Once upon a time, "skinny" was a bad word
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People used to work instead of sitting in front of a computer and television all day.0
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jenglish712 wrote: »
Okay, Staci looks fantastic in the second pic, then.0 -
the "non skinny" girl in the add is still damned thin by today's standards. It also said "solid flesh," several times. I don't think the goal was to just pack five pounds randomly onto the body. We still have a ton of products marketed today for weight gain, and a decent size group of people who use them.0
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To me, "Skinny" is and always always has been a negative thing. Being called skinny doesn't make me happy, it makes me sound frail and weak. When I see a skinny dog, my instinct is to feed it not congratulate it.
There are people who are naturally slender and petite but still very healthy. The word skinny applies to them in the barest sense, but those healthy slim people are not who I think of when I hear that term. I think of gaunt, ashen-skinned, sunken-eyed, desperate people who just need help.
I don't ever want to be "skinny"0 -
I really like both and neither of what I think of when I think, "skinny". In terms of a sustainable, "natural" look for me I'm probably shooting for something like the first picture.cwolfman13 wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »
I suppose I should use the word 'lean' then. But when I think skinny, I think fit, healthy, and a proper weight, not skin and bones.
Skinny Staci on the left...lean and fit Staci on the right...and 11 Lbs heavier on the scale to boot.
You look good in both pics, but the second one is just fantastic!
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cwolfman13 wrote: »
I suppose I should use the word 'lean' then. But when I think skinny, I think fit, healthy, and a proper weight, not skin and bones.
That's interesting, since I actually don't think "skinny" has a positive connotation (even in the subculture I live in, where being overweight is far less common, or even thinking back to the '80s). Thin is a positive word, lean, slender, etc., but except in joking usages like "skinny minnie" (which IME is used positively) or wacko pro ana stuff (nothing tastes as good...) "skinny" is not, and it does mean skin and bones, basically, not fit, as I've heard it. (Used more as a negative for men.) Maybe skinny jeans being a thing changed the connotation some places, shrug, dunno.
No meaningful point here, just interested in how the connotation that words have can differ.
As a personal matter, the body I aspire to is not "skinny," which I understand to mean low LBM and low body fat. I'd like to lose another few points off my BF%, but I'd also like to gain some LBM and, more significantly, I want to look strong and healthy.0 -
I remember my 5th grade teacher telling us "women don't want to be called "skinny," that's negative! Women want to be "slim" or "lean." So I think because of that I've always thought of "skinny" as negative.
I remember seeing people discuss that awful all about that bass song and of course people were discussing how using the words "skinny *kitten*" is OK in a song but nobody could ever say "fat *kitten*," and a bunch of people said that skinny is never an insult. I don't know, I disagree it's just always seemed bad to me.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »
I suppose I should use the word 'lean' then. But when I think skinny, I think fit, healthy, and a proper weight, not skin and bones.
That's interesting, since I actually don't think "skinny" has a positive connotation (even in the subculture I live in, where being overweight is far less common, or even thinking back to the '80s). Thin is a positive word, lean, slender, etc., but except in joking usages like "skinny minnie" (which IME is used positively) or wacko pro ana stuff (nothing tastes as good...) "skinny" is not, and it does mean skin and bones, basically, not fit, as I've heard it. (Used more as a negative for men.) Maybe skinny jeans being a thing changed the connotation some places, shrug, dunno.
No meaningful point here, just interested in how the connotation that words have can differ.
As a personal matter, the body I aspire to is not "skinny," which I understand to mean low LBM and low body fat. I'd like to lose another few points off my BF%, but I'd also like to gain some LBM and, more significantly, I want to look strong and healthy.
It's not a compliment among my family members or anyone I know, either. It must be a word that has a personal definition for me different from what it means to most people. I ought to retire it in the interest of clarity!0 -
It's interesting hearing from so many people. I think it's rarely if ever that I have heard the word skinny used as anything other than a compliment.0
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I remember seeing ads in comic books in the 1970s that said "skinny men and women are not attractive!". We went from that to "heroin chic" where the same body types from the 70s ads were held up as desireable in the 1990s. Interesting how societal norms change so much, even in just the span of a couple of decades.0
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It's a symbol of wealth and privilege
What's "it's"? Being slightly overweight or skinny? Or maybe both -- slightly overweight or curvier when there are food shortages (as during the Depression -- this ad is from 1936) and thin or skinny during times of prosperity. After all, in the U.S., obesity is income-related, with low-income populations tending to be heavier due to cheap, low-quality food. Geographical areas with higher educated, higher income populations tend to be thinner. In the "flapper era," educated women of higher income levels were the ones who could afford cars and freedom, so were thinner. I came from poor immigrant stock, and except for one tiny grandmother who was kind of a "hot ticket", the pictures I have of family from that era are of women with dour faces, hair pulled back in buns, and dowdy long dresses that hid their bodies.
In reference to OP's "vanity pounds".
Be glad we are living in an age of abundance (western societies at least) and have a choice. See "The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race" by Jared Diamond.0 -
I think it depends on what your idea of "skinny" is. Some think of skinny as someone who's at a healthy weight, or even just smaller than they are. I used to aspire to be rail thin, the whole thinspo thing and all that, that's what comes to mind for me as skinny. So for me it used to be a compliment but now it's not - I know from some it is meant as that and I'll treat it as such, but inside it irritates me, like "dude do you know I could deadlift you?!"0
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cwolfman13 wrote: »
I suppose I should use the word 'lean' then. But when I think skinny, I think fit, healthy, and a proper weight, not skin and bones.
I agree with you. When I think of skinny I think of fit and healthy too. "Thin" on the other hand has a negative connotation to me.0 -
Skinny is still a bad word in my book.
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cwolfman13 wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »
I suppose I should use the word 'lean' then. But when I think skinny, I think fit, healthy, and a proper weight, not skin and bones.
Skinny Staci on the left...lean and fit Staci on the right...and 11 Lbs heavier on the scale to boot.
I'd say she's skinny in both, but when I hear skinny, I don't think nothing but skin and bones, I just think of someone small that with lower body fat.
I'm skinny. I think I'm fit, too. Or lean. They kind of mean the same in my opinion. So it doesn't really hold a negative connotation to me.0 -
Perhaps what should be noted is that even in the ads from the past, women weren't satisfied with their bodies, and were trying to find some "satisfying" range to fit into. Really? How about just learning to like what's in the mirror? Ignore the product advertising, the airbrushed model of 'perfection' and just figure out that there is no perfect body. Fitness and eating right should be for health, not some beauty ideal. Once we learn to like our own image in the mirror and each other on the street, we'll be a lot further ahead.
Words are just words. It's the context in which they are used that gives them definition.0 -
FoCoAlphaNerd wrote: »It's interesting hearing from so many people. I think it's rarely if ever that I have heard the word skinny used as anything other than a compliment.
Same here. If anyone ever called me skinny I would be ecstatic to hear it. I have honestly never heard it used to insult someone aside from the 'skinny b's' type of comment which is an admittance of jealousy so not really too insulting at all.
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so once upon a time we shamed women about being thin now we shame them about being fat... i guess the point is stop making women feel bad about their bodies.0
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