This is my current favorite model at RevolveClothing. I call her Doll Girl because of her perfect doll-like face and proportions.
But today, I saw this picture and did a double-take. What the hell?! Is Doll Girl photoshopped here? Who could have such a bizarrely tiny waist? While pondering the photoshop issue, I marvelled at how thin this girl is.
Then, I looked at Doll Girl’s rear view, modeling the same dress in white, and thought, “Oh good, she’s actually fat!”
I am totally fucked up this way. It’s pretty much the same way I view my own self. Skinny, fat, skinny fat! I blame my father as well as my culture, but the perception problem remains.
Does anyone else suffer from this crap?
Not me, but I am always astounded by the incredibly skinny chicks that my husband will think are fat or have big arses or whatever. I blame his mother who is obsessed with slimming and genuinely considers thin people to be objectively better people than anyone she deems fat (which is any woman over a US size 2).
That is some terrible photoshopping! Though it wouldn’t look as unreal if her (possibly padded) boobs weren’t so large- her rear actually looks pretty normal to me.
As for skinny/fat, I used to do that to myself, only I’ve never been skinny and as a teenager, I’d have killed to know what it felt like, even for a day (no fifteen-year-old wants to be told that they look “womanly”, in my head it translated to ‘ripe for feeling up by pervs’ and was even more justification for trying to make my rack disappear). It was more “ok/hideous”, body part by body part.
I felt skinny today until my underwear did that exact same thing that’s happening to the model. I blame the underwear.
hm, she is super skinny, that just really bad underwear
Oh, Jeez, where do I start? Does anyone escape this shit? I’ve got to give this a think but right off the bat what pisses me off is the way the childhood genesis of body size preoccupation sets some women up for later serious eating disorders and living time wasted carrying the totally unnecessary and crazy-fomenting burden of skinny, fat, who am I today. Most heartbreaking when there’s no damn weight problem at all! Talk about a way to drive someone to get hooked into food! I knew I shouldn’t have jumped in here.
And can I digress a little, just a tad? As someone who’s known both sides of the eating disorder coin (compulsive eating time; bulimic time), it drives me nuts to see ads for, programs about, how to curb hunger and lose ugly fat, blah blah. Do these exercises, eat this crap, have this operation, and you’ll never be hungry again! They’re talking to compulsive eaters here. It isn’t about stomach hunger. It isn’t about the stomach telling the brain to eat more food. It’s about the brain telling the mouth to chew and taste and swallow. There isn’t enough food in the world for a hardcase compulsive eater. How do you think people get up to 400, 600 pounds? It’s about hunger all right, but not the kind they’re talking about. That’s what happens when you let normal sized people do the research. They should only let fat people do the research – they know what to look for.
Also I think ~skinny~ is something totally arbitrary to me. I feel okay when I’m out and see other people and can compare myself to them (even just, “that girl is the same size as me and she looks good”, or in more screwed up ways) but the second someone thinner than me stands next to me I instantly feel frumpish and over-hangy and terrible. Also when I’m alone looking in the mirror I often feel fat because I just see my body and all it’s “flaws” alone without context – hey my thighs are huge in comparison to the rest of my body, why are my proportions so wrong, why can’t they just be a bit smaller. Then when I’m with my female friends I realise that I genetically have “small thighs” and a small frame. Even though I can feel smaller compared to other people, these comparisons just make me feel worse in the end because it’s not about other people, it’s about how I feel about my body and perceived ~fat~.
Looking at Doll Girl I definitely suffer from that crap – I am fat in the waist, yet skinny in chest!
That girl looks a lot like Allie from ‘The City’ (total vacant bitch): http://www.glamour.com/fashion/blogs/slaves-to-fashion/2009/02/is-allie-from-the-city-too-ski.html
If it is she’s had a boob job.
She looks like she’s suffering from bad underwear. I like to think she’s like me-skinny with no muscle tone. I’m thin but wobbly.
Also, in photo #1 her waist looks thinner than her thighs. Bad photoshopping, perhaps?
She looks that thin in the top one because she’s very thin, and twisted in a particular way that accentuates the length and leanness of her torso. This VERY long torso makes her look like she has a lot of ass when viewed from the back, in a too-tight white dress (how did they find a dress that small one might ask?) and freakishly bad underwear (again; maybe they were hers when she was 9).
