-tenneagers.

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On February 26, 2003 07:04 PM tmpchaos added:

I see them early (and often)...they're going far beyond the absurd.

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On February 26, 2003 08:02 PM danny molek added:

Themz chicks is hot, but they are sick. That makes it gross.

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On February 26, 2003 09:02 PM coldcashmonkey added:

Frank> In my experience, I've found that most people who complain are simply envious.

You should hang out with some parents of twelve and thirteen year old girls who are struggling to figure out why their daughters' feel fat despite being able to see their rib cage outlines *through*their*shirts*. I've no doubt that some parents are to blame for the pressures they put their daughters (and sons) through. But you can't tell me that most parents of anorexic children that complain of media boosted body image ideals are envious.

Frank> It also seems to be a typical girl bitching thing. Men don't seem to feel the need to put down somebody who has a better body than them.

Wow, at what gym do you work out? The only trash talk I hear is from -male- body builders.

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On February 27, 2003 12:20 AM kasia added:

Frank> In my experience, I've found that most people who
Frank> complain are simply envious.

Uhm, no.. I don't want to look like that.. I may not have the perfect body, but it suits me just fine the way it is..

Something about toothpick-thin arms and ribs that can be counted from a distance of a mile just doesn't appeal to me..

Not to mention w/o my nice, rounded posterior sitting would probably not be as comfortable as it is now.

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On February 27, 2003 10:58 AM apokalyptik added:

There are a whole lot of good things to be said about a nice rouded "posterior". The problem with massively over AND underweight people, in general, is a lack of self worth (certain medical, and cultural cases aside). If these people could look in a mirror and be happy with the PERSON they are (remember PERSON != BODY) they would most likely even out and settle where their body wants to be. But the fact is that eating is an escape (a good taste is a good sensation, and some people fall into a spiral of getting ALL fo their good sensations from food, because they cannot get them anywhere else.) Not eating is overly militant -- self critical. Both cases are dangerous in their extremes. I would say that society is _partially_ to blame for these problems. You begin to covet by covetting that which you see every day. And we all see people like this every day. Television, billboards, magazines, movies... most of the time you see people falling in love on the big screen you see a couple consisting of a skinny and/or overly beautiful woman and a muscular (also skinny) ban. rarely do you see your average 30 year old bloke with a developing beer gut get married to the girl with glasses, graying hair, carple tunnel syndrome, and poor fashion sense -- and if you _DO_ see these things its usually after some remarkable makeover turning these people into the first couple before anything happens. And we wonder why men and women act the way we do? we have the audacity to say that the behavior is not a product of our environment? come on... this is the day and age of the media... your children will identify with the media more than they do with you... and they'll see more of it than you as well... $.02(cubed)

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On February 28, 2003 08:31 PM jr added:

Wanna know something even scarier? There are a number of Pro-axorexia websites out there.
audio article: http://www.kfog.com/button/audio/ff_thin_different.rm
First heard about them a few weeks ago. Having had a friend who suffered from it, I can't begin to describe how scary that made me feel.

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On March 4, 2003 06:56 AM Nigel added:

The real question is how many were touched up in photoshop. Though I saw the fashion channel once & the models looked seriously gaunt.

It's a real issue & for me, it is past good looking & in the turn off category. Bring back Elle :)

Nigel

Check this out
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/03/03/1046540121180.html

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On March 5, 2003 09:13 PM Kung added:


I find these girls attractive because they are very attractive girls ... however I would find them *more* attractive if they put on a little weight.

Its a bit disconcerting that the SI models are so thin now. Like Kasia said they used to be 'hot' and healthy looking. I used to use it to illustrate what guys tend to like to allay Cosmo-inspired neuroses among my female friends.

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On May 20, 2003 11:07 PM meow added:

i really can see the outline of there bones!!!Scary..........

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On September 14, 2003 12:09 PM Mike added:

I love my women skinny. I think someone like Heidi Klum is about perfect, physically speaking.

Everyone's taste varies. And some people are naturally skinny, and some are prone to being overweight.

I just hate the culture of fat apology that is forming -- being fat is not natural, and is not healthy.

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On October 3, 2003 05:13 PM Kasia (but I'm a completely different one than the author) added:

I really don't think these girls are too skinny. It's strange to me that so many people seem to think they are. IF these girls are on severe diets to make themselves that thin, then sure, that's unhealthy, but there are many people who are naturally those proportions.
I am about the same size and so are many other people in the world, just naturally. I eat regular food, you know, chicken, vegetables, ice cream here and there, and I eat tons of it. If you are active and eat healthy foods from the four food groups, then it is quite possible to be a thin, but healthy individual.
So maybe people should realize that so many models really are just active, healthy people not on crazy diets to be thin.

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