Vanessa said:
"The stick figures of 'Black Swan'" are what a typical ballerina body type looks like.
The training the 2 main stars went through was a crash course in what real ballerinas do their whole lives.
also not to start shit here....but is that really a good thing? very few ballerinas are "naturally" stick thin. and eating disorders are pretty rampant in ballet....
plus ballerinas, along with being thin, also usually have really toned muscles...and muscle tone without any body fat isn't really natural.
I'M NOT SAYING IT'S BAD
i'm saying it's not natural. so comparing someone who works very hard to be skinny (which may or may not be detrimental to their health) to someone who is naturally thinner isn't the same thing, and i don't think it was the aim of the article.
Vanessa said:
"The stick figures of 'Black Swan'" are what a typical ballerina body type looks like.
The training the 2 main stars went through was a crash course in what real ballerinas do their whole lives.
also not to start shit here....but is that really a good thing? very few ballerinas are "naturally" stick thin. and eating disorders are pretty rampant in ballet....
plus ballerinas, along with being thin, also usually have really toned muscles...and muscle tone without any body fat isn't really natural.
I'M NOT SAYING IT'S BAD
i'm saying it's not natural. so comparing someone who works very hard to be skinny (which may or may not be detrimental to their health) to someone who is naturally thinner isn't the same thing, and i don't think it was the aim of the article.
Some dancers start out skinny/lanky. I will never have a ballerina body, despite having done ballet for seven years. During those seven years I saw a few girls who went to intensive summer camps come back anorexic, despite my school's hardcore message of being HEALTHY.
I'll say this, you're less likely to make corps if you aren't a certain body type. It's natural for some women (well, minus the muscle, which they get from the specific exercise they do) to have those tiny bodies.
oh no i know... i did gymnastics for many years and was always the wrong body type to really excel at it. i was too tall and too big (broader hips and shoulders) to be able to pull some things off, and because of that i never made it to a level where i could compete.
but the other thing to consider is that i started later in life...about age 8. a lot of girls that do well in things like gymnastics and ballet start at a very young age and that kind of activity and muscle building can put off development of certain kinds of body fat. i'm not saying that to be an ass...i'm saying that as someone who ended up going to school with a lot of the gymnasts i used to train with...as soon as they had too much homework, a packed social life, and stopped training as much, BOOM came the boobs. i got my period at 11, most of the girls i trained with that started very young didn't get their period until about age 14, or older.
i don't know if it's something that goes hand in hand....do the people with that body type do better naturally, or does training early condition your body to grow in a way that ends up being beneficial because it puts off some development?
lexxie said:
oh no i know... i did gymnastics for many years and was always the wrong body type to really excel at it. i was too tall and too big (broader hips and shoulders) to be able to pull some things off, and because of that i never made it to a level where i could compete.
but the other thing to consider is that i started later in life...about age 8. a lot of girls that do well in things like gymnastics and ballet start at a very young age and that kind of activity and muscle building can put off development of certain kinds of body fat. i'm not saying that to be an ass...i'm saying that as someone who ended up going to school with a lot of the gymnasts i used to train with...as soon as they had too much homework, a packed social life, and stopped training as much, BOOM came the boobs. i got my period at 11, most of the girls i trained with that started very young didn't get their period until about age 14, or older.
i don't know if it's something that goes hand in hand....do the people with that body type do better naturally, or does training early condition your body to grow in a way that ends up being beneficial because it puts off some development?
anyways that's kind of off topic...
Oh for sure. Starting early can totally fuck up how your body develops. That's why I liked how low intensity the beginner classes were for younger girls at my school. It was a bit unusual, but they really tried to promote healthy mentalities about dancing, food etc. Well, until you got to the upper levels, then they were still into healthy eating but expected five-seven days a week, 15+ hours a week.
Being against "fat people" or being against "skinny people" is the same sad way to think.
I'd like to see an intelligent way to accept all the shapes of bodies, and to love the difference. Body, style, race,...
A woman is a complexe association of subtilities. Not a person who need to stay in a standard body to be loved.
Though I love the idea that both me and Vannesa (ladies with very different body types) are models on the same site, one of the things that keeps me on the edge about representing SG is how often i see pictures from here on pro ana sites. Either as body role models or as deterrents.
I get messages through SG every day about peoples issues with their bodies or their partners bodies and food, and at this point it's hard not to make the connection between the standard of beauty, and cutthroat competition that this site and it's members (and the hopefuls/MR system) perpetuate and the number of messages i get from truly hurt and deeply fucked up women and men.
An anti anorexia article on this website is as hypocritical as the ones that show up annually (or when someone famous dies) in Cosmo or Vogue.
Though I do appreciate something being covered in the newswire with a bit of weight to it.
As a side point, I find the comment by the anonymous blogger hard to take on in any sort of context, when the height of the blogger is not mentioned and neither is the height of the Biggest Loser winner. That plays a massive part in what is considered 'healthy'. 120lbs may be very slim for a woman of 5ft 7, but if you're 5ft then it's completely within reasonable medical guidelines.
Overall I just find it disingenuous when pretty people talk about ugliness or what constitutes beauty vs ugliness, etc.
Our society is unfairly geared towards beauty and rewarding it with privilege just as it is unfairly geared towards white heterosexual males and the privilege they still enjoy(regardless of how persecuted some may think they are).
Image and not substance has become very important in our society and I don't really see that changing anytime soon Unfortunately.
Pseekaal said:
Being against "fat people" or being against "skinny people" is the same sad way to think.
I'd like to see an intelligent way to accept all the shapes of bodies, and to love the difference. Body, style, race,...
A woman is a complexe association of subtilities. Not a person who need to stay in a standard body to be loved.
while I agree completely and try to live my life as true to this as possible, SG has proven over the years that this is not their business model.
Pseekaal said:
Being against "fat people" or being against "skinny people" is the same sad way to think.
I'd like to see an intelligent way to accept all the shapes of bodies, and to love the difference. Body, style, race,...
A woman is a complexe association of subtilities. Not a person who need to stay in a standard body to be loved.
People's bodies are, despite what society would have us believe, their bodies, and if they're happy with their bodies, then what right does anyone have to criticize them for it? Actually, if they're not happy with their bodies, still, what right does anyone have to criticize them for it?
Sure, there are things one can do to one's body to change certain aspects of it, but there is really only so much that can be done with the basic materials, so to speak. No one can will themselves to be taller or shorter or a handful of other things either, but hey, might as well degrade people for those things as well, right?
The way I see it is big or small take care of youself.Big women are just as beautiful as little women and I love seeing all sizes on this site and wish I saw more. Being larger is only a problem when it starts to cause serious health issues. Same with being teeny tiny. I've been both teeny and slighty heavy and when I was smaller people were always trying to force feed me even though I ate plenty. When I was larger people would get really mean and tell me to put the fork down even though I didn't really eat all that much. So like Silver Bullet said if it not your body leave it alone.
lexxie
Toronto, ON
October 2008
FEB 24, 2011 08:57 PM