Why are women so desire to be (or remain) skinny?

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I put this hear as it's not really about me but just a question I've been wanting to ask for a while.

I've seen threads particularly about this on the Health, Fitness and Sports about women and girls wanting to be skinny (even underweight) and finally reading HopefulFlower's latest thread prompted me to finally ask.

And I have to ask, "Why?' Why do women want to be underweight, even as it's not healthy for them? Is it that stick figure waif ideal personified by 'Twiggy' in the 1960s? Is it a knockoff of that old desire to be that frail-flower figure that was pushed in the Victorian era, that an ideal woman was delicate, pale and would faint at the slightest upset?

Is it that some women think that if they are normal weight, that men won't want them, even though I've read (and heard from the guys themselves) that many guys find a super thin girl a bit repulsive?

I've almost always see women not wanting to eat this or that, that this or that food is 'fattening' or that "I wish I didn't like sweets' for fear of the ever dreaded weight gain. (I can understand if they get sick if they gain too much or don't want obesity, or have diabetes, but beyond that it gets ridiculous.)

So I have to ask, "Why?'

I've always wondered about this too. I mean, being skinny isn't really the be all and end all. I'm the skinny type (I am not underweight, I do like to eat), but I sometimes feel that other women glare at me because they get jealous of me being slim. Who wants that? Being envied of isn't a nice as it may sound. It can sometimes make you feel guilty.

But even skinny girls think they're fat. I think I'm the only skinny female who has actually admitted that I am skinny.

My mum isn't fat, but she fusses about it all the time, and calls herself ''big'', even though she's small-boned as well as slim. She's mad on exercise, and after she eats she always regrets it, but can't resist food at the same time (I don't blame her).

But most women tend to act as though being fat is such a crime in society. A lot of people aren't slim but they still get socially accepted and look nice in their clothes they wear. I'm skinny but some clothes look awful on me but would look much better on a fatter person!

I'm not skinny by any means. I recently had a surgery that has basically changed my entire view on how I look. So many young girls and teenage girls maybe even older want to be frail and skinny because certain clothing stores use their products as a status symbol. Before my surgery I compared myself to almost everyone in my life that is skinny. I wanted to hide behind baggy clothes. I wanted an eating disorder. I used to pig out all the time and say that I had positive body image and then I started eating stricter and started caring about clothing size. I was not happy with a weight of 235 and wearing an E cup. Now that I got my surgery and am at a C+ cup and am at a clothing size that I've managed to keep, I finally feel happy with my size and refuse to change a single thing about my physical self. I hate the words "fat" and "twig" used to describe people. I don't think eating cupcakes and pastries every time you see them is a good thing nor do I think all or nothing dieting is a good thing regardless if you're skinny or plus-sized.

Nobody should ever be put in the spotlight or picked on for their body type unless you're dying because of your weight. By dying I mean health problems. I weight over 200, but I've had no health problems except for my back, neck and shoulders before surgery

Note: This is just an opinion

Ha, I get the same and I'm overweight. I get real, proper glares from women sometimes when I eat junk food. I thought that it was because it was a crime to be overweight and indulge, but maybe it's just the fact that they hate people who are totally fine with eating junk.



Yep, tell me about it. Men are a lot more forgiving when it comes to looks. Actually wait - I think it's more that they don't make a point about it like women do. If men aren't particularly drawn towards you they usually ignore you, while women are just rude about it.

I am 5'7", and I weigh between 126 and 129.

I wear size 6 jeans (actually, I wear 8's because I like loose clothes, but 6 is my real size.

I mostly wear sweatshirts and t-shirts, and wear 'large', though 'medium' or 'small' is my actual size.

A few years ago, I slowly went up to 152 pounds!

I still cannot believe it; just over-eating and not being as active as usual...

I got nothing but compliments!

Mostly from men, but women, too, said that I looked good with more weight!

I am back to my normal size just because of going back to night shift.

A couple of people at work occasionally tell me that I looked good when my weight was up.

I think perhaps too many people let our culture tell them what to think; if your life is happy, if you can do what you want to do, if your weight does not limit you, you are fine.

Nice people want what is best for you, not what 'Vogue' says we should look like.

Personally, I cannot stand the sight of Vogue models.

