(no subject)

[sebastienne]

"Ah, those size-zero ladies, with their sternums and clavicles and harshly sweeping cheekbones and big, big vulnerable eyes and sharply delineated wrists (set off to perfection by an oversized man's watch and a clutch of chunky bracelets) - they were fun for a while, in a car-crashy kind of way, weren't they? All that gossip and bitchery. But they weren't very.. sexy. You couldn't imagine shoving Nicole Ritchie up against a wall and doing naughty things to her, could you? She would break. Nope, those skinny little wenches may be good at dangling Chanel handbags from delicate fingers, but they don't do so well at inspiring lasciviousness, awe and plain ol' dirty thoughts. For that, you need a lady with some flesh on her bones. And I know just where to find one.

While all eyes have been on Hollywood's anorexic angels, the world of indie rock has been undergoing some ch-ch-ch-ch-changes. When women wanting to make it into the mainstream will swiftly be told to slim down, nobody is paying any attention to the margins, which means that if you sneek a peek at any one of the many all-girl bands out there on the indie circuit, I guarantee there will be at least one pudgy little sauce-pot (UK size 14 or larger) in the band.

...

"The sad-eyed, semi-starved, designer-clad urchins of Hollywood may make compelling copy, but at the end of it all, they are just good girls, looking the way that women are meant to look: petite, fragile, delicate. The cool fat girl is different. She is all about living in the moment. Forward planning and risk management (the cornerstones of dieting) - could any words be less rock'n'roll? The cute fat girl favours immediate pleasure - this biscuit, now! - over future consequences, and the glorious big indie girls of rock prove just how good you can look while doing it."

No, no, no! Objectifying fat women is NOT empowering them, Anne-Marie Payne. What the fuck is a "pudgy little sex-pot"? And are you quite sure that you mean "little"? And way to tell thin people that they have no value as human beings, because they do not conform to your standards of sexual attractiveness. God knows it's not like a woman can have value in any other sphere. My flesh is not a canvas for your political statement. I'm not fat because I'm more rock'n'roll than a thin girl - I'm fat because, for a lot of my childhood, I ate more than I excercised. My weight is more or less stable now, so I suspect that's less the case these days. But I could be "cute", "cool", "gorgeous", "sexy", at size 2 or size 22. I hated fashion magazines enough when I was anathema to them. But now that this one wants to co-opt my body for her cause? Fuck that.

Comments

[liminereid.livejournal.com]

HYmm I'm going to go puke thankks.
FUCK IT
and can you say western hegemony of the last circa 100 years about women being 'meant' to look thin?

[sashagoblin.livejournal.com]

Fuck that indeed...
nope, i don't know where to start.
But...yes.

[foreverdirt.livejournal.com]

...I really shouldn't have clicked.

The thing I'm always tempted to say with Times articles* is "Can't they, y'know, hear themselves?" but then I have to stop and twitch for a while when I'm hit with the horrifying realisation that maybe they can, and they think they're right. *shudders*

*Though, admittedly, my typical exposure to the Times is when someone links to/quotes bits in horrified rage. Maybe there are a lot of reasonable, good opinion pieces in there that no one ever shows me.

[lizziwig.livejournal.com]

The Times do have some fairly sensible journalists; it's been a while since I've actually picked one up, but when I did I generally found the actual reporting of the news to be about as fair and objective as British newspapers get. It's the columnists who can end up being idiots, though I would say for every twitch-inspiring column there's usually a sane, compassionate and intelligent one in there as well. I also think they represent a broader range of opinions than most. I'd say with the extract above it's more to do with it being the 'Style' section than it being the Times.

[petrichor-fizz.livejournal.com]

Oh, for God's sake. As though claiming that one body shape is superior to another is ever going to be useful.

Also, a UK size 14 is "pudgy" now? Isn't that the average size?

Beth Ditto is hot though. Which has nothing to do with anything, I'm just sayin'.

[foreverdirt.livejournal.com]

I would say for every twitch-inspiring column there's usually a sane, compassionate and intelligent one in there as well.

That's a relief. I wanted it to be that, but as I said, I only ever see the rage-inspiring ones, and so the only times it ever occurs to me to go check whether or not it's all dreadful are the times when I'm too angry to bother.

[forgiveninasong.livejournal.com]

Great. Being fat is cool now. Fantastic. Fucking brilliant.

