I remember when I lost a bunch of weight a decade ago... I had always been a thin girl but got very skinny due to a combination of things - I remember people always telling me I was way too thin.  My point is that I don't really think the model thin body type is so well received for the general population.  It seems like the fashion industry likes it because a skin-and-bones body type is an ideal coat hanger for their clothes.  On the other hand, I've seen the way girls have to stick to extreme gruelling regimes to produce these athletic bodies so, to me, it's just another extreme of "perfection".  Personally, I'd like to see the most beautiful bodies be portrayed as regular healthy women who exercise and generally eat well, and maybe have a some cellulite on their bums and pudge on their tummies after having a few kiddos.  I think that's real, that's healthy and that's beautiful.  Not very realistic, I know! :)

http://watermelonmama.wordpress.com/

I  agree madeintaiwan thin seems to be in but there should be more focus on real women.  Unlike these thin models/athletes I am a real woman with problems and curves.  I wish that the public and media would focus more on real life and show just because I am not like all the skinny women on magazines, tv, movies etc. does not mean I am not a real women.  Nice post.

Mara http://24stepstogo.blogspot.com/

Why is the term "real woman" necessary? What exactly does "real woman" mean? Magazine models account for a very small percentage of what most women look like, I get that. But the term "real woman" is insulting and implies that women who are perhaps tall and very thin are any less a woman than you or I. Just another way that women attack each other, even though this case is much more subtle.

I am sorry if I have insulted anyone with the term real women I just meant as you said "that Magazine models account for a very small percentage of what most women look like, I get that", I was not implying that any other types of women are in less or more greater than others.  I was just saying what you said in my terms.  Please except my apology.

Mara http://24stepstogo.blogspot.com/

No worries, Mara.  You meant, the "typical" women, I think. 

I did come back to say that it's okay.  It's okay to be skinny because I know what it's like to be skinny and have people put you down.  It's okay to be athletic if that's your passion.  It's okay to just be, as long as we try to be healthy.  Whether a magazine defines beauty as thinness, plumpness or athleticness... some woman will feel crappy because we just can't be everything to everyone and that's okay.  It's all beauty, I think.

Sarah, this is a great post  - if only you hadn't been so antisocial to the person sitting with you when you were writing it :o)

 I totally agree that the title is a misrepresentation of what this article is REALLY about. I think it's refreshing that Glamour is highlighting women with strong, healthy bodies for a change when often, the models we see praised in magazine are so thin that they'd disappear if they turned sideways.

  I think that  the best investment any woman can but into herself is enegry in loving her own body.Every woman wasn't designed or made to be skinny,and every woman is not going to have the passion to be an athlete like the woman mention in glamour on  the  topic of the 11 Greatest Bodies on Earth”.What we have to remind ourselves is that these woman are athletic,they are trained and condition to look the way that they do, and with the amount of work they put into being fit and living out there dreams they should be recognized for that. But for those woman who are not thin and have curves like myself. You have to love the skin that you are in.That means loving the body god gave you. We come in all shapes and sizes,for a reason.If we all looked the same this world would be to simple, and unsatsifing to live in.

so true Liah... i always tell my girls - if we were all the same, we'd just be a bunch of boring robots roaming the earth.  it'd be nice if the media reflected and celebrated the beauty of diversity and loving yourself.   

http://watermelonmama.wordpress.com/

 Liah is absolutley right. I spent most of my childhood, teens and twenties hating my body because it wasn't thin. I was considered chubby back then. I look at pictures of me then and I wasn't really but I remember a teacher commenting that I had heavy thighs. I do and always will. It really changed my image of myself for a long time. I like myself now in fact I think I'm pretty damn sexy with my curves and so do most of the men I know. The best thing we can do for our daughters is to get rid of these unreal images that are plastered all over the internet, magazines, tv etc. The funny thing is most men I know don't want to cuddle with a wafer thin woman. They want women who eat. 

redheadshesaid http://kidsofqueers.blogspot.com/

 Sometimes I wish that the media focus a bit on height issues that some women have.  If you're short and slim, more often than not, you would have trouble finding clothes to wear.  You might even be mistaken to be a higm school kid!

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Well, slim og very athletic women are the ones featured in the "glossies". We might want to dream of slimness while munching fudge? Sure they are gorgeous, but it is kind of depressing finding all the jeans featured in Swedish "Femina" being sizes 25-32, when you are a 36 yourself. I don't feel like I should scream "big is beautiful", I feel pretty normal, in good shape. Of course I could stand to loose 5 kilos, but so what? I want to focus on wellbeing and health. Enjoying life and finding balance. It stings a bit, though, when my "friendly" favourite fashion/design magazine, features jeans in rather small sizes. All of a sudden I'm not as healthy as I think, or not as beautiful??

Allie

I guess we are all just as frustrated as the next when it comes to the hoopla of size and what is the "right" size to be "in!"  All I have to say is that I was a size 12 from the start, got breast cancer, blew up on steriods to a size 18 and poof...I am now a plus size model.  Who knew that being so vulnerable and sad after cancer propelled me into a DIVA! Just by showing up as my authentic self, I was shown that others could see me as beautiful no matter what size! :) Go For It!

Great post.

 What's sad to me is that it takes an event like the Olympics for a national publication to recognize a body type other than model thin. I vageuly remember Glamour doing this during the last Olympics as well. So what? We trot out the athletes as an "alternative" to being wafer thin once every four years? Seem so silly to me. 

Personally I'd rather see clothes on a hanger than on a model. It's the same thing and girls wouldn't have to subject themselves to starvation in order to "make it".

sigh. In a perfect world I suppose everyone would eat and models would be an actual size (I'm sorry double 0 is NOT a real size). I guess we can all dare to dream, right?  

Self-discovery through fashion!

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 There was this cool sideshow @ the New York Times about the diverse bodies of Olympic athletes:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/07/30/magazine/803BODIES_index.html 

None of the women pictured there would appear in Glamour anytime soon, but their bodies are perfect for what they do.

bring asexy back @ http://theonepercentclub.blogspot.com

What if we changed the game, just once so that women could see the "real," "typical," or any other adjective that describes non-retouched and photoshopped women in magazines? 

You can join in an effort to do that here through a challenge proposed to traditional women's magazines. Fight bad body images and win one for girls everywhere.

Clare Ondrey

Show Our Beauty: A Challenge to Women's Magazines

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