Flesh Market

It does seems some of these stars get thin and bones just to get the cover. People by magazines and tabloids that call normal weight celebrities fat and then puts ultra thin people on the cover.

In regards to the topic,
I think our society has always been that way. It's a same, because we humans have a lot more potential than our looks!

I used to buy these kind of magazines because I wanted to look like celebrities but later I stopped buying them.I can't believe myself,I worshipped celebrities,humans.This is the worst kind of self-humiliation.Those written in the article are true.Think about the spice girls,they sold millions of albums thanks to their image.

There is a long history of women being controlled by controlling their bodies.

As for the media, well it would not be in good taste for me to post that.

Jim I agree with you about the fats. The American diet is top heavy with omega-6 fats. I have a liver problem and one of the first things the gastroentrologist recommended was cutting down omega-6 fats.

I don't know, I think celebrity men are just as objectified as celebrity women. Even more so, in that their appearance seems to have an implied correlation with their virility. Just a couple of days ago, I saw some magazine in the check-out aisle with "best and worst celeb bod's" or something like that. They had a shot of Arnold Schwarzenegger at the beach. He's still got five billion muscles, but a little less skin tone and maybe a little more fat than he once had under that skin. But he's also almost 60 and could bench press any of the photographers that caught that shot. Of course, the magazine is saying how it's a "worse" shot. I think most men would give anything to have his body at any age.

At least, the same magazine did have Nicole Richie on as another example of "worst" bodies.

-Danielle

It does seem like it's the "in" thing to get really skinny just so you can make a magazine cover. Then these stars claim they briefly had an "eating disorder" and they gain a little weight and the media leaves them alone. Lindsey Lohan is a good example of this. Now that she's back to a somewhat normal weight, no one has her on magazine covers anymore. I think it's sad that women are judged solely by their bodies and nothing else. Some women are genetically blessed with beautiful bodies and some aren't. That doesn't mean we shouldn't all be healthy and take the best care of ourselves as possible, but we as a society want women to be stick-thin and yet NOT have an ED. Looking at some of the other comments on this blog (mostly by teenaged girls), it seems to me that the incidence of EDs is going up.

I'd like to know what the media's criteria is for deciding somebody has an eating disorder. Do they count ribs?

I mean look at the Ally MacBeal series, every woman on that show was deathly thin, but suddenly, the media decides that Calista Flockhart is too thin and must have an eating disorder. Once the women all left that show, the put on a better amount of weight and are probably still too thin, but at least don't look skeletonized anymore. It's the same thing with Nicole Richie and one of those Olsen twins. If they put on five pounds, the media would say they were beautiful and had conquered whatever eating disorder they have/had. Meanwhile, they'd probably still be an unhealthy weight while being touted as heros and called "beautiful."

That is one thing (the only thing) I like about Brittney(sp?) Spears. Even before the babies, her figure was made from exercise, not starving, and even she didn't look good in everything she chose to wear. Now, after the baby, she's showing what normally happens to new moms, it's HARD to lose pregnancy weight, it's HARD to get your stomach flat again. When the tabloids say "oh, look what Brittney screwed up now," I say "yay! A normal mom on the front page of the magazines."

-Danielle

I agree with you about the media wanting shocking images. Last night I was flipping through the TV channels and I saw an ad for some entertainment show that was going to be featuring video of a 600 pound woman stuck in her car. It was horrible watching the ad and seeing how embarrassed and shamed the woman was, and even more awful to think people were profiting off of her humiliation.

You guys here in the States are obsessed with media and obsessed with female bodies and body parts. Only thin women are considered "sexy". This is bullsh!t. Only thin women are desirable. This is bullsh!t, too.

Every woman should honestly ask herself the following questions:

1) Do I want to pay attention to crappy media reports and those crappy "fashion/celeb" magazines? (my answer: nope)
2) Do I want media people (means: people who don't even know me) to tell me how I should look like? (nope)
3) Do I want to live my life gaining my self worth from being considered "sexy" by males? (nope)
4) Do I want to feel crappy about my dress size? (nope)
5) Do I want to base my self worth on how many guys drool over me at any given time ? (nope)
6) Do I want to set my own goals, achieve them and live MY life as I please (yes)
7) Do I want to live my life in a healthy way and be responsible for anything I put into my body? (yes)
8) Do I want to exercise because I love it (and not to please males in any visual way)? (yes)

I don't care what the media says. It's crap anyway. At least most of it.

Dixie-Amazon - that was not me. All my comments are marked with an icon.

Danielle. The "media" has no criteria for an ED. By "media" I mean the producers and researchers. In my few experiences with them - I've found they are very poorly informed about such disorders, and neither do they want to be. I am naive - I never realized just how ratings driven the whole system is - and just how much ratings revolve around perceived physical beauty.

Male or female, we all lose our charms in the end. Media properties probably realize that, to some extent, but I don't think they apply it to their own lives.

What a brick wall THEY'RE in for. :D