NEWS: Body Size Shifting in TV, Film

CULTURE: Body Size Shifting in TV, Film

In an episode of Little House on the Prairie, a new student in Walnut Grove is ridiculed and teased unmercifully by the Olsens for being overweight. Throughout the episode, the young kid rages against all of the factors in his life that contribute to his body image: Nellie playing with his heart, Albert drawing a pig on the chalkboard, and a slew of chocolates hidden throughout his room. At the end of the episode, the young man is seen running laps back and forth, confident that he will lose weight.

Now, popular television and film are examining issues of body image in a completely different way. The shift in the last two decades from Little House to The Biggest Loser show how Americans view people with different body sizes.

On one hand, our culture has grown accepting of body size. On the other, people are willing to destroy their kidneys to be thinner in record numbers.

so orange is the new pink, which was the new black...
and being the thick kid is the new 'being the emo kid'' which was being the kid with braces?

"a person doesn't have to be thin to be sexy"

true, but, if you dont want to die of a heart attack when youre 40 or y'know be able to walk to the fridge without getting winded, you miiiiiiiiiight wanna lose some weight

I refuse to take health advice from a man with pink hair.

considering models average between 90-110 lbs at staggering heights....you'd better make that a good 80 lbs, since the average american woman is a size 14.

....and the average emo kid is anorexic as fuck.

And why should models represent the average person?

Isn't that the whole point of a model, NOT to be average?

Is there anything GOOD about the average American woman being a size 14?

oh, yeah, I'm a bad person because I'm not attracted to fat people, I'm the one that is out of whack, I need to adjust my thinking? yeah, nothing, as sexy as double and triple chins... keep telling yourself that...

Yeah but thin isn't healthy. Especially pop-culture thin. Personally, I think the thin = beauty thing is for cheaters. All you gotta do is starve yourself and you get a pass. WTF is that? Actually having a nice, well developed physique is about a lot more than not eating; in fact eating properly has a lot to do with it.. Most of the models and pop-beauty icons actually have terrible bodies, no meat means no shape, no physical development, no balance. One of the funniest things to me is that really thin people are some of the fattest out there.... They don't look big and fat beacause they don't have much tissue, period.But what they do have is all flab, so their bodyfat is actually quite high. Yuck.

Try this: If you wanna be able to heft a gallon of milk without feinting, it's time to put on some weight, twiggy.

Nick

True. I want to see freaks on television, of all freakish proportions. I can see plenty of average people in real life.

The problem lies when a models physique is considered not just different but IDEAL. If they were considered like an exotic unusual variety of person, fine. But theyre not.That 6', 110 lb bonerack on stilts is the STANDARD that is set by the fashion industry and society for women as something to aspire to or emulate. Those models are the ones who can wear easily the clothes that turn up in every store for the rest of the shorter, not-so skinny women in the world to try and fit into. There is NOTHING wrong with a size 14. There are plenty of stunning , out-of-the-ordinary women in that size range.
Granted, the obesity problem is the other side of the coin and thats bad news, health-wise too, but the ideal situation would be diversity in media/advertising and fashion of body types, skin colour and height. Perhaps less women would feel pressured into bad eating habit s and negative self-image, resulting in obesity and anorexia, if we saw a few more women who looked like the rest of us, on the cover of a magazine.

Edited cause I want to say that men buy into it as easily as women do. We are socialized to believe that certain things are 'more attractive' than others. All of us.

[Edited on Dec 18, 2004 by hermetica]

Don't knock it unless you try it. Larger women are soft and sexy. They know how to please.

So, certain people aren't sexy because you don't think they are?

Guess what? Your preferences aren't the only ones that matter.

I would like to state one thing American is the fattest country in the world I would like to blame alot of it on ignorance and laziness. If people actaully really cared about them selves they would put down the bag of deep fried chips roll there fat asses off the couch and do something productive beside watch the stupid fucking TV and complaining about why everyone makes fun of fat people. We Americans are lazy people and if you think about being fat is in since the amount of fat people out number the amount of skinny people. I enjoy being skinny It allows me to be mobile and feel good about myself. I am friends w/ alot of big people some of my best friends out weight me by like 200 lbs but its not healthy.

[Edited on Dec 18, 2004 by lostinside]

(Shrugs.)

Based on the way the media reports it, everbody in the U.S. is either obese or anorexic.

I think it would be good if people were more tolerant of people and not make fun of them because they're fat or whatever, but I'm not going to pretend that being obese isn't unhealthy, because it's not. It's not just a matter of looks, being overweight is unhealthy. You don't have to be a stick, but if you can't walk a block without wheezing, you're not in good shape.

Models are never going to look like average people. They look like the ideal; that's what sells the clothes.

And so what if the average american woman is a size 14? The average American woman is a fatass. Over 50% of America is obese. Not just overweight, but 30 pounds or more overweight.

I agreed with most of your post up to this point.
Being skinny in no way guarantees your mobility. Americans are lazy, and this includes Americans with high metabolisms who can stay skinny sitting in from of the computer eating Cheetos all day. Being skinny shouldn't be the only requirement for feeling good about oneself.
Of course, "fat pride" is a bit annoying, too, from a resources perspective.

guess i should have elaborated

i wasnt sayin "get skinny fatty" but more like "get healthy fatty" same goes for all the skinny kids too,

an "twiggy?" im like a 170somethin pounds myself so im no bag o bones,

an when it comes down to the skinny of it (no pun intended) beauty is in the eye of the beholder, hell, ive dated chicks with beer bellies bigger than mine an some that looked like white ehtiopians, so whatever y'know? jus try to live somewhat healthy, an if ya dont want to, fine, die, more air for me

*edited to say, euphplayer...touche

[Edited on Dec 18, 2004 7:25PM]

[Edited on Dec 18, 2004 7:29PM]

I hate these types of debates.

It certainly seems that way doesn't it.

I don't remember who said it, but models are no longer presented as the unique style (maybe what they wear is), unfortunetly they have become the ideal.

Also, I find nothing wrong with sitting down with a bag of chips n watching tv, as long as it's in moderation and there's balance... I belive there is such thing as too much excersize and too strict of a diet. people need to eat faty foods, you do need a certain amount of fat in your diet. I'm not sure what it's called either, but fatty foods release a chemical into your body as well, they are comfort foods. BUT, everything in modderation

Given the nature of this site, one might incorrectly conclude that the people on here didn't run around making assumptions about people based on superficial characteristics.

Thank you for saying that. But just to add on to your point, it seems some people have such a narrow view of being overweight. In no way am I saying it's the best way to go/the healthiest, but people automatically assume if you're overweight (not even considering how overweight you are), you're automatically incapable of walking one flight of stairs without your lung imploding from gasping for air so much. That's not necessarily the case. There's so much that labeling someone as "overweight" doesn't take into account like body type, where the bulk of the weight is located (boobs, ass, so on), etc.

There might not be anything "Good" about the average American woman being a size 14, but most average American women are Mothers that aren't obssesed with the picture-perfect ideal media size. They're more concerned about their children, rather than counting calories or eating some lame diet that they force their children to go on as well.