Blackhearted opened this issue on Jul 24, 2006 ยท 168 posts
Blackhearted posted Tue, 25 July 2006 at 10:14 AM
skinny is in there by no means as an 'ideal'...
calling someone skinny is insulting. just like calling someone 'overweight' is to some.
skinny implies unhealthy. IMO thin implies the lowest end of the healthy weight spectrum and isnt an insult... at least in my experience. if i said to a woman 'my god, you are so skinny' - i dont think shed take it as a compliment, whereas 'wow, you are very thin' would probably be regarded as one, or at least much less likely to be taken as an insult.
but being skinny doesnt necessarily mean you are anorexic. i know many people who are thin as rakes and they arent anorexic at all. hell, when i was in highschool i was 6'1" and 140 lbs.. although i ate like a locust and swam competitively - i wasnt unhealthy or anorexic, just has a very fast metabolism. i was consistently eating over 3800-4000 calories a day, which was almost double what i needed to maintain a 'normal' weight of 175-180 lbs, yet i wouldnt gain an ounce. i was just as insulted when someone called me 'skinny' as someone who is obese would be if they were called 'fat' -- yet now even 'overweight' is politically incorrect, yet people see no problem with calling people skinny... not to mention that ive seen many people call anyone under a size 8 'skinny' and under a size 5-6 'anorexic'.
thankfully my metabolism has slowed down in my late 20s so i dont have to eat 6 meals a day anymore.
and yeah, while i find the muscular women in the examples above quite attractive, the musclebound ones repulse me (no offense to anyone who looks like that, im sure its a huge commitment). i guess it just goes to show that you can definitely take things too far -- and that goes for trying to stay unreasonably thin too.