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If the average American woman is a size 14, why would one size lower be celebrated? An “average” woman, to me, looks great. She looks healthy and beautiful and strong, but according to the New York Times, it’s a size 12 that the “average” is aiming for.
What is it about clothing sizes that make us feel like such schleps? I am 5′3″ and I am a size 6. This number, while acceptable to me, would be considered overweight by modeling standards. Yet, by American “average” standards, I might be considered underweight, which I am most definitely not. If you were to see me, you’d say that I was average. I am average on every facet and I am fine with that.
The modeling industry considers being a size 12 an accomplishment because most high-fashion models are what, a size 0? Maybe a 2 if they’re ovulating? Stephen Gan, creative director of Harper’s Bazaar met “plus-sized” model Crystal Renn for the first time and claimed that she was not big. Renn, who is twenty-six years old and 5′9″ is the celebrated size 12. … Did he expect her to be a size 18 or 22 because the fashion industry considered her to be plus-sized? Probably.
Renn, on the often-taboo topic of “normal” states:
“It’s simply bizarre that ‘normal’ is the new overweight,” she wrote. “We’ve seen that super-skinny women can be as unhappy as the fattest fat girl. We know how awful it is to obsess about every calorie. We’ve just opted not to make ourselves crazy.”
I’ll be honest with you. I am sick and damned tired of hearing that fat is unhealthy and skinny is unhealthy and anything in between is “average”, but still not good enough on either end of the spectrum. People need to stop obsessing over their dress size, the numbers on the scale and how they compare to other women. I’m sick of the airbrushing scandals and of women posing au natural on magazines and showing that even the tiiinest bit of roll or fold or cellulite is bad-bad-bad but acceptable. How can something be that horrible but universally accepted as normal? ‘Cause that’s just what it is — NORMAL. Why does normal have to be so detrimental to society? Evidently in certain circles, plus-sized is horrid. In some circles to be average is to be plus-sized. Even Gan states that “putting on two pounds [in the modeling industry] is taboo.” What the fuck at this point is not taboo? Some say that commending “uber”-plus-sized women is encouraging obesity. Other say that appreciating the waif-like forms of Kate Moss is considered pro-Ana. Most of both groups state to be of an average build is not good enough as it were.
Crystal Renn is 5′9″ and weighs about 165 pounds. According to medical standards, she is within normal ranges for her body type. This clearly shows that the entire world is off-kilter in their perception of “average”, “plus-sized” and “coked-out thin.” Obviously.
The whole thing has got me perturbed, confused and worried — for everyone that feels the need to adhere to the holy trinity of weight management.
I think the bottom line is that we should stop applauding certain sizes for certain industries and heights and merely celebrate beauty — no matter what kind of package it comes in.
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I’m kinda hungry for some lasagna.
I think women just need to focus on being healthy. Eat well, exercise regularly and stay away from that goddamn scale. If a woman is healthy, there is no need for her to weigh herself. Weight, just like dress size and age, is just a number. Us women need to learn to rock what they’ve got and stop trying to be something they’re not.
INHO, people need to worry about what they’re putting in their bodies.
I know I’m aiming for a 12 but I figure it will be a stopping point on the way. I was a 12 before I got pregnant so it’s something to aim for but I was overweight then anyway so I’m aiming for something lower. I am short though, if I were taller I think 12 would be fine.
I find it completely bizarre to aim for a size. I try to eat a relatively healthy diet, and I exercise a little but am trying to get up the willpower to do it more often than once a week, but I’m aiming for “fewer wobbly bits,” not a completely arbitrary clothing size that no two designers can agree on anyway.
Most women who are aiming for a specific size have a specific brand in mind. Personally I use Levi’s for my sizing when I’m aiming for something. I know it still changes year to year and style to style but it’s a decent ball park.
