What is it about the size of people? I just don’t understand. So many models are considered too skinny, and I just don’t see it. I mean, yes, I do understand that some people could use an extra meal or three, but it seems like anyone who is thin is considered to have a problem. This makes me wonder if these women do actually have a problem, or if they only look like they do because we have become fatter as a society.
This new “normal” would be reason that thin people look too thin. Compared to everyone else, yeah they are really thin. Then you have to remember what people used to weigh in the past. The median number has gradually increased over the years. There was a study done where self reported weights had increased over a twenty year period. Okay, so if self reported weights are on the rise, but not everyone gains the extra pounds then sure, the people who don’t gain the weight will look thinner. Then there’s the clothes sizing.
They actually have vanity sizing for clothes. This means that the size 8 that you have worn since high school might be a bigger 8 than it was years ago. So, we have people getting fatter and the clothing industry trying to make us feel better by manipulating the sizes so we don’t see what the number really is. If you think about it though, like so many things, the size of the clothes is an arbitrary number. Not every designer has the same idea of what a size 8 should look like. So you can go to the store and pick up a size 6 and a size 12 and they will end up fitting exactly the same. So, what does the number mean? Not much….except in gossip circles and your mind. Do you feel better saying you wear a size 0 or a size 14? Does it mean anything if you wear a size 0 or a size 14? Nope.
You aren’t smarter, funnier, more enjoyable to be around (heavier folks aren’t always jolly and size 0’s are not always starving and bitchy) or any other stereotype that is floating out there in the cosmos. It is truly just a number, and yet it is not. If it truly were just a number then we wouldn’t need the vanity sizing now would we?
A Saucy Dame 