I used to be a skinny basher. My intentions were good but I was
still guilty. A decade ago when I edited Cosmo, in an attempt to redress the appalling
imbalance of female body shapes in magazines, I began to feature larger
girls in fashion stories and run empowering features declaring that men
preferred “real women with real curves” instead of “a bag of bones”.
This was not very empowering to thin women, however. It was insulting.
Demonising one body shape in favour of another or labelling one type of
woman ‘real’ and another ‘fake’ doesn’t advance the cause of body
acceptance, it just shifts the target of discrimination.
After being told this loudly by dozens of thin women who wrote me
abusive letters, I quickly adjusted my message and my thinking.
A call for a more realistic and DIVERSE approach to the female bodies we see in magazines (instead of solely thin ones) is NOT the same as saying skinny women are not 'real' women or that anyone who is thin has an eating disorder or that they're responsible for the negative body image of other women.
After reading that post, Jacqui left the following comment:
The first thing I thought when I read this was "NOOOOO, not you too!!" After previously writing a thought-provoking and balanced article on body image (if memory serves, I think it was titled "Skinny Girls are Liars" or something tongue-in-cheek to that effect. In the past fortnight there has been a barrage of one-sided, divisive "curvy-vs-thin" articles in the media, which has of course inspired those blessed with curves or "fuller-figures" to write bitchy comments about how men prefer big girls, how skinny is unattractive etc etc – I've been struggling to put on weight for as long as I can remember, and I'm sick of reading how thin is unhealthy, ugly, abnormal, unsexy.
This is not a new trend, for the past couple of years, magazines have been bitching about thin celebrities; I can't find decent affordable clothes in a size 6, unless I want to shop at Supre or pay for designer labels, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH – those in the fashion/media industry should be promoting the idea that positive self-image should apply to everyone, and is not subject to change with the latest trends!!!
Enough of this "us vs. them" crap, good for you if you have curves, there's no need to be nasty to those without.
I agree whole heartedly with Jacqui. This is not about bashing skinny women. How does that further our cause for body acceptance?
Here is that column I posted on that exact subject….SKINNY GIRLS ARE LIARS
Top Comments
I'm a big girl and ok with that. Of course I'd love to be able to wear anything I wanted and not have to shop in big girl shops, but I've always been chubby/overweight/curvaceous whatever you want to call it. My mum is big and my sister who's 24 seems to be getting chubbier with age. Of course I know I should exercise and diet but I like eating and food and don't really like exercise, I get too puffed and sweaty, like those contestants on the biggest loser, that makes me not want to exercise. But I have no problems with anyone's size, except one day I saw a girl, she looked about 40kgs and I thought that was too thin, its not healthy to be too thin, just as its not healthy to be too big. But I'm 30, my blood pressure is always good, I don't have asthma or diabetes (thankfully) I try to be as active as I can, I don't sit around all the time eating (as some may thing big people do) I eat normal meals, I just tend to eat a little bit more than I should, but I don't have litres of coke everyday or a whole pizza for lunch. So when I enjoy a burger, maybe think to yourself, could that be her first burger in a week or two, I have takeaway maybe once a week or two, but I can polish off most of a pack of Tim Tams by myself but I might only do that once a week, but it all adds up over time therefore adding weight.
i like this article and yes i'm tired of people bashing on thin women as if we don't exist. at first i was part of bashing skinny women for a bit but then i realized i'm skinny myself. there were times i didn't like being skinny because people will make comments about my body at times. you try to ignore it but it does hurt. skinny women are women just as much as the women with curves. why can't skinny women be proud of their bodies instead ashamed? it's okay to bash skinny women because the media accepts them but if someone made fun of women that has meat on their bones, we shouldn't do it and it's wrong? yes it is but so is making fun of the women who don't have curves. yeah i'm a skinny woman but skinny women can curvy too. you don't have to have wide hips and a big butt to have them. and i'm tired of celebrities always bragging how much they love being curvy and so quick to put down skinny women because we don't look like them. there will be men that will prefer skinny women, curvy women, or full figured women but to say no man want a bag of bones is just ignorant and mean. we need to stop all this bashing and learn to celebrate women of all shapes and sizes.