Let's hear it for women with meat on their bones

Jewish World Review ^ | 1-31-03 | Leonard Pitts, Jr.

[SJackson]

It may be the ultimate weight-loss plan.

No diet, no exercise, no surgery, no pills. Just a little digital wizardry. Point and click here, point and click there, and unwanted pounds melt magically away - from your photographed image, that is.

This is what the British edition of GQ magazine recently did, altering photographs of actress Kate Winslet - without her knowledge or permission, she says - to give her that svelte look common to heroin addicts and supermodels. Winslet has responded angrily. "This is me," she says. "Like it or lump it. ... I'm not a twig, and I refuse to be one. I'm happy with the way I am."

Let the church say amen.

Winslet, it should be pointed out, is not what we delicately describe as a "plus-size woman." She's just a woman with womanly curves, some of which she displayed quite openly in her star-making turn as Rose in "Titanic."

I wish I had a convenient theory for when and why womanly curves became a bad thing, wish I could explain our fascination with a kind of woman who does not, as a rule, exist in nature: Stick legs, sunken cheeks, waist in to here, chest out to there.

It was not always thus. I mean, by those standards, sex symbols of an earlier era would never have heard the first wolf whistle. Marilyn Monroe was not, after all, a beanpole. And that famous pinup of Betty Grable, which, we are told, inspired the GIs to go out and win World War II, did not show a woman who had missed many meals.

By contrast, a 1997 Psychology Today article reported on a researcher who had quantified the fact that Playboy centerfolds and Miss America contestants - purported icons of feminine physical perfection - had been getting skinnier over the years.

Our perception of beauty has changed. And if you're wondering why that matters, it's because our girls are watching. Watching and learning from all this how it is they should be. Much of what they have learned has proved dangerous if not deadly to body and spirit.

Approximately 5 million to 10 million women and girls (and 1 million boys and men) suffer from eating disorders - primarily anorexia and bulimia - which are sometimes fatal. That same Psychology Today recounted the results of a body image survey of 4,000 women and men. Almost 90 percent of the women wanted to lose weight.

Score one for pop culture. I mean, one of its primary functions is to make us dissatisfied with what we are, make us want what it is selling. Right now, it's selling the canard that the average supermodel's body is achievable or even desirable for the average girl. And girls are getting sick, even dying, as a result.

There are those feminists who would argue that the solution is for men to stop objectifying women, but their reasoning flies in the face of human nature. If somebody hadn't objectified somebody else, none of us would be here to argue about it. And anyone who doesn't think women fantasize about a masculine ideal has never seen a soap opera or romance novel.

I'm not out to stop - as if I could! - the endless mating dance of male and female. I'd just like to see something done to protect our girls and women from its more insidious effects.

Continued.......

[kassie]

That is an interesting thought.

[Oschisms]

Every female prosecutor, for example, on "Law & Order" has been abnormally thin.

Heh, heh, heh. I've been to court a few times, and I've never seen an Assistant District Attorney that looks like the ones on Law and Order. Public Defenders, yes. But no ADA's.

[freedumb2003]

>>for example, on "Law & Order" has been abnormally thin. On "CSI" the women look like they have starved themselves<<

Yeah, but look at Catherine Bell on Jag -- she's pretty robust.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

I'm constantly amazed at the young men my 21 year old daughter finds attractive---feminine, "pretty" boys, with thin, lithe bodies who wear dangling earings, wax their eyebrows and shave their legs.

If the show American Idol is any indication, there's a frightening dearth of masculine men below the age of 24 or 25. I watched the first half an hour of it on Tuesday, and every single male I saw was effeminate, most to drag queen levels.

Of course the show American Idol isn't an idication at all, but it is interesting that this is the "ideal" TV wants to push on us.

[painter]

I think Kate is an absolute BABE!

[robjna]

sorry , rita cosby's mind makes her very unattractive.
bimbo comes to mind

[TheFilter]

This phenomenon is a by-product of society's enormous affluence. In past days, everyone was broadly poorer and had less disposable income to buy rich, fatty food. As we got wealthier, we used our money to buy more calories. Hence, the tendency to eat more fat makes most people chubby. Since "the beautiful" are always a minority in society, "thin" became "beautiful" because it became uncommon.

This is true, but just looking at the 20th century in America, it's never been attractive to be "fat," but it was attractive to have hips and feminine curves. Young women in the 50's used to be called "a carpenter's dream" if they were flat as a board - today they'd get a modeling contract.

(Though I certainly wouldn't welcome the days of girls being made to feel bad if they happen to be skinny, mind you.)

Things have changed even in the past 15-20 years. Cindy Crawford and Christy Brinkley were 80's models when I was a teen and they had attainable figures (with a push up bra...wink wink) as opposed to skeletal ones.

The Practice? Don't get me started on Lara Flynn Boyle or Calista Flockhart. They look like Barbie heads on a stick.

[robjna]

lest us not forget during the attemped theft of the presidency by Gore that when the SCOTUS shot it down, Rita Cosby came on and excitely claimed it was a victory for Gore. don't be fooled, she most probably voted for Clinton twice and definetly voted for gore

[Nubbin]

Of course the show American Idol isn't an idication at all

Oh but I'm very much afraid that it is.

it is interesting that this is the "ideal" TV wants to push on us.

My generation was very "in" to pop culture as teenagers but we quickly outgrew it when we entered our 20's. The fascination with pop culture now apparently lasts well into adulthood with 30 year olds trying to emulate these ideals.

[BlueLancer]

"...she most probably voted for Clinton twice and definetly voted for gore..."

By golly, we have our very own mind-reader here.

Miss Cleo, is that you?

Can you give us the winning numbers for the next PowerBall as well?

[ncpastor]

Was it Helen Gurley Brown? Or Coco Chanel?

[Ouachita]

They all look the same when the lights go out.

Unless you're in Philadelphia.
These girls could hurt ya!

[John W]

When you labeled her bimbo,I figured that was the event you had in mind.Any others?

[JimRed]

Let's hear it for women with meat on their bones

Meat good; fat bad!

[boxerblues]

My Mama always told me the skinny ones starve first in the wars

mine always sez the fat pulls the wrinkle out of her face....no botox needed

[robjna]

Just her general line of questioning gives her an appearance of not being the sharpest tool in the shed.
And yes ,i am afraid i will never be able to get that image of her false excitement out of my head during the election fiasco.

[chaosagent]

Awhile back I was flipped thru the channels and came across one of the old Beach Party movies I had drooled over in my youth. I believe it was 'Beach Blanket Bingo'. Annette, Frankie, and all the ususal suspects.

By today's standards, almost all these girls were FAT.

And what bothered me even more, was that they now looked fat to me. Even Annette!

[jjm2111]

Can we please stop with this homosexual nonsense. The vast majority of every day women are not heroin thin. That and nobody forces them to buy the clothes or look the part. If any woman does it's because she chooses to. Plenty of straight men like thin girls. That and there are plenty of curvy women out there.

If an alien from outer space logged in to FR, he would probably think that all the world's problems could be attributed to homosexuals.