I take solace in the fact that though I will never look like Kate Moss, men prefer Marilyn Monroe whether she's in fashion or not.
Posted on 01/31/2003 5:22:56 AM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
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.
Yes, but do we demand it in reality? And if we did, wouldn't they always disappoint in the intellect category? Perhaps the evidence behind my questions can best be seen on television news, where the ratio of good looking male to female is very troubling indeed.....
I take solace in the fact that though I will never look like Kate Moss, men prefer Marilyn Monroe whether she's in fashion or not.
My guess is that it was NOT Karen Carpenter :o)
Is it really such a mystery?Homosexuals design womens' clothes. Homosexuals in the fashion industry seem to prefer skinny, teen-aged boys. Ergo, they design clothes that look best on skinny, teen-aged boys.
That they're then able to foist this off on the general public is nothing less than sheer marketing brilliance.
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. I swear they even try to raise the octave of their voices. The ideal for young women appears to be about the same (it just appears slightly more masculine on the female)with the only difference being impossibly large breasts.
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.