Weighty Issues

[naomi_jay]

This is such a well-meant article, I feel kinda bad criticising it, but criticise it I must.

Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone thinks all women should aspire to be size 14. She wants women like Christina Hendricks to be role models, promoting the curvy, hourglass figure. She wants airbrushed magazine pictures to carry warnings, as the images may lead to mental health problems, eating disorders and low self-esteem in women and men.

It's such a lovely idea that we should all just be content with the shape we are, without feeling pressured by the media to look a certain way. It really, truly is, and I'm all for it. But I don't think Ms Featherstone is taking into account that dress size and body shape are two different things. I'm a size 14. I've got an hourglass figure. But not everyone at size 14 does - some people are apple-shaped. Some are pear. If I dropped a dress size I wouldn't suddenly become a scrawny stick insect.

Conversely, I have friends who are tiny - size 8s and 6s, and if they went up to a size 14, they wouldn't look curvacious, they'd look overweight. And some of them simply do not gain weight anyway, no matter how they live - are they going to be singled out as too thin, and thus contributing towards everyone else's personal misery? Then there's the fact that everyone carries weight in different areas of their bodies. If I gain weight, it all goes on my stomach and thighs. So as well-intentioned as Ms Featherstone's comments are a little ... misguided?

I'd love to see more "real models" being used in the media. I completely agree that the myth of the unattainable celebrity body does terrible things to peoples' self-esteem and self-perception. As someone who struggles with their weight constantly and can be incredibly unhappy with what I see in the mirror, I find the whole Hollywood beauty ideal disheartening, frustrating, and upsetting. But making a blanket declaration that all women should be a size 14 is no better than the Hollywood myth that all women should be size zeroes. Different people have different body types. End of story. Yes, we should all be healthy. But health and dress size are not the same thing at all. Christina Hendricks may be a size 14, but she's also quite obviously toned and healthy. If you put me next to her, I'd look a lot bigger than her. Instead of telling us we should all be one size or another, how about telling us we should be whatever makes us happy and healthy?

Comments

[etaknosnhoj.livejournal.com]

Christina Hendricks also has a very clever team of people dressing her in a way that perfectly accentuates her hourglass figure. That's rather harder to pull off when you shop at New Look.

Size 14 looks better on some people than it does on others. There's a height issue, for one thing. If you're 6ft tall then at size 14 you'd probably look pretty good in a bikini. If you're 5ft nothing, then the proportions are less flattering.

Besides, some people just look better and are healthier being tiny. You know, those people who never have to diet and just enjoy running around being all fit and active. The bastards. Force them up to size 14 and, as you say, it's not going to look good and they won't be as healthy.

Then again, this might just be my way of justifying the big bowl of salmon and pasta I'm going off to cook.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Well yeah, I think I'd look pretty damn hot with a make-up artist, hairdresser, and stylist on hand too. So would my dog.

And yeah, some of us just aren't meant to exercise. I envy my friends who are all "let's play sports ALL THE FREAKING TIME!!!" But whenever I try to get into any kind of exercise, I realise I'm actually much happier on the sofa with a book. And a bag of donuts.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Australia's just recently moved to put stickers on magazines to say that these photos haven't been retouched/feature Real People to try and promote a healthier body image in girls. Which is great. But, they're totally overlooking that the exact same pressures are on boys to have the washboard abs etc.

I would just be happy if there was a universal sizing system, because they tend to fluctuate wildly from store to store, and even the brands within the stores. I'm honestly surprised that I can even find clothes to dress myself. And dropping a couple of dress sizes may be nice, but it won't change my apparently freakish bodyshape that will not fit into conventional clothing styles.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Apparently anorexia (or "manorexia" as the Daily Mail (how I hate them!) insist on calling it) is on the rise, so yeah, it's not just women, and people forget that.

And yup, I'm a size 12-16 depending on which shop I go to and what I want to buy. I don't think there's anything more upsetting than trying a pair of jeans that should fit you, only to discover you can't get them over your knees.

[eldestmuse.livejournal.com]

I fluctuate between a size 8 and a size 12, myself (depending on store and time of the month), and I laugh every time I fit into a size 8 because I know it's a marketing scam to get people to go to that store because they feel "better" about themselves and fitting into a smaller jean size. I hate that I know it works on people though :(

[jennifergale.livejournal.com]

As a designer...oh, how I hate sizing things! Because you never know where to start, and every body type is different...it's a nightmare. Do you resize for hips, stomach, and thighs? - because not everyone gains in all three places. I know companies tend to have size charts, and designers are supposed to conform to them, but independents don't have these charts, and...well, whose chart would I go by anyway?

