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

[Carol]

Magpie wrote:
> 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
>Carol responds:

But "skinny" isn't beautiful and it shouldn't be anyone's goal, and I
speak as someone who knows what skinny is, having lost any pleasing
plumpness in my face, arms, and hands without having any idea how to
get it back.

You're certainly right, however, about non-skinny people assuming that
they're talking to other non-skinny people.

For the record, here's a skinny woman:

http://www.thebrooklynrail.org/arts/jan04/images/CurrinSKINNYWOMAN.jpg

Here's an anorexic woman:

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/photos-ghosts/VerySkinnyWoman.jpg

Here's a slender woman (Blythe Danner in a bikini from some time back):

http://hometown.aol.com/dannerfan/clown2.gif

BTW, despite being more than sixty years old, Danner is still a good
example of a woman who is healthily slender but not skinny (like her
daughter, Gwyneth Paltrow). But, of course, she has the right bone
structure for her weight. Some women look better with a few more pounds.

Carol, just saying that "skinny" is not a desirable state and using it
as a compliment, especially in front of susceptible young girls, is
(IMO) probably unwise