if she's fat . . .

a size ten is considered BIG now???

it's not crack whore skinny but it certainly is not a big size.

*rolls eyes*

it's more a shapely size. 7-10 is a more of a normal size. no where near big enough to be considered FAT or BIG but not small enough to be considered skinny. your bones have to be protruding for you to be considered skinny by any fashion mag. how dumb.

it's the industry. i used to work in musical theater, and i was a size 10. and i was fat. i was half the size i am now, but i was fat fat fat. got work anyway, but it was definitely in SPITE of my weight.

think that's bad though, you should check out the television and film industry. the "fat" girls there are frickin' twigs.

m

you're right. and i have no answer for that at all because it makes me feel just as depressed... and actually almost sick.

i hate hate hate hate hate descriptions like "a large girl" too. once when i was coming out of the stage door after a performance of master class, there was an older couple standing outside, likely waiting for our evil star. when they saw me, the man said to the woman "there's the big girl". as though i was not even there, or as though that wouldn't bother or hurt me at all. he didn't even bother to whisper or anything, just said it right out loud. and i was waaaaay thinner than i am now. that killed me. i was on my way to dinner (it was between shows) and i couldn't even eat after that. there i was, feeling successful and confident and that's all it took to reduce me to a pathetic reproduction of my junior high self.

i'm not sure where i was going with that. but this kind of thing must makes me so angry. and maybe hits too close to home.

m

Ugh. Yeah. I'm 5'8" and a size 12. And I'm pretty comfortable with that...I could stand to be a bit more active, lose a couple pounds, etc...but I'm pretty sure the smallest I could be healthily is a 10...and I don't feel, like, grossly overweight.... Anyway. At the last check-up I ever had with my pediatrician, the nurse was doing the height/weight thing, and compassionately reassured me that "you're just a big girl, there's nothing wrong with that." Um. Grr. Thank you. It's like those "BrainQuest" cards (with, like, trivia and brainteasers for younger kids) that proclaim "It's OK to be smart!" Like, the implication is that you're expected to think otherwise. Which I hadn't, in either case, until they assured me that it was unnecessary. The thought that being smart or wearing a 12 was unacceptable never crossed my mind until they told me not to worry about it. *Groan.

Yeah. You know, if I was a size 10 (and I was, once, in my adult body, and let
me tell you it was NOT a healthy time for me), my bones -would- be sticking out
everywhere. Because that's the way I'm built. and yeah, "they'd" still call me
fat. screw 'em! curves rawk. :D

I think part of the reason they wrote about her is that even if she's a size ten the part she plays is larger. I saw the show and was actually suprised to read she was that thin. Her character is more overweight than she is.

I remember arguing with someone that I worked with who said that Cyndi Crawford is a "big girl." I was like, "WHAT????"

Margaret Cho's "I'm the One that I Want" does a good job of tackling some of these issues.

This stuff makes me crazy. Made, I should say. :)

so i'm overweight now? good lord. of course, the last time i went poking around in clothing stores that weren't target, all i could find were size 1, 2, and zero. zero, people. what is that even supposed to mean? i'm nicely disgusted now.

Yeah...*sigh...I have a friend who does ballet and "has to shop at Abercrombie" because it's the only place where she can find her size: 0 long. 0 long. It's disgusting. And then she complains to me about her "fat days." And her "huge butt." Please.

And people wonder. They wonder. Why I go through bulimic phases. I heard somewhere that Marylin Monroe was a size 14. Dunno if it's true, but she was definitely rounded and soft... and one of the most beautiful women of her time. *sigh* so do we just sit here and be depressed about it or do we do something to change it? *ponders*

i vote we do something to change it. seriously. and i'm not talking about letting ourselves be unhealthy, which i am certainly guilty of. but here we are... some of the coolest women i know, and some of the most beautiful too. if we can't change people's minds about this crap, who can?

m

be careful before you say -other-... it's possible to be on both ends at the same time. I know that my weight is not quite healthy, but I also know that starving myself and sticking my finger down my throat is equally unhealthy.

I think what Melinda meant was that while we should strive for ourselves to be more healthy... in both directions... we've got to, at the same time, be vocal and/or active in changing people's perceptions about what constitutes "big" or "fat" or "healthy" because they are certainly innacurate and quite harmful if they are calling a 10 "big."

it's a delicate balance that has to be struck in the middle of the health spectrum. While it's not necessarily cool to just be totally accepting and fine with the rediculous obesity rates in the US, it's even worse to convince young women that their healthy weight equals obesity.

that is exactly what i meant. :)