And, oh yeah. Some people use computers to resize their patterns which is utterly stupid, because the algorithms are usually flat out WRONG. We do not gain weight in mathematically quantifiable, plot-able ways. And nevermind issues regarding chest size in blouses. Woof.

Which is why I don't design for women. I'm a no-chest, small waist, big hips and thighs kinda girl, and adjusting a pattern to something Not That gives me hives. Resizing for kids is bad enough!

So, yeah. Sometimes it's vanity. More than likely, the design charts are just different. My waist is always a 28, which is a 6, but the thigh numbers are not the same from designer to designer. And I've got some impressive thighs for a girl with my waist. When I find a pair of 6s that fit both my waist and my thighs, I weep with joy. Almost. (But I absolutely have a milkshake to celebrate)

Um. I'm totally digressing. My basic point: it might bot be a marketing scam. You might have just found a designer who wanted to take your specific measurements into account when drafting his/her pattern. The waist sizes really do tend to stay the same.

[blythe025.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Trying to put definitions on things and expecting people to look a certain way without including all the contributing factors involved is not helpful. I'm all for working towards being healthy and strong and a self confident sexy, whatever that looks like for each individual person -- an it hugely varies.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Exactly - there's so much more to it than just "this dress size means you're healthy." I'd much rather see the message put out that self-esteem and confidence is more important than whether you fit into skinny jeans or not.

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

I do aspire to being a size 14 because I know from experience that that's a good healthy size for me. But I'll never be an hourglass shape, owing to my waist being somewhere up by my armpits. I wouldn't want to be, anyway. I like the straight up, straight down, androgynous look, personally.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

I have childbearing hips. Wasted on me, but they do mean no matter how much weight I lost, I'd still be a "big" girl. I like having curves, but I hate the idea that there's a prescriptive body type that's "right" or "aspirational" for every individual.

[esssjay.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. How odd to suggest that all women should aim for one dress size - so bizarre. As you say, this is just as unhelpful as telling all women to be a size 0. Life is odd.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Yep. That's why I want to live on my own island somewhere, with only a donkey and a laptop for company.

[six-old-cars.livejournal.com]

I think, in fairness to Ms Featherstone, we should remember that the "all women should" phrase comes from the Mail. It is almost certainly not what Ms Featherstone actually said. And I suspect none of you would dispute the true intent of her comments; that women (and, indeed, men) should not feel pressured to be unnaturally thin or airbrush perfect.

Personally speaking, I've just had a free health check (for being really old, but not yet totally ancient). The ONLY adverse comment made was that my Body Mass Index is higher than ideal. For pity's sake! Even the NHS are pushing unrealistic thinness!

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Well no, as I said, I think she's perfectly well-intentioned, and it's a lovely idea.

[etaknosnhoj.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, BMI. Bloody Mindless, Innit? There have been so many reports of utterly inaccurate assumptions based on BMI: for instance, that your average professional sportsman is obese because he's got a lot of muscle, which any idiot can tell you weighs heavier than fat. Like the England Rugby squad: according to BMI they're all lardarses. It's just doughnuts and couch-surfing for them, you can tell.

[shistavanenjedi.livejournal.com]

One thing I find is that tops I wear are always two sizes smaller than trousers, skirts, etc, so I can understand how someone can be size 12-16, because I was like that once. Now I'm size 20 with trousers and skirts, etc, and 16 with tops. I tend to avoid wearing womens tops though, because even though I'm not fat, I never look right in them now and I think that's one of the reasons why women who are a normal body size think they look fat - the clothes they wear just don't fit their figure properly. That BMI thing hardly ever works, either - because I do a lot of working out doors and walking in the countryside, I've always had big legs (because most of it's muscle and I lost weight a while back and then put it back on, but the trousers/skirt size did not go up, so the weight increased because of the muscle increase.)

As for the NHS, they are always trying to make you think you have an illness instead of treating you for something you already have - I've been having this problem with my left foot that sometimes makes it painful to walk and when I went to the doctor's about it, there were more interested in trying to diagnose me with depression than treating what I already had and it took them almost five months to give me the foot supports I needed to help stop the pain - by which time I'd had to take pain killers because even taking a short trip to the shops was unbearingly painful. (That's one of the reasons why people who are suppossedly obese according to BMI are - they don't treat problems like my foot, so you don't get excersise, so you put on weight and end up being treated for condictions which are far worse. It's just a good thing I didn't need something complicated, or I'd still be awaiting treatment.)

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I hear you on the NHS. I went there recently because I had a virus and got told to take up yoga. I'm still not really over that one, lol.

And yeah, it can be incredibly difficult to find well-fitted womens' clothes without paying a fortune. Maybe if someone worked on that instead of trying to make us all feel crap about our weight, we'd all be happier?