On being skinny (Was: One reporter reacts to JKR's revelations)

[sistermagpie]

> Carol responds:
> 
> I realize that you're joking here, but one of my pet peeves is the
> association between between tall and skinny, both of which I am, and
> beautiful, which I am not (though maybe I was sort of cute once 
upon a
> time). Skinny is not the same as slim, which is a neutral term, or
> slender, which is generally a compliment and is associated with 
youth.
> "thin" is also neutral. "Skinny," however, is what I am--my hand and
> wristbones show and my arms look like they'd be the righ size if 
they
> were three inches shorter. Not because I'm unhealthy or don't enjoy
> eating--I just don't gain weight. (I did buy three-pound dumbbells 
in
> the forlorn hope of putting a little muscle on my arms.)
> 
> In the nineteenth century, plumpness was fashionable (except in the
> waist--those corsets must have been instruments of torture), and 
young
> women who were too thin by the standards of the day were likely to 
end
> up as skinny old maids. These days, the confusion between "slender"
> and "skinny" leads young girls to become anorexic.
> 
> Anyway, there's no reason to be prejudiced against skinny people 
like
> Professor Trelawney and me. We may be prettier than Umbridge, but
> that's because she looks like a toad. We're no prettier than Molly
> Weasley, even if we do weigh less than she does.
> 
> Carol, tall, skinny, and too old to give her age, but not prejudiced
> against pretty young women of any build even if she does envy their 
youth


Magpie:
One of the things I always find interesting on the Internet is how 
often (I'm not referring to this list now btw, but elsewhere) people 
will make this point as well. I mean, where they'll complain about 
how skinny people have all the admiration but also go on about how 
they don't deserve it because "real women" don't look like that, and 
they're anorexic looking, and look like boys etc. 

The funny thing being that everyone tends to assume they're talking 
to other non-skinny people. It's amazing how many times I've heard my 
own body type described to me as being totally ugly with somebody 
expecting some sort of "Right on, sister!" and instead they 
get, "Yeah, that's me. Built like a number 2 pencil. Not anorexic. 
Thanks!" :-)

In real life it's sometimes just more hostile--either predictions of 
how any minute how I'm going to get hugely fat or a cheerful "I hate 
you!" from strangers. Not oppressed, but it tends to be bizarre.

-m