Thursday, June 2, 2011

Too thin?

If you go on the Internet, you will see pictures of LeAnn Rimes in a bikini on her honeymoon defending herself from fans who tell her she is too thin.

One said on Twitter, "Whoa, you're scary skinny! Sorry don't mean to offend but that's a lot of bones showing through skin.''

She replied those were abs not bones and she tweeted she ate Boston Dog's sliders and french fries at the airport. I guess she was trying to make the point she eats junk food.

But if you look at the pictures, she looks like she needs a few good meals.

If you are a regular reader, you know I think these skinny celebs and models can send a terrible message to young girls growing up who think they need be so thin that it is unhealthy. One of my favorite sayings is that Real Women have Curves. I love curvy women and think women should embrace their curves. If you look at the Reuben's paintings, you know that thin wasn't always in.

Anyway, if you google the Rimes' pictures, I will be curious to hear your thoughts.

FD


16 comments:

  1. Here's an interesting pic:

    http://www.tmz.com/2011/05/28/leann-rimes-vs-brandi-glanville-eddie-cibrian-marriage-divorce-gold-bikini-war/

    I would guess Rimes lost so much weight in order to compete with her hubby's former woman. It's clear that Eddie Cibrian has a narrow vision of beauty.

    As for being too skinny, I say leave her alone. Women are under incredible pressure to be perfect. The only problem is that no one can decide what perfect looks like.

    At least being too skinny won't affect her income or career negatively. Many very talented people lose contracts if they gain weight. Starving yourself to death is still profitable.
    Sad but true.

    Dannah

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  2. I realized long ago that some women believe they are doing it for men, but they are actually competing against other women, as the last posted stated. Bet 10 to 1 he's flirtin' on the side with his best friend's gal who is all kinds of curvy. I'd know, I'm that curvy gal, and it happens way more than I'd ever have thought growing up. It's readily apparent to me, FD, that men are a lot more of your opinion than the media's. Men want curves. Period. And, thanks for posting to bring it out of the magazine racks!

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  3. I have to agree with Dannah that Starving on self in show business is profitable but not really healthy.

    While it won't effect her career, it does effect the healthy, but so does going to far the other way.

    I do happen to like a woman with more curves even rubenesque then not.

    As for the pressure it puts on women it is negative, in that it makes them feel they have to be a certain way to be attractive which is further from the truth.

    Women have so much more beauty that is more than just what one sees on the outside and bringing forth that inner beauty is much more attractive than any thing on the outside.

    As for what the media pushes on people of what they think should be I have felt for some time if people would stop buying those magazines, stop watching those gossip shows then it would just go away.

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  4. shes not too thin. however the ex wife? disgusting! and the caption was "smokin hot" no she is not! calling anorexic girls smokin hot will definitely make teens feel bad about themselves as well as make them anorexic or balemic etc. but the picture of rimes, encourages me to get off my lazy butt and work hard to get a toned body like hers. i think if the media would just promote being healthy no matter what size that is, that would change self images. dont encourage overweight, but dont call anorexia smokin hot.
    -whaatamithinking. (for some reason it wont let me post with my log in name.

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  5. Body image is crazy. I can see a woman of any shape or size and see her beauty. But inside my own body...not always so appreciative of it as I am with others. For some women, it maybe is about looking perfect. For me it's more about emotional stuff. I used to stay too thin to hide my woman body, or I'd eat too much, again to hide. It helps to learn not all men see beauty as skin deep.

    So glad I'm not a celebrity ..

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  6. As a girl who (even at 37 weeks pregnant) has never weighed over 115 lbs, can we PLEASE change "Real Women Have Curves" to "Real Women Embrace Their Shape"
    I'm pretty goddmaned real, but have no curves. So that crap needs to go away.

    Do I think everyone needs to look like me?
    NO!
    But if you naturally look like me should you be FORCED to think you need to feel bad about it by people who tell you its UGLY to be thin? NO WAY!

    Sorry for the hijack, this one just gets under my skin.

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  7. anonymous I get where you are coming from.


    I felt like I never grew up to become a woman until I was 46 because of this stupid saying 'real women have curves'. Still now I am glad I will always be a girl because nature decided I should be slim.

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  8. Dannah: Starving yourself to death may be profitable but it is sad thatis true.

    Anon: Interesting that your experience is that men want curves even though the fashion industry seems to prefer women without them.

    Southern Sir: Yes. inner beauty is very attractive.

    Anon(thinking): I agree promoting healthy is a good idea.

    K: Yes it is good that not all men see beauty as skin deep.

    Anon: Let me apologize for using the Real Women Have Curves line. I should have qualified that and said that women should embrace their natural shape whatever it is. I was referring to women who aren't naturally thin but starve themselves to get that way and to the way the fashion industry gives young women unhealthy role models. But yes you are very real if you weight 115 pounds at 37 weeks pregnant. If that is your natural look like you, that is fine. And as whatamithinking said, we should promote women being healthy.

    FD

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  9. Doll: I repeat what I said to Anon. I didn't mean my curves line to refer to naturally thin women like you.

    FD

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  10. I am overweight from a health perspective as well as a comfort perspective. When I first met both the philosopher and the sadist in person, I was very worried that they would like what I used to call "my lumps." As it turned out, the philosopher preferred women with some flesh on them and the sadist... he took one look and said I was beautiful! And since then, he has worked very hard to get me to truly internalize his judgment.

