Categories: Beauty

Too Thin … Or Height / Weight Proportionate?

Within the past decade in America, we have heard an increasing influx of commentary from the media, as well as from our own social circles, regarding what is considered to be “too skinny.” Perhaps even you have shared your opinion on the subject, a time or two.

Carrying a few extra pounds has not only become the norm, but encouraged, in our society. It was not too long ago that “skinny” was in. We would only need to travel back as recently as the 1980’s; to a time when grocery store gondolas brimmed with magazines, featuring the sleekest supermodel darlings of the day…perhaps sporting the latest “Jordache look.

The general desire to be slender trickled down from pop culture into society, as different trends and philosophies often do . The magazine cover models of the 1980’s were revered and envied for their toned bodies, yet now, many in our society might use the word, “anorexic,” to describe these glamorous superwomen of yesteryear.

So, what is the true culprit? Why do so many of us demonize the slender physique?

Is it because many of us have become so accustomed to what could be described as new standards in average adult weight, that height/weight proportioned- (HWP) people now appear to be malnourished, by contrast? Or, is it more self-serving than that?

In accepting that most of us are overweight, are some of us targeting the few who are HWP as the oddballs, in need of healing and heaping bowls of ice-cream and properly salted McDonald’s fries to justify our bulging waistlines? Perhaps some of us even feel that ridiculing the skinny folk has become long overdue- a “well, look who’s the freak now” mentality, if you will. If the above were possible answers in a multiple choice test on the subject, I would have to pick D)., for “all of the above.”

Anorexia is one of the most perversely misused words in recent history. According to a related article on Bnet.com., on average, between 2-5% of American adolescent and young adult women are struggling with anorexia, while about 5% of adolescent females and young women suffer from bulimia. Given the percentage, as many as possibly 1 in 10 women are struggling with these very real, serious and potentially deadly mental disorders, still, they are not as prevalent as one might suspect, given the loose use of the words, “anorexic” and “bulimic,” to characterize anyone whose clavicle bones are visible. Note: anorexia and bulimia are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Most of us learned in our formative years that it is considered wrong, disrespectful and insensitive to call a person “fat.” However, we most likely were not taught that calling someone “skinny” could be a bad thing, too. Although, the word “skinny” is nothing, compared to the casualness in which some people pick the word “anorexic,” from their arsenals.

The problem with throwing words like anorexia and bulimia around so casually, is that these sentiments go deeper than their counterpart word, “fat,” insinuating that the human targets of such words are purposefully not eating, to the point that it has become a mental disorder.

The scorn that can come from being thin, the countless number of times that people, even strangers, openly and eagerly offer the unsolicited advise of eating this or that, has forced many a thin person to attempt packing on the pounds to be considered “normal,” in today’s heavier America.