I look at her and see thin. Usually, when I look at myself, I see fat. I’m not, but that’s what I see.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA That is one fucking terrible photoshop job. SURELY! People don’t really look like that, do they? She has that oversize head fetus thing happening, although in this case, it’s fetus with giant breasts and a bad G. Rather disturbing really.
Bad underwear coupled with flabby ass/no muscle tone = that chick. But yes, I play skinny/fat all the time. I’m sure I am fat, then I see a pic of myself and I say (usually to myself in the name of hiding my neuroses), “Shit, I’m not fat at all.”
Well I work with these ‘bodies’ most days. She is very young so the waist is real but she is underweight and from the first photo I’d say boob job.
The second one gives more away – her bottom is dreadful confirming the fact she is underweight and so the underwear is the wrong size and style for the dress. She should be wearing a thong and that always need to be bigger so it sits higher and prevents that digging in effect.
Bad dressing, poor stylist or photographer for not picking it up and Doll Girl get some carbs in you
I don’t see her as too skinny, but she is definitely thin. A very thin person can have a higher proportion of fat than is healthy, hence skinny fat. To me, this is not attractive. I prefer to see a more muscular body. My aesthetic, for my own body especially, veers on the thinner side, though sometimes my old self image creeps in, and I look heinous to myself.
I criticize myself more harshly, than I do anyone else, though I would be lying if I said I did not compare and criticize others too. I don’t like this about myself.
I criticize others more, when I am hating myself. This has been happening a lot lately, but I am aware of it, and I see, that I need to reevaluate my perception.
On models, and designers…
Most models are very thin, and even the “super sized” models, are not SUPER SIZED, by american standards. It is easy to want to compare ones self to them. They look, much of the time, look great, again by standards, that we have set. I am not complaining, as I clearly participate in the system, but sometimes the standards are unattainable, and unfair.
The designers definitely design for the thin body (most do anyway), and sometimes I see things that make the super thin model, look bigger than they are (even “fat” in some cases, and I wonder why anyone would want to put such a garment on, or how could anyone wear that, without looking like a brick house.?.
Anyway, I like this topic, and could talk more about it, but I have to go love myself and do my yoga practice. 🙂
love to you
Oooh yea I do the fat/skinny thing all the time but it is usually more just fat. I’m definitely not fat but I look at tiny girls and in my head think I could look just like that when in reality I’d have to work out for 1-2 hours everyday which so far ‘aint happening.
That’s definitely some bad underwear with the digging and flattening in all the wrong places.
I used to be rail thin with a huge rack but, I’ve grown into them a bit. Went from weighing 105 when I was 18 to about 125 at 31. I always think I’m way bigger than I am and constantly grab the wrong size to try on all the time.
We’re so hard on ourselves!
Tez is right, that is Allie from “The City” I doubt these photos are photoshopped because when she was on the show, she was so thin she looked like she had an eating disorder. There was an episode where they talked about how underweight she was. She had a waist exactly like that on the show the only difference is she looks like she had a boob job. She was such a humourless ano bitch on the show probably because she was half starved
I work with photoshop a lot which has left me with the one thought on this – a photo these days, ALWAYS lies. Whether it’s weight, muscle tone or wrinkles. And when it’s as badly applied as this – take heart and manipulate your own image! Lose 10 stone, 10 years and as many chins as you’d like! You don’t even need photoshop – print out your photo and use scissors!
Why should we compare ourselves to a girl with a body that has been photographically stretched, but where the photoshop tech didn’t bother to retouch her arse? Also – that is such a fugly, unflattering garment; ‘reality’ is all around us – not in fash mags or look books. And if someone starts with all that comparison crap in relation to oneself – just poke them in the eye …
I don’t think I have body image issues but I have plenty of other issues to go around. The models on certain sites always look too skinny for my taste. So skinny it takes my breath away and I find myself thinking “they must be dying for a meal”.
She looks like Stretch Armstrong in the top picture. I think it’s scary. I don’t see anything fat about her.
She’d have a bomb ass if her underwear wasn’t so small. You’d probably be able to bounce a quarter off of it if she ran a few miles every so often.
My reasoning for getting annoyed with super skinny models is that I am way more likely to buy a garment when I can get an idea of what it’ll look like on my body. I’ve taken to digging up photos of me-sized bloggers and buying brands that they wear, because at least I can rest assured that it’ll fit similarly. (I know SW & co. isn’t a huge fan of Hallie, but I’m shaped a lot like her, so seeing her pull off some styles gives me a little more confidence about making my own take on them.)