Ugh, this makes me sick. Just why is "size 14 and larger" pudgy?

I really feel good now. [/sarcasm]

[anotherusedpage.livejournal.com]

Nope. A size 16 is average.

[petrichor-fizz.livejournal.com]

Well there you go. These columnists are so divorced from reality that somebody who is below the average size is considered fat, and somebody who, if not anorexic, certainly has that appearance is 'conforming to the norm'. Ugh. How incredibly irritating.

[deathbyshinies.livejournal.com]

Also, you've really got to love the end of the article, where we're told that even the women the writer has been (faintly) 'praising' as the new wave of sexual attractiveness are not OK just the way they are; they have to spend time and money on makeup, moisturiser creams, "Skeyndor Crystal White treatments, such as the Intensive Lightening Precision Cream" or "something called Fat Girl Slim by Bliss". Who needs impossible patriarchal demands on their own when you can have consumerism reinforced by impossible patriarchal demands?

[opportunemoment.livejournal.com]

*twitch*

Wow, Article-writer. Way to be counter-productive and offensive in almost every way there is.

[mrkgnao.livejournal.com]

Well fuck me. That's offensive in every way possible and I am filled with rage.

Pudgy little sauce pot?! Jesus FUCK! For a start, size 14 is approaching *normal* and ... for fuck's sake, when are people going to learn that sexiness has nothing to do with weight. Fuck.

Sorry. Did I say I had RAGE?

Also I just HATE the undertone (to say nothing of the overtone) i.e. that people are size 14 because they can't say no to biscuits and, if they can't say no biscuits, by extension they can't say no to sex.

ARGH! ARGH! ARGH!

[antoniabaker.livejournal.com]

Patronising bitch evil cow writer.

[chains-of-irony.livejournal.com]

The Times were responsible for that article in Laura's journal last week, weren't they? Growl.

I'm reading Greer's The Whole Woman at the moment so body issues just keep on jumping out at me. I have to stop myself reading chapters and then taking it out on my boyfriend when he rings... it happened almost every night last week.

[vampire-kitten.livejournal.com]

Also the out there crazy huge size of 14? Still below the average UK size. Average. As in less than half the population of women qualifies under their idea of "woah, look at the size of them"

[vampire-kitten.livejournal.com]

And impressively it managed to hit my I'm too thin and my I'm too fat body issues. In two paragraphs.


That's got to be some sort of record right?

[vampire-kitten.livejournal.com]

Well according to the governement's current stats, over half the population are "overweight", which is also the statistically healthiest group to be in. So it's more common and preferable from a health point of veiw. So where does the "over" come from...

[glittertigger]

Oh my God! I'm a size 14 and anyone who tried calling me a "pudgy little sauce-pot" to my face would be lucky to survive...

[potatofiend.livejournal.com]

Size 14 is fat, is it?

Wow, this article is totally going to help raise body image among teenage girls. Yup.

[petrichor-fizz.livejournal.com]

Huh, I didn't know that. I've always thought that the health risks attached to be being 'overweight' were overemphasised anyway, given that you can appear to be thin and still be unhealthy (like me).

[vampire-kitten.livejournal.com]

Well, the way they keep shifting the borders of where overweight lies it's hard to stay certain, but the last study I read through (in December? Maybe) put overweight slightly healthier than "normal" and considerably healthier than "underweight". This was looking mostly at life expectancies, rather than any particular condition.

[petrichor-fizz.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Clearly that classification system needs a bit of a revamp.

[threadbarewolf.livejournal.com]

Is there really fucked-up irony in "they are just good girls, looking the way that women are meant to look: petite, fragile, delicate. The cool fat girl is different", or is this person (who, I'll bet, regards herself as a feminist, though I don't think I've ever met anything further from the definition of feminism) actually arguing the following:

SKINNY = GOOD BUT BORING
FAT = BAD BUT INTERESTING

I literally cannot begin to start looking too much into this. Or I might start eating myself. Or her.

[sugar-and-space.livejournal.com]

I wear a size 12. That, assuming 14 is 'lardy fat cow' (according to the article), puts me as just about bearably un-obese. so why is my ass mostly bone? And no curves to speak of... and...

I can't even get upset by this, it just makes me sigh a bit, and confirms my 'people are shit' hypothesis yet again...