Lovelyish

I think the media and society do influence children and teens.  Maybe it’s in her genes that she is that thin, but she does look a bit sickly, especially because of the expression on her face.  I guess she was trying to look sexy with her mouth open but she would have looked healthier if she were smiling.  (I see, “I can’t control my mouth because I don’t have the energy!”)  In all honesty, I think TopShop is using this ultra skinny model to get more “foot traffic” on their website.

Look.

I am 100% for using different body types in media.

I am 100% AGAINST ridding media of “super-skinny girls.”

‘Cause, here’s the thing: Most girls cannot be that skinny without hurting themselves. Some can. As concerned I am with the emotional affects of average to heavy girls only ever seeing skinny ones in magazines, that does NOT mean it’s okay to assume that “super-skinny” girls are anorexic, and that does NOT mean it’s okay to exclude them from magazines. Different body types exist naturally and healthily, and that includes super skinny.

Magazines should aim for a regular variety of body types – not for representing an arbitrary version of the “average girl.”

What if she’s naturally skinny? Are you going to demonize a girl for being naturally thin? My friend gets called anorexic and bulimic all the time just because she’s naturally that way.

You know what I really think?
First world society has simply become SO GODDAMN FAT that it is now the norm to be fat. What should be “normal” is now considered skinny. 

Not saying that girl isn’t thin. If that is her normal body type then she is definitely a straw. But we have to stop attacking models for being thin. 
Get the fuck over it and stop attacking people for being thin just because you don’t like it. 

I’m honestly getting really tired of advertisements getting constantly criticized and accused of having “too skinny” of models, especially when more than half the time they’re not even that skinny.  Society is just too damn sensitive nowadays and point their fingers every chance they get when they see a skinny girl and call, “Anorexic!”  Um, did you ever think that a lot of people are just naturally and healthily skinny?!  It IS possible to be skinny without starving yourself or harming your body, you know!  I think people are getting too accustomed to more full-figured, heavier women, so whenever they see a skinny person they automatically think, “That’s not right!” because our society is becoming too lenient on thinking that obesity is perfectly okay.  I feel like everything’s backwards now.  If people see a heavier woman posing for magazines, they think, “Good for her, she’s proud of her body!” even though on the inside she’s probably going to die of a heart attack within the next thirty years.  But God forbid if someone has a reasonable waist size and takes care of her body, she’s immediately anorexic and an impossible size and we should have none of this fitness crap in our society!  Ugh, okay, rant over -_-

haha, i was going to say something, but the girls blasting the TopShop blaster already put my thoughts on the table nicely

@MangoWOW@xanga - It looks like she’s naturally skinny…

@MangoWOW@xanga - You pretty much said it perfectly. Weight arguments are getting so old. Some people are naturally thin. Some people work hard to stay thin. Some people are fat and hate it but don’t do anything about it. Some people are fat and don’t care. I don’t see how this would harm a girls self esteem over all the things in movies and TV about guys caring about looks and tits and what not.

“upscale online boutique”…

IT’S TOPSHOP, THERE’S ONE ON EVERY DAMN CORNER.  There’s 3 in my tiny town.  Please do a little more research on things like that!  It is not upscale in the slightest!  Scourge of the UK if you ask me.

As for the model being thin… that’s what models are meant to be. Yes, she looks a little more dead than she really should, but models always have been and always will be thin.  Is anyone going to consider buying the clothes if the model is bursting out of them?  Not me, that’s for sure.

the media is the main reason i strive to be as perfect as i can body wise. the media is the main reason i look at myself in the mirror and want to cry. i don’t do it the unhealthy way but i would love to be able to appreciate my body for what it is, especially after having 2 kids. it’s hard to do that when the media shoves in girl’s faces what beautiful should look like.

Look, it’s going to be lose-lose when it comes to girls with eating disorders.

Put up a fat girl model, and the thinspo freaks will deride her and say she’s disgusting, everyone don’t be like her, she’s a fat hippo, blah blah.

Put up a thin girl model, and the thinspo freaks will worship her and say OMG SHE’S WONDERFUL, HERE LEMME PUT UP SOME RANDOM VAGUE ONE-LINERS JUXTAPOSED WITH CRAPPY PHOTOS TO EMPHASIZE MY POINTS HERP DERP.

So yeah, it’s going to happen either way. Haters gonna hate.

My personal view, though, is that they do seem awfully skinny.

