thin =/= attractive

[bitterfig]

My much rescheduled appointment with the endocrinologist is tomorrow.  I think I may actually make it this time as the office gave me a courtesy call a few minutes ago to make sure I was coming.  I’m really hoping it’ll help because I continue to feel poorly.  Yesterday I made it through work (always an accomplishment on a Sunday which is our

Comments

[emerald_boa]

Do the men who write articles for men's magazines ever, in fact, associate with actual women?

[bitterfig]

I always wish I'd saved that article-- it was probably the single most offensive, sexist thing I've ever read not to mention the sleaziest. Unfortunately it was in a magizine (a Playboy I think) that belonged to the owner of the business my sister worked for so I didn't dare rip it out or lift the magazine.

[etrangere]

I don't think it explains everything, but I do feel like there's race thing going on about extreme thinness as a beauty standard. I think class also enters into it.

[shes_unreal]

Obesity is an age, race, and class thing. So it's kind of... traditional? Institutionalized? That minorities who, by and large, are poorer are also going to be fatter. I mean, I was raised in a single-parent household by a mother with only a high school education and we grew up on hot dogs, potato flakes, Kool Aid and boxed mac and cheese, though to my knowledge she never had to water down our milk like some people do. So I think it's become kind of inundated in their society, that the standard of beauty in that culture is more accepting or even celebrating a heavier woman -- and maybe it also has something to do with being attracted to women on the level of sexuality and not being attracted to have some arm candy to show off. How many guys reject a fat girl because of what their friends might say

[bitterfig]

Money and class is very definately a factor in this both culturally and for me personally. I spent most of my life in an all-white community in Upstate New York where being overweight was very much associated with being "low class" and uneducated (which unfortunately was seen as synonymous with stupid by my parents and grandparents). Growing up overweight and with a learning disability I developed a horror of being trapped in what I saw as an inferior underclass that I really think contributed to my anorexia, compulsive restricting and over-exercising. Ironically today my disordered eating actually limits my job prospects by sapping my energy and generally undermining my confidence.

[bitterfig]

Class is definately a factor. Being thin is expensive. I don't eat out, don't go out, and rarely buy clothes or anything new but I'm really living beyond my means because I spend too much money on groceries, specifically fresh produce and reduced, low or no calorie products.

[steve98052]

I've read of scientific experiments that have tested the connection between weight and attractiveness. The consensus seems to be that what rates highest on perceived beauty is when a woman's waist is close to 70% of her hips. Thicker or thinner rated lower. And the results were pretty much constant across cultural groups. The hypothesis is that it has to do with genetic perceptions of fertility - thicker waists are associated with aging, while thinner waists are associated with starvation and unhealth.

So, if we accept that science as accurate, rather than the result of bad scientific method, our brains are telling us that there is a most-attractive weight, and that it's fairly slender.

So where does the idea that being thinner than that is even more attractive? That, I think, must be cultural influence. After all, the fashion industry favors slender models, because it's apparently easier to make the clothing look good if it's modeled by an extremely thin woman.

It's also true that perception of class influence perceptions of

[ozma914]

There was a time when overweight women were considered attractive because it meant they were well-off and didn't have to work hard or go without meals. It's all a cultural thing -- who knows how much that might change in another 20 years?

[bitterfig]

I didn't even get into issues of economic status and social class in this post. It's such a big, complicated issue with so many factors involved sometimes I don't know where to start.

[ozma914]

It is a big subject, that's for sure.