Thinkng of the Kiera Knightly thread

[sm4987]

I was in the grocery store and tehy were talking about the heights and weights of various stars. Stars are 5'7 and 5'9 weighing 80 and 90 pounds. What do you all think of this? Is this to thin going to be a new trend in Hollywood that "some" of us foolish women will sit here and think that in order to be beautiful, attractive or someone, I must be a stick? What about our daughters? How do we ourselves show that it's ok to weigh something, that we don't have to starve ourselves to be healthy?

 

[Planogirl]

This is a trend in Hollywood maybe but I don't see it in the "real" world. I'm not concerned about it.

 

[bicker]

Precisely. We simply don't have that problem, but rather the opposite problem. More than half of all children are overweight. More than two thirds of all adults are overweight. Over a third of all adults are obese. I think far too much attention is paid to how little some actresses weight and far too little attention is paid to how much so many of the rest of us weigh. And the number one reason why we weight so much? No, it's not because of the unattainable images of beauty projected on us from Hollywood. It's because we don't regularly exercise with sufficient intensity.

 

[CheshireVal]

I also think that stars don't often report their "real weights."

 

[slk537]

Precisely. We simply don't have that problem, but rather the opposite problem. More than half of all children are overweight. More than two thirds of all adults are overweight. Over a third of all adults are obese. I think far too much attention is paid to how little some actresses weight and far too little attention is paid to how much so many of the rest of us weigh. And the number one reason why we weight so much? No, it's not because of the unattainable images of beauty projected on us from Hollywood. It's because we don't regularly exercise with sufficient intensity.

We don't have that problem????

I'll agree that when I walk out my door (or look in the mirror for that matter) I am less likely to see someone who is severely underweight than someone who is overweight, but that certainly does not mean we don't have the problem of our daughters wanting to emulate this. They may not be successful, but they can destroy their health trying. Anorexia and Bulimia are two very serious diseases and the images in the media are definitely a contributing factor to both.

The OP wasn't talking about fearing the US in general is trending toward severe weight loss to look like Keira Knightney or Kate Bosworth, but rather our impressionable young girls who already are struggling to get past acne and growth spurts and normal teenage angst and now have turned to excessive exercise, laxatives, purging, binging or food restriction in an effort to emulate these actresses.

I have a friend who is an average weight compulsive overeater and would love to trade for anorexia even while she still understands how horrible and life threatening that would be . We can't even go to movies at times because even though she is an intelligent woman who knows there is retouching and "what you see isn't what is real", the images still make her obsess about how she doesn't measure up. She is terrified that her 2 year old daughter will grow up with the same food issues and instead turn to anorexia or bulimia.

Yes, we are an overweight nation. But I don't think we can simply say "we don't have this problem" because the more visible disease of overeating (and the culture/habits/laziness...however anyone would describe it) is more physically visible than a "thinner" eating disorder.

 

[Miss Jasmine]

As someone who dealt (deals, because I think it's a life-long struggle) with an eating disorder, I can tell you my problems did not stem from pictures or images presented before me but the need to feel control over something in my life. I think society place too much stock in the pictures are making our girls (and boys) sick. There is much more to these diseases than that.

I really feel that obesity is the far greater problem impacting our medical care system and our health insurance system.

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

When my mother got married at age 18, she was 5' 7" and weighed about 90 lbs. She never had an eating disorder. With that said, I have to agree with Miss Jasmine about eating disorders in general. I admit that I have starved myself in the past...but it was only when my life seemed out of control, like when my ex-husband (then husband) left me. I felt that I needed to control something and the only thing I could think of was my eating habits.

 

[Christine]

As someone who dealt (deals, because I think it's a life-long struggle) with an eating disorder, I can tell you my problems did not stem from pictures or images presented before me but the need to feel control over something in my life. I think society place too much stock in the pictures are making our girls (and boys) sick. There is much more to these diseases than that.

I really feel that obesity is the far greater problem impacting our medical care system and our health insurance system.

I agree with this. I have an almost 15-year-old DD who is constantly bombarded with these images and, so far, it has in no way made her even *think* about her body. She finds these overly thin women disgusting looking and has no desire at this time to look like that. Now I won't dare try to predict the future and say that these images will never affect her, I just don't know. But I think there is more to "starving" then the images. I think that this comes from other issues.

DisneyAddict_M-when I got married I was 5'7" and 99 lbs. Oh, yeah, on another issue, that was considered a size "7" back then!!! Anyway, I was eating everything in sight.

 

[Crankyshank]

Celebrities want to wear designer clothes and couture and in order to do that they need to be a certain size (unless you're really famous and they design a dress specifically for you).

I think seeing celebrities with abnormal bodies doesn't so much cause anorexia and bulimia but more so depression in young girls. They are impressionable and want to look like someone and can't so they get depressed (and probably sometimes over eat). Maybe the girls looking to be actresses starve themselves but by and large those I know with eating disorders are doing it for control reasons (most of them if you scratch the surface you find relationship issues with their Mother) and not to look like the celeb du jour.

 

[cardaway]

The thin star thing is also only an isolated thing. Very few of the top actresses are as thin as Kiera. Most just have very athletic builds. Even some of the "too thin" ones don't have eating disorders, only people assuming that anybody that thin must have an eating disorder.

I've seen it first hand. Some women in their twenties are just small (size 0 even) and eat nothing but junk, rarely excersize, and barely gain a pound.

 

[sm4987]

I never thought that it was an eating disorder, more along the lines of everybody trying to fit in an "image" I read the Beyonce in order to do her new movie ate only water and cayeene pepper in order to get stick skinny. I know plenty of young girls who look at tis and say, I want to look like that. Obesity, yes, doesn't mean that young ladies don't try.

 

[bicker]

We don't have that problem????

Yes, we don't have that problem. The over-heavy focus on "not weighing enough" is in excess of what is warranted, as compared to the over-light focus on "weighing too much."