I have commented before on stuff like this, and I’ll say my opinion again: people need to calm the hell down and get over the judgement. Seriously. One minute it’s “fat people are disgusting, we all need to be skinny!” and the next it’s “skinny people are so gross, go eat a sandwich. big is beautiful.” HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT TO STOP TAKING SIDES? I mean, can we not just say “everyone is beautiful, no matter what their size is”? Can we not just accept people as they are, and if they DO have a problem, don’t kick them while they’re down and friggin’ trash talk them, and actually HELP them? We need to recognize society’s problems today, and actually work on it. Stop joining in and siding with one group of people. Why don’t people start taking a stand against this bullshit and actually say that everyone is beautiful, no matter what their size? Because beauty is based on preference, just like food, music, clothing, etc. We all have different tastes. Some people like skinny people, some people like people with meat on their bones. Some people like white people, some people like “black” people (not meant in an offensive way whatsoever), some people like either, some people like whatever other ethnicity you can think of. Some people like guys, some like girls, some like both. Why don’t you sit there and worry about yourself instead of constantly criticizing others? Like I said, beauty is a preference! It’s all about your taste in size, hair colour, personality, eye colour, clothing style, interests, goals, whatever. If you’re going to judge others, then why not keep it to yourself, instead of just spreading it around and setting bad examples for others? Honestly.

helen davies is dumb as fuck. “for girls to see pictures of models who are this thin suggests that it’s OK to be like that but it’s clearly not.”

really? it’s clearly not ok to be that thin? even if you were naturally thin?

now dont you just get fed up off hearing this …???
no matter what anyone things big brands are not going to change there models just because they use thin girls does not mean it going to force girls to be skinny yes i agree it will not help specially with anorexia. but at end off day if a girl feels she is fat and wants to be skinny she will weather there tabloids or tv adverts of skinny girls . What happens then if your out and you see really skinny girls what u gonna go lock up all thin girls so no one can see them. people need to try get over this and consantrat on them selves for onces… no matter what we say nothing will change

aka .. i am really flat chested and every where i look ther are topless girls with big tits if i have a complaint and moan about it will it change no it me my self that have to change or just except what i have ….

@erotyka@xanga - THANK YOU! TopShop is not an upmarket boutique. It’s a high street chain. Please get your facts right, Lovelyish.

@catastrophic_surveys@xanga - Yay. ;D

NEDA (and some of the other eating disorder awareness groups) need(s) to stop trying to compete with PETA for ridiculous the organization of the year award.  I think the media does influence young women and how they think they should look.  However, it is their parents’ responsibilities to help them develop a healthy self esteem.  Most women grow out of expecting their image to be affirmed in magazines and by the media, at least this is true of the women I have known in my life. I do not know a woman over the age of 15 or so that feels bad because of a picture. 

I think most people who have an eating disorder, their problems are so much deeper than pictures of models.  Sure they may say.that their lives would be better if they were thin, thinner, thin enough etc, but when it comes down to it, weight never is the issue.  If it were the issue, there would be a such thing as being thin enough and when you have an eating disorder, there isn’t.

I would love to see eating disorder organizations make more efforts to support researchers that are studying the genetics and neurobiology of eating disorders.  I would love to see them make more efforts to support researchers that investigate coping mechanisms, treatment, or other things that could actually be useful to people with eating disorders.

It’s great that they try to make people more aware of eating disorders, but all they accomplish by attacking ads with skinny models is reinforcing societal stereotypes about eating disorders (we are so shallow and vain that we don’t eat to look glamorous we’d be fine if we ate a sandwich) and ignore the fact that there are other faces of eating disorders (like women who want to be obese so they overeat).

As far as the ad goes, the model looks fine to me.  She is skinny but she also looks like she could be 14 years old (and given the industry she probably is).

I didn’t mean to rant so much, but this topic boils my blood.

@MissPixieGlitter@xanga - lol. apparently it is not ok to be that thin if you are naturally that thin. your genes must have problems or they need a cheeseburger.

“For girls to see pictures of models who are this thin suggests that it’s OK to be like that but it’s clearly not.”
Oh? It’s not okay to be that thin? Thank you, neighborhood skinny watch?
This argument is starting to piss me off. Look, if you don’t want girls to be so obsessed with their bodies and perfect media bodies, I have two ideas. 1. Teach your kid to not be so damn body-obsessed and get something interesting and substantial to talk about. 2. Pry your kids’ face away from the tv/magazine/computer screen. Send them outside, or to a museum, or hell, a bookstore. In other words, be a parent, not a breeder.