Frankly I’m in the middle of a chubby -> athletic conversion myself and am still learning how to wear anything that isn’t tent-shaped, so I do need all the help I can get. Where are the muscly models? I need someone who can squat their bodyweight ass-to-grass to emulate.
Every minute, every day. Mostly “fat”, not so much “skinny”.
I actually went and had a look at the website this photie came from and found this, under size/fit for this particular garment. “This item was modeled in size S. The model’s dimensions are 5’7.5, 32 Bust, 23 Waist”. So there you go.
I laugh and point at “Please note that Designer Sizing runs smaller than Classic Apparel Sizing.” – deary me …
ballet training = fucked up body image for life
when i was starving myself i weighed 99 pounds at 5’7″”. i used to weigh myself everyday. i would calculate calories and write everything i ate down. i would have piles of plastic leftover boxes on my fridge with food in them. each box had a sticky note on top with how many calories were in each food storage box. i took diet pills. sometimes i drank so i wouldn’t eat. i used to think that if i could just look the part, then dancing would come easier.
now i weigh 123. i feel fat. i have no self control. i would trade my entire closet to have my old body back… some days i’m ok with my new ass and thighs and some days i want to scream.
the looks some of my friends give me when i try to explain why i hate my body. to them, i’m skinny and have no right to complain. but this weight is dragging me down…
everyday it’s a struggle.
I don’t think this picture was photo shopped. Look at her collarbones. Look at her arms. This girl is starving herself, and probably worrying about her non-existent ass.
Photoshop’ed? Photoshopped? Sheesh.
Just to illustrate how cool I am….
Isn’t she from The City?
There’s an episode (probably first season) where Kelly has a go at one of Whitney’s model friends for being so skinny- that’s her!
Thank you google:
http://www.fashionmodeldirectory.com/models/alexandra_crandell/
Another skinny-mini…
…how embarrassing?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1313766/Alexander-McQueen-memorial-Never-wear-stilts-church-How-fashionistas-wearing-outlandish-creations-remembered-late-designer.html
She’d look so much better with red lipstick.
I’m OK with being skinny-fat, but would never trade my small perky breast for them silicon jugs. NEVER. I love the bra-less freedom and being able to sleep on my (fat) belly.
Cami – YES! Fetus-head is the term I’ve been looking for all my life.
yep. Skinny fat all the way here.
I also think I’m wider and bigger than basically everyone. Can’t go for a guy under 6 feet tall or else I feel like im fatter than him.
one more mother problem….
this girl has got to be photoshopped though. That first picture is unearthly.
Yuck. I hate this crap.
The part of me that is sane knows that I am not FAT, yet every time I get dressed or look in a mirror or see a photo I feel like I am. Fat that is. Or at least fatter than I’d like to be.
And I have nothing against fat people but I don’t want to be fat myself and I find myself to be obsessed with it. Not in an eating disorder way… I don’t have the self control for that. I just find that every time I eat something deliciously fattening I think “I shouldn’t be eating this.”
It’s ridiculous really. I don’t like my body but I don’t have the willpower to cut the shit out of my diet and go to the gym regularly. I go in phases… Like I’ll be really good for a few months and then I’ll just get over it. Then I look at photos of model thin girls and think, I’d look so much better if my legs were skinny like that. It’s all total bullshit.
Ah to be a girl. So much fun. 😛
Yep, she’s definitely skinny-fat.
That’s quite a common thing with Chinese women, I might add. Asians may have lower BMI than African-Americans and Caucasians but they have a higher body fat to muscle ratio and lighter bones. They might look slim, or even thin, because they’re small-boned but whatever flesh that’s overlying the bone has a greater fat to muscle ratio, hence the soft and flabby look, small girth notwithstanding.
I grew up thinking and being told I was fat (and gave a couple of decades of my life to anorexia nervosa and depression because of it) until I moved to Australia and realised I was just bigger-boned than most of my fellow Chinese. Thanks to running and pumping iron (on and off for the last 28 years), I’m now glad for the muscle definition on my shoulders, arms and legs. I’d much prefer looking strong than skinny, or worse, skinny-fat.
it is allie from the city and she was criticized to tears in that show for looking sickeningly skinny by the bitch of all bitches herself, kelly cutrone.
fetus head–SW, your readers continue to astound me with their genius. I recently stole “rotisserie chicken” to describe an overly tanned woman.
Marky – THIEF! Restraining order! I’ll see you in court!
