um, this? IS NOT FAT

[seldear]

Okay, I have a rant.

The Body Beautiful: a fashion photoshoot with "plus-size" models.

Some of the comments fill me with rage. People are going on about how these women are overweight, obese, unhealthy... It really says quite a lot about how the fashion industry has twisted our perceptions of female size. These women are not fat. They are not even obese (unless you go by the BMI, and darlings, according to the BMI I am obese). They are curvy, with hips and breasts and waists. Yes, they are a "plus" size (probably US 12-14), but that is not the same as "unhealthy".

Incidentally, a waif-thin model is just as capable of being unhealthy as one of these women. Just. As. Capable.

*grr*

Comments

[meg-pat2000.livejournal.com]

It cracks me up that they are considered "unhealthy"

What annoys me sooooo very much, and i see it all the time- is that people assume if your a size 16-20 all you do is eat maccas all day and watch telly consumining inordinates amount of food.

I am a size 16-18.

I can run 4km, I box 3 nights a week, I can run up 10 flights of stairs, I can bench press 80kgs, I can leg press 380kgs, I can swim 5kms. I run with tires tied around me, i carry logs and snagbags whilst running, i sprint in the sand. I have a cholesterol level that is almost non-existant, my blood pressure is perfect. In fact I am healthier than alot of "skinny" people I know who get dead tired after 2 flights of stairs. It just so happens that I have a diseases that causes my body to latch on to adipose fatty tissue and not let it go, and cannot process some foods correctly - I kill myself 6 days/nights a week and i lose NUTHING!!! But I am considered medically "morbidly obese" yet my bloodwork is perfect.

It really gets me irrate.

/rant

an personally i think these girls are beautiful!

[seldearslj.livejournal.com]

See, that's the thing about healthy - it's not necessarily related to weight or shape.

There are women I play hockey against who can run rings around me, and they're shorter and rounder than I am. I don't know their physical health - blood pressure, cholesterol, etc., but they can damn sure run!

So, yeah.

There's this whole conflation of "beautiful" with "healthy" with "slim" - the words are often used interchangeably, and where they're not, they're understood to be more or less synonymous. Which is wrong.