They look sick and depressed.


Sylkat

Because society puts so much pressure on them to believe that's what makes someone beautiful and attractive.

I think it must be one of those ideal gender images created by society. "The further away from being fat, the more beautiful" taken to the extreme. My own sister is rather skinny and says she's fat. It's becoming psychological and I think it can be unhealthy. I think as long as you are healthy, the body size shouldn't matter. The most important thing is that you are physically and mentally healthy.

Because some women think men find fashion models and Paris Hilton attractive.

If all men thought that, then Christina Hendricks and Sofia Vergera would not be as popular as they are.


Sylkat

Men like them because they have big boobs. That's why a lot of women get boob jobs.

I like being skinny. I just hate the idea of carrying the excess weight on my body. Less the better.
I'm at 18.9 BMI right now and it's within the normal range. I can gain 35 pounds and still will be in the normal range. But I can't imagine lugging around that kind of extra weight on me.

The media often puts great emphasis on skinnier women, making them to be perceived to be more attractive than men. May even be a trigger for many for anorexia and so on.

Though a blanket statement there are women that want to be healthier or more um "curvy" than the media implies.

I often find the extreme skinny look tragic, rather than attractive

I'm not like that at all. For one thing I have Gender Dysphoria and identify as Male and for another thing, I take pride in my husky Mick Avory-like appearance in body and face. If I was cursed with a body of traditional slender feminine beauty, I wouldn't leave my apartment half as much as I do, because I'd be very ashamed of my appearance.

For me personally I like to be in shape and exercise. Women who are unhealthy and too thin are most likely not attractive to men. Once a guy at work who was in his early 20s stated that men like women with curves. Really men most likely have personal prferences for what type of figure they like just like women may prefer different types of body types in men.

Eating disorders are terrible and very dangerous to a person's health. Everyone should excercise and strive to eat healthy and avoid fast food, etc, etc.

Intense cultural pressure.

Extreme fat shaming and bullying of anyone even slightly 'fat' (read: normal) in public or the media. I don't consider Adele (the singer) "fat" but she gets absolutely reamed by other celebs and the public for her weight.

I didn't consider Kate Winslet in Titanic "fat" at all but same thing - they even thinned her photograph for magazine shoots. She was slender to normal weight, if anything, at the time.

Snobbery. Not necessarily the person's but the culture's. Cheap food is fattening, but the richer classes can afford to take time to exercise and to buy fresh organic produce and have it prepared. Some also think it connotes being "busier" while being "fat" - to them - connotes laziness, or being slovenly.

Hormones. Studies have shown the more fertile a woman is, the more she frets about her appearance. This means, usually, the younger women will be much more obsessed with falling into the cultural norm of beauty, than "ladies of a certain age." Note that in some cultures in the world, being fat is the ideal and women there worry as much to fit in - in that case, to force feed until they gain weight.

Peer pressure. Especially in adolescent and teen years, maybe through college age, female friends can be catty, if they think the person could "look better" - in our culture, that means thin - and suck-ups if they think the person does fit the cultural norm - is thin and fashionable.

Relationship pressure. A lot of males are only concerned what other males think. They want the trophy girlfriend or wife. So they want her to look as "perfect" as possible. That means as close to the cultural ideal of beauty as possible. As young, thin, probably blond, as possible. (I think some of that could be changing.)

Ironically it was only once I gained some weight that I found my life partner. While I was younger, and skinnier, at times very skinny, I always seemed to attract that last type of fakey phony male, who did nothing but criticize and tell me I was "fat" here or there. (Trust me, I was not at all.) I think that is because, even though this was not true of me, there is a misperception that anyone who fits into the cultural "ideal" of appearance, must be high maintenance, hard to get along with, never satisfied, etc., so the nice guys leave those types of women alone.

Believe it or not a lot of the gorgeous models and actresses out there, spend many lonesome nights.

The reason is really simple: social status.

Being young, thin, pretty and popular is pretty much how girls and women are measured by others in society. As such, they continue to compete over who can be the thinnest, the prettiest, the most popular etc.

There is intense pressure by society, media, friends, family, boys, and pretty much everything to conform to this.

Curvy means hourglass shaped, it has very little to do with how much fat you carry.