Dust, you are SO right, I used to have small, perky, “bra-less” boobs, they grew spontaneously when I was 40, now I have to wear a bra and I hate it. They are not enormous jugs, but still!
Other than that, I realize how lucky I am to grow up without any body-image problems and issues. I could lose 10 pounds now, but I don’t hate myself because of it.
One thing is being skinny because you work out and stuff and being skinny because you are not eating is another. To me it looks like the latter. Then again, I am not any kind of specialist,it’s just that the same thing happens to my body when I am starving myself instead of working out – you loose weight generally but not in the very few spots where you could actually use it. Not cool, but so it goes.
haha Cricket, that is so funny! I too was a titless wonder until 40 and suddenly these jugs came out of nowhere, pity I didn’t have them when I was young because when you are middle aged they look matronly. It shits me thought that people think I had a boob job
Bevitron – “They should only let fat people do the research” =GENIUS.
Elle – These pictures make me want to simultaneously go for a jog and eat a pint of ice cream.
i have to agree with bad photoshop and the wrong panties…
too snug on anyone will give the same fugly look ~
Unfortunately, at 5 foot 3 and what i think you US types would call a size 4-6, supplemented by a D-cup bust, by fashion’s standards I actually am fat, so this isn’t really an issue for me. Ridiculous, I know.
(I tend to vacillate between ‘fat and ashamed’ and ‘large and in charge’, in case you were wondering.)
I don’t usually think I’m too fat but I would like to relocate a lot of my fat to different areas. Eg I would like to move a few scoops of stomach fat to fill out my less-than-ample breast area. If anyone has information on how I might do this, pls email me.
My ass? I’m working on that. It’s an ok size at the moment but I want it bigger. BIGGER DAMMIT. It’s pretty big already but there is nothing nicer than having a giant ass; it’s so comfortable to sit on.
I don’t see why anyone would ever buy that tank dress. Apart from being fugly, if it makes that miniscule-waisted model look fat what hope does anyone else have?
I wish more people wore pants.
I’m a 5’10” bag of bones who weighs 120 pounds, and has no muscle tone. I go to bed hungry every night, and live off grilled tofu, lettuce, and sugar free Skinny Cow ice cream. If I worked out, my bony ass might not jiggle as much, but then again, I don’t really give a shit.
I’m as thin as her, but I’ve not got a set of tits like that! I wish it were easy to keep the fat from disappearing FROM JUST THAT AREA.
P, you consider yourself FAT??? Why for fuck’s sake? Size 4-6 is NOT fat, even with D-cup breasts, please explain!
Kez, I had questions and suspicious looks at my cleavage at my high school reunion, I know the feeling…
RedPaeonyy, why don’t you eat ?? Food is good. I see pictures of these skinny girls and have to constantly remind myself that they are younger than me and most of them don’t let themselves enjoy food the way i do.
The skinny fat thing is funny. The untoned thin people.
I used to work with this woman who would all the time talk about people being fat and how she was thin because she was a size 5. She actually had an odd looking body with not much boobs or ass at all. Listening to her all the time was exhausting.
A few weeks ago I scored a brand new DVF dress and was bragging to a woman I work with that it was just my size and she said “Large or Extra Large ?? ” ouch.. I could barely get out “no it’s a size 8” I had hurt feelings for a week. Sure I had put on a few pounds, like 10 this year, but whatever. I have enjoyed every moment of it. French Fries and bread and cheese and cake and Bagels and all kind sof delicious carbs. And I have T&A too and I enjoy that.
Hi Erika,
I DO eat, I just don’t eat much. I once went up to the robust weight of 250 pounds because I was completely miserable. I know the comfort of a large pizza, delivered piping hot with a litre of ice cold Coca-Cola. I knew how to order fast food at the drive-thru in vast quantities for myself and order the three drinks to go along with them so they don’t wonder if I’m going to eat all that. I admit I have an issue with food. I DO love food, I just don’t love the guilt that goes along with it. I blame it on my dad and my ex husband. Why not? I don’t want to own it. They were both philanderers who loathed overweight women and did not hesitate to share their disdain.
Poor dad probably had no idea he was screwing up my head.
At any rate, I’d delight in a piece of raspberry drizzled cheesecake.
Let me know when you’re up for it. I’ll buy! x
Erika – What a fucking bitch that bitch at work is! I’ll have some cheesecake with you and RedPaeony.
I dont know what the hell is going on with that girl. She is skinny, for sure, but needs to gain muscle tone?
I dunno… that first image is scary.