    I'm now trying to lose some weight, but purely for health reasons. Because of that, because he owns me and wants to, shall we say, protect his investment, the sadist for the very first time is encouraging me in my dieting efforts. But there is no implication in this that there is anything wrong with how I look. Nothing he does makes me feel bad about myself.

    Promoting physical health is extremely important. But sound mental heath and a positive self-image is crucial as well. I'm so lucky to finally have someone who pushes me to treasure myself as much as he treasures me.

    o.g.

    PS - Renoir, too, among many others, provides us with some lovely images of generous female forms.

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  11. Our culture has gone insane. We revere these skinny emaciated creatures and yet the majority of us are fat or at least overweight. All media is designed to make us feel insecure so we'll buy advertiser's products. An evil cycle. I'm sick of the whole thing. We should be aspiring to be healthy and active, not stick figures who occasionally eat a cheese cube so they won't faint.

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  12. Oatmeal girl: Good to lose weight for health reasons and you were fortunate to find someone who pushes you to treasure yourself as much as he treasures you. A positive self-image is so important. And, yes, Renoir and Reubens provide us with lovely images of generous female forms. I find it interesting that in their day women were celebrated for generous female forms. I
    don't know if fashion designers changed all that or what.

    Michelle: Yes, we should be aspiring to be healthy and active and you showed what a good writer you are with the line about stick figures who occasionally eat a cheese cube so they won't faint.

    FD

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  13. The beauty and magazine industry air brushing pictures does not help women with body issue either. LeAnn Rimes needs to put some meat on her bones. As I tell my husband, I'm not a stick with legs. When a women with figure walks into a store, most of the time the sales people will ignore her (believe me I know my sister who is very skinny and I do experiments in stores). They rush to help her and ignore me. I have meat on my bones, yes more than I'd like but at least I don't look like a skeleton walking around with skin slapped on me. I'd rather be fat and sassy than a skeleton any day of the week.
    heather1

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  14. Heather: I find it fascinating that you and your sister conduct experiments and they rush to help her and ignore you. And speaking of air brushing, I think Jamie Lee Curtis posed for a picture a few years back that wasn't airbrushed to show the real her. Nobody looks like the women in some of these magazines even the women being shown because of the airbrushing.

    FD

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  15. [Part one, because apparently my comment is too long.]

    I just wrote a lengthy comment that Blogger ate and disposed of somewhere else. *sigh* Attempt at reconstruction follows.

    *

    FD: I'm glad you commented that you were referring to women who deliberately starve themselves, as I was going to mention that some women have medical conditions that preclude their putting on weight, no matter how much they might want to. (Same in reverse for women who cannot lose weight, and are snarled at for being obese and lazy and God knows what else.)

    But even if it's purely a mental effort to conform to an ideal, one set by society? I'm more inclined to feel compassion for them. That they would feel lost enough, unsure enough, to latch onto the loudest message they can hear (which in most cases tends to be the one that is most profitable for the companies whose products form the backbone of such lifestyles) and shape their whole lives around it.

    There are eerie parallels to D/s in this. One of the things that appeals to me the most about D/s is the notion of setting aside all the choices that I swim in every day -- too many choices, especially for my generation and the ones coming after it -- and putting One person's preferences ahead of the pack. Simplifying choice. Simplifying life. I find that there's an alarming trend for people of my generation to struggle with identity crises. They don't know who they are, or who to be. They don't know what they want to do. They're swamped by options in every aspect of life, and they're looking for an anchor.

    For the women who pick the media-driven message of slimness, classical beauty, and so on as their guiding light of choice (and, no doubt, celebrities feel that pressure even more than us ordinary folk do, as they actually have a public 'image' to maintain that carries weight and almost has a presence in and of itself) ... I try not to judge.

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  16. [Part two.]

    Because for most of my life, I've been a woman who has not neatly fit into the norms of my age group. I've been awkward and unaccomplished in various ways; difficult to talk to and lonely and uncomfortable. And I've copped flak from both sides -- the popular people who judged me too weird to meet their standards, and the eclectic fringe who derided me for trying to fit in whenever I did.

    There is a constant tug-of-war at work in many people's lives, and in terms of body image that tug-of-war is probably most vicious for women. For LeAnn Rimes to have chosen this path, and then to be scorned for it, is quite harsh, I feel. Whatever drove her to this decision is peculiar to her situation and life experiences, and I can't ever imagine any of us would understand it. Whether it's right or wrong pales into insignificance beside the basic need every human has to be accepted, no matter their choices. She -- or any other superskinny celebrity -- is hardly going to find a stable path of assured, self-powered decisions if every choice she makes is picked apart and criticised.

    And in saying that there is any kind of 'sweet zone' where a woman is neither too fat nor too thin, we ourselves subscribe to a certain form of bigotry in which we trumpet that 'moderation is everything'. Of course there's a balance to be struck, in weight as well as everything else, but we often forget that each person's balance is different. And the balance of priorities is also different. For some, body image is immensely important. For others, it's just not. The more emphasis we put on one aspect of someone's life, the more we force that person to care about it, whether it's essential to their balance or not.

    When we claim that someone needs to 'put on more weight' (or in other situations: 'lose more weight', 'get a better job', 'dress appropriately', etc.) we merely reinforce the cages we all exist in to begin with, instead of helping one another to come to terms with our surroundings, and find peace and possibly freedom in accepting ourselves.

    *

    And now I'm going to get off my soapbox and hope I haven't offended anyone. ;)

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