There I disagree:
Venus and Adonis by Pieter Paul Ruebens
Note the bit of belly she has.
Regards, Ivan
Posted on 02/08/2003 5:34:33 PM PST by MadIvan
From the age of nine, Jessica Roberts hid inside baggy T-shirts which became her sanctuary. A large girl, for years she went to extraordinary lengths to prevent anyone glimpsing the flesh that she had come to loathe.
Now 21, she smiles ruefully at the terror that the thought of a school swimming gala could once induce: Jessica is no longer ashamed of her size and is one of a growing number of young American women who are proud to flaunt their ample flesh in public.
"I've had a string of boys. I'm happy," says Jessica, who is studying for a degree in anthropology. "I would like to think that I am a nice shape," she adds with a flutter of her eyelashes and a giggle.
Even Manhattan, home to the "social X-rays" as they were described by Tom Wolfe in his best-selling novel Bonfire of the Vanities, has joined the "fat backlash" that is sweeping America.
Last week, Kelly Osbourne, one of the stars of the popular fly-on-the-wall television series The Osbournes, appeared on a catwalk with a host of other full-figured models, including Mia Tyler, the sister of actress Liv, who displayed more than the usual amount of bosom and backside.
In the show for Lane Bryant, the fashion house for what the industry considers "plus-size" women, Roseanne Barr, wearing a black bustier, pedal-pushers and a top hat, summed up the mood as she shouted to the audience: "Any fat people here? I'm the queen of all the fat people."
The changing attitude hit the newstands this month in the February issue of American Vogue, which featured Sophie Dahl, the British model, on its cover. Its younger sister Teen Vogue had the cover headline: "Making It Big: how curvy girls are changing Hollywood's stick-thin standards".
Inside the youth magazine is the story of the actress Marissa Jaret Winokur, who has graduated from a teenage television series to a role in the Broadway hit Hairspray. Under the headline "Well rounded" are photographs of Ms Winokur and other well-padded stars, ranging from Kate Winslet, the British actress, and Jennifer Lopez, the singer, to Miss Osbourne. The magazines were published after a film season in which two unexpected box-office hits and Oscar contenders - Real Women Have Curves and My Big Fat Greek Wedding - became national talking points. Andrea Marks, a specialist in child and adolescent medicine, said: "These are messages that are a backlash to years of other unhealthy messages."
Dr Marks has recently published a self-help book for parents and teenagers called Healthy Teens, Body and Soul which includes chapters on the crisis of puberty, healthy nutrition and, under the heading "Panic at the Mirror", the issue of body image. She said: "We all want to look attractive and there are always social standards for attractiveness. But we are saying don't fight it so much and think about other things than body size. We are seeing a sense of pride emerging among a new generation."
The most striking evidence of a teenage rebellion has emerged in the marketplace. Torrid, a national chain of fashion stores based in suburban shopping malls, has defied economic recession with growth so rapid that it has been featured in Fortune magazine. Torrid sells extreme fashion for teenagers - stomach-baring tops, low-riding trousers, punk styles and daring black vinyl outfits - but all in sizes from a US 14 upwards (UK 16). Last week Jessica, a US size 14, was selecting the latest "flaunt-it" styles before returning to college. "I know now that I've never been overweight and ugly," she said. "I was just judging myself too harshly. If you don't care, it doesn't matter if anyone else does."
The first Torrid was opened in 2001 in California by the boutique entrepreneur Betsy McLaughlin. Last year the chain expanded by 21 branches, with plans for another 25 this year. Miss McLaughlin hit the jackpot by listening to customers of her original teenage boutique, Hot Topic, a version of London's punk boutiques sanitised for the American shopping centre. Teenage girls already up to a plus size, making them too big for her clothes, would buy clothes designed for boys. "The paradigm that the larger girl does not want to show skin does not hold," she said. While there is, as yet, no shop in Manhattan, the outlet across the bay in New Jersey's largest shopping centre, the Garden State Mall, has produced record revenues for the chain since it opened eight months ago.
Its manager, Yolanda Rivera, said: "We listen to our customers. We keep up with the styles they want, but the point is that we sell them in the sizes that the girls are in real life. And nearly all my customers are happy with the way they are."