When I was a size 12 it was after gaining a bit of weight after a summer of going to a new ice cream place far too often. Maybe I was average size, but I had an unhealthy, overweight BMI. I lost 30 pounds and am now a size 8 and my BMI is right in the center of the normal range.
As long as I can wear a bikini and not feel self-conscious, I think I’m in a pretty good place. I’m short, I’m an average weight–and I’m fine with it.
BMI is not the best indicator of anything. When I am at the thin end of the healthy weight ratio, which is where I spent my teens, I look very skinny. In the middle, I look skinny. Moving towards the heavier side I look fatter than I am. Now that I am in the overweight side after having a baby I look HUGE even though I am not obese. Because I have big bones. Say what you will about big bones being an excuse, when you can’t fit your hands around your wrists a good doctor will take that into account.
I am working with a doctor to reduce my weight, screening out thyroid problems etc because being fat is horrible, dieting is impossible when breastfeeding, as is strenuous exercise, and seriously, there is no excuse to be overweight. Or underweight, for that matter. Do your bit to reduce your drain on medical resources and take control of your own health. I can’t stand people who bitch and moan about their weight and then eat junk while watching tv all day.
That said, at 5′10 I look horrid at any size under 10. or over 14, which I am now.
And I’m the other way, at light end of healthy BMI I look healthy and mmm mmm good, but when I get towards the middle I’m a chunky monkey and I’ve never been higher then the middle but I think it logical to assume it would only get worse.
it has a lot to do with bone density as well. If all the weight is in your bones then you cant have too much other stuff covering them. The only time I dipped into ‘underweight’ i had mono really bad, was bedridden for 3 months and my liver failed. And I looked severly malnourished.
To the point where a woman used me as an example to her daughter of the dangers of anorexia. In front of me. Which would have been funny if everyone in the world had my sense of humour and didn’t find that offensive…
as I have beenhorribly skinny, and am now fat, I have to say of the two I prefer fat. You use less bathwater and you can tell fat jokes without people looking at you like you are Satan.
Apparently I have your sense of humor because I snorted and laughed, it also reminded me of the time I was waiting to get on the bus to school and some woman looked at her 16 year old son (he was my age and in the same grade) and told him to stay away from “that scary lady” and pointed directly at me. I laughed for days.
thats awesome. When I was about 8 months pregnant I was dressed in period costume for a thing I was doing and I was standing near a man buying t-shirts, an old, wrinkly, boring looking man in shorts with bad knees. He was with a sister or friend and from the conversation I could tell he was going, to meet an internet relationship in person for the first time and was buying her a gift. The sister said, “but do you know she will fit into a small?” and he said “well she better or im turning right around and leaving, don’t want to spend all this time on someone and then see something like that!” and pointed at me. About seven ladies GASPED that he could say soemething like that. So in my best cockney accent I sidled over to him and leered “can I, uh HELP you out sir?” lifting my skirt a bit to show my revoltingly bulgy thigh and cankles. He was so disgusted I thought he would vomit, I was in stitches so hard I thought I was going to have the baby and everyone in the store was silent. People are so SENSITIVE!
Nothing like being a pregnant whore in period costume to liven up a town!
I passed size 12 by the age of 16. I’ve fluctuated between size 12 1/2 and 13 ever since.
I think there is a huge issue with the way that people look at the number aspect of weight.
Recently, at a dinner with my fiance’s family, we were watching CSI. The victim’s weight came up as 135 lbs. My fiance’s cousin went “Eeew! She’s so fat!”. Considering I’m nearly twice that, I felt pretty darn awful about myself, but then finished my baked potato.
It’s all in how healthy you are. Now I’m too overweight, but at 180-190, I’m pretty darn healthy. When I was a teenager, I had defined abs at 185 and was told by my doctor that I was obese and needed to lose weight.
We need to stop looking at numbers and start trying to live to be healthy.
[...] model, her battles with anorexia and her decision to venture into the world of “plus sizes,” famously gaining seventy pounds and preaching self-acceptance at any size along the [...]
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