Everytime I see these types of post, I feel like ripping my hair out.

Okay we would all agree if someone said:

“For girls to see pictures of models who are this FAT suggests that it’s OK to be like that but it’s clearly not.”

The person who said that would get shit dumped on them. This sentence is just as offensive as if you replaced “fat” with “thin.” 

Have you ever thought about how the model feels? To have people say to you, “You’re too skinny, you can’t be a model,” or “Yeah, you worked hard on that shoot, but we have to fire you because people don’t like the way you look” 

Have you ever thought maybe that model has an eating disorder that she’s trying to overcome? Maybe she was born like that? Maybe she has really fast metabolism and can’t do anything about it.

This post is as offensive as a post that trashes fat people.  

Why can’t be all just accept that people have different body shapes? Ultimately if girls look at this and think “I should be that skinny,” ITS THE PARENT’S FAULT FOR NOT SHOWING THEIR CHILD THAT THEYRE BEAUTIFUL THE WAY THEY ARE.

@Erika_Steele@xanga - You’re exactly right.

@MangoWOW@xanga - i get demonized a lot from fat chicks and it does get to the stage when i feel really ugly cause of being called ana but at the end i never tried to be ana. 

oh well just because i can eat twice as them and can be active  

What these eating disorder groups need to start accepting is that there are *plenty* of girls naturally that thin, and even thinner. For them to blatantly say that looking like that “is not ok” and that these thin models “don’t look healthy” is nothing less than discrimination, and *that* is what is not ok in my book. 

Never mind how I think it is complete bullshit to blame the fashion industry and media for “promoting eating disorders.” There are many, many things in life that cause a girl to feel insecure and there and many different reasons girls develop eating disorders, so to pin point all the blame on the industry and freak out every time they think a model is too skinny is just fucking ridiculous. I have sympathy for people with eating disorders, but I will never stand by them when they try to say that a certain body type isn’t ok. 

ew she literally looks like a skeleton in the first picture. the second one isnt as bad for me because i look like that (im naturally thin), although they should show models that have more meat on their bones because not everyone looks that skinny

You know what I say? FUCK THIS.
I’m naturally that skinny. Notice I used the word ‘naturally’. & Its ‘not ok’ for me to look like that?
Fuck them, and anyone else who thinks that. I eat like a damn sumo wrestler & I don’t gain any weight, which is NOT my fault. & I think that is a lot better looking than the fatasses that walk around this country.

Idc who they use in magazines or ads, I’m pretty sure most of us know that shit is photoshopped, anyway.

@himynameisswu - And to anyone else who says it’s the parents faults, it’s not always. My mother tells me multiple times a day how beautiful I am and how I don’t need to change a thing. I still ended up with an eating disorder.

In my opinion, it’s fine. Her cheekbones aren’t sunken in. She’s probably naturally like that. I don’t think it’s good to be UNDERweight, but I honestly don’t think she is. This post is extremely offensive to people who are naturally skinny. Just like some posts are insulting to people who are obese because of health issues. You can’t win. People are either too fat or too thin. I don’t care how a person looks as long as they’re happy and healthy. Get over it.

Topshop has since removed that photo and others of Codie Young that appear gaunt and almost dead, replacing them with other more healthy looking photos of her: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2013764/Topshop-removes-image-Codie-Young-Size-zero-model.html    See the photo of her with a yellow raincoat and red dress?  Much better.

I think that the criticism of the anorexia-like photos was well deserved. But I’m not so sure they increase the chances of ed’s relapsing.  Part of recovery is being able to look at our own bodies and those of others realistically, to strive for feeling and being a healthy natural weight, to identify and come to terms with our inner struggles about “self,”  and to begin to know and appreciate what  we hare on the inside and not be so focussed on what is only skin deep.   (Note I used the phrase ‘natural weight:’ some of us are naturally thin and others are not. The key is “healthy” natural weight.)

Models will always be taller, skinnier and more beautiful than the rest of us.  Even with minimum BMI regulations, as they have in France.   As a society, we would be better off looking at such photos “gracing the pages of magazines”  with sadness and a bit of pity.  They are not to be admired: they are clearly starving themselves or doing too much drugs, or both, and aren’t an “ideal,” but a sad biproduct of the modeling industry.