On a weekday afternoon, Jane Gregorits had driven to the Garden State Mall with her daughter, Kate, 15, who is tall and big-boned like her mother. Kate, who is shy and dressed in jeans and an oversized sweater, spent more than an hour trying on the clothes. "We are a tall, big family and you would not believe how hard it is to find clothes a girl like Kate needs to feel good. There is a huge market for these clothes. We do not want our daughter to change, it is fashion that will change." said Mrs Gregorits.
Fashion watchers say that the phenomenon may be related to America's struggle with obesity, which affects half the population, even the increasing multi-ethnic youth. Black and Hispanic Americans, who have never been influenced by the images of fashion waifs, appreciate the "fuller" female figure such as that of the Latin pop star Jennifer Lopez.
But Atoosa Rubenstein, the editor of Cosmo Girl, says that her readers are simply "less obsessed" with dieting and exercise to attain the model-thin ideal. "My generation was self-hating - we really thought we had to look like supermodels," said the 30-year-old.
Dr Marks agreed, saying that feminism may have been responsible for the growing obsession with the body beautiful. "Eating disorders increased alarmingly at the time of the rise in feminism and sexual liberation," she said. "Feminism increased pressure on women to be perfect and in control."
Now, she says, teenagers, particularly those familiar with computers, realise that the magazine images of their favourite models and movie stars are often lies: they have been air-brushed and digitally modified, such as the February GQ cover of Kate Winslet.
Ruth and Debbie Bronstein, 21 and 19, have grown up in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, but never doubted the allure of their own Rubenesque bodies.
Two years ago Ruth had liposuction treatment on her thighs - "balloons," she calls them - to her family's fury, and now, as they resume their natural shape, she admits that she regrets the operation.
Both young women cheerfully agree that they have always been "boy magnets", and they open their thick winter coats with glee to reveal deep cleavages. "The thing is," explains Debbie, "that our Mom is just like us, and believe me, she has kept Dad hot and devoted for a long long time."
The government recommendations that people receive most of their calories from carbohydrates are almost certainly a major factor in obesity, hyperinsulinism, and diabetes. For some people such a diet is workable, but for many others it is a complete disaster.
Although exercise and a change of diet are certainly helpful, merely trying to eat less isn't the solution. Hyperinsulinism is probably the biggest cause of obesity in this country and is caused not so much by over-eating in general, but rather by excessive carbohydrate consumption. Once insulin resistance and hyperinsulism set in, the result is that insulin still works to convert sugar to fat but is ineffective at converting sugar to energy. The net effect is that blood sugar levels are relatively low (causing sugar cravings) as are perceived "energy" levels, while sugar is converted to fat at an alarming rate.
The remedy is not to eat less, but to go essentially cold turkey on both sugars and starches. Although more and more people are starting to realize the need to minimize carbohydrate consumption, many "diet" programs completely fail in this regard. One can of Slim-Fast® brand ready-to-drink shake, for example, contains 35 grams of sugars--almost double the total daily allowance for the early stages of the Atkins Nutritional Approach™.
Perhaps someday enough people will recognize the perils of carbohydrates that the marketplace will make healthy low-carb foods part of the mainstream rather than an expensive specialty.
I had one. Big beautiful sweetie until she got a fatal blood clot in her lungs. Wish I'd known to have her try Atkins back then; it might have worked well for her.
There I disagree:
Venus and Adonis by Pieter Paul Ruebens
Note the bit of belly she has.
Regards, Ivan
But none of this works if the viewer already has the body type of the advertising model. If I already look as good as the model...then why he heck do I need the product? If we lived in a society where the major food issue was starvation (instead of obesity)...then advertising models would be fat. The selected model's body type must be the one that is most difficult to attain in the given society.
Also, from a purely health standpoint, I think that this trend is bad in some ways. While eating disorders are a problem....they pale in comparison to obesity. All of the studies show that our diet and idle lifestyle are causing an epidemic of obesity. This will not help things in that category.
Yeah....and they should serve us breakfast in bed to! LOL!
I'm sure you're quite perfect. The thing about being fat is that the whole world can see your problem....unlike a booze hound, or druggie or whoremonger,etc.
Be grateful your problems/sins aren't constantly on display.
Glad I married an aerobics instructor who looks better now than she did 15 years ago when we first got hitched!
I thought Domino was Largo's mistress in "Thunderball".
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.