study finds marriages are more satisfying when wife is thinn

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  • SarahofTwins
    SarahofTwins Posts: 1,169 Member
    I found this interesting in the article...."There's a lot of pressure on women in our society to achieve an often unreachably small weight,"...

    its true that we do feel more pressured compared to men. :ohwell:
  • VeganGal84
    VeganGal84 Posts: 938 Member
    I guess this is great, since as I lost weight, my boyfriend gained? This means that our future marriage will be AWESOME, right? :laugh: I call BS on this one, and I haven't even read the article.
  • Jenscan
    Jenscan Posts: 694 Member
    A study of 169 couples where 95% of them were white and all of them were under 35 is not a sufficient sample. I call BS. How do you measure "satisfying" anyway?

    Interesting but...
  • Kelly_Wilson1990
    Kelly_Wilson1990 Posts: 3,245 Member
    I have to agree that study is BS. 169 couple are suppose to represent how millions of marriages work? I do not think so. Satisfaction is so subjective. What is satisfying to to one couple may not be to the next. I have been fat and happily married for also 21 years.
  • Sugar_Apple
    Sugar_Apple Posts: 951 Member
    I think the study is funny :laugh: ....
    The thing people spend money on studies for ...sigh
  • ShaneT99
    ShaneT99 Posts: 278 Member
    I don't know about the "satisfying" part of it when it comes to marriage because satisfaction is based on much more than how a person looks, but I'd be lying if I denied that some part of my physical attraction for my wife comes from the fact that she's thin and in shape.

    So, if you assume that...

    1) Attraction plays a role in satisfaction; and
    2) Looks are more important to men than women; then...

    ...I don't think it's surprising to conclude that marriage might be more satisfying when the wife is thinner than her husband. Not saying that's right or wrong. Just saying it's not a surprising conclusion.
  • kgagnon7779
    kgagnon7779 Posts: 216
    Can I play devil's advocate here? I didn't read the study, BUT, I am tall with a medium build. My hubby is a couple of inches taller than me and incredibly lean. When I was pregnant, I out weighed him by about 15 pounds. I HATED it! I want to feel smaller than him. If I weighed more than him and was bigger than him, I would feel less feminine, less sexy. I guess I can't say that it would totally dictate the happiness in our marriage but it would affect it. But, this is just how I feel about it and can't say that it's the majority...and also agree that studies like this are stupid.
  • TK421NotAtPost
    TK421NotAtPost Posts: 512 Member
    It was a pretty reasonable article because it mentioned a lot of the shortcomings and possible confounding variables in making that sort of conclusion. For instance, the article mentions that unhappiness can lead to weight gain... which in these situations would fall under the classic correlation/causation fallacy. The marriage isn't suffering because of the weight gain...the weight gain came first which was caused by a third variable.
  • Jenscan
    Jenscan Posts: 694 Member
    It was a pretty reasonable article because it mentioned a lot of the shortcomings and possible confounding variables in making that sort of conclusion. For instance, the article mentions that unhappiness can lead to weight gain... which in these situations would fall under the classic correlation/causation fallacy. The marriage isn't suffering because of the weight gain...the weight gain came first which was caused by a third variable.

    Great screenname first off!

    I don't disagree that the article doesn't make sense, but I hate it when the press takes these very small studies and quotes them as fact. Dumb. But yes, it made some good points.

    Someday though, I'd like to see an article where it's the man's responsibility for a marriage's happiness and not the woman's.
  • Riebop
    Riebop Posts: 275
    I call shenanigans on this one! The sample size is way too small. However, I will say that my marriage has gotten better since I've lost some weight, but that was because of issues I had with myself.
  • IMYarnCraz33
    IMYarnCraz33 Posts: 1,016 Member
    I call BS on this one, and I haven't even read the article.


    I agree with this.
    It's only so if the marriage is based on looks and being shallow.
    Marriage is what you make it, not what you look like.
  • Ajontheguitar
    Ajontheguitar Posts: 695
    I call BS on the amount of people polled, and WHERE.

    However.......

    The pressure on women to be thin is greater than it is on men. Whether you blame that on insecurities, many men's ability to not carry those insecurities in the same ways, society's objectification of women, etc etc etc, is your call.
  • TK421NotAtPost
    TK421NotAtPost Posts: 512 Member
    Great screenname first off!

    I don't disagree that the article doesn't make sense, but I hate it when the press takes these very small studies and quotes them as fact. Dumb. But yes, it made some good points.

    Someday though, I'd like to see an article where it's the man's responsibility for a marriage's happiness and not the woman's.

    Hehe, thanks for recognizing my screen name.

    Is it wrong for me to say that I believe that a marriage's success is more dependent on the man than the woman?

    These are gross generalizations that I am backing up with Zero statistical data, but IMO, men are more likely to cheat, abuse alcohol, and verbally or physically abuse their wife and children. We tend use sex for physical pleasure and less for emotional intimacy. Women are unstable at times too, but as long as the husband stays strong and level-headed, the chances of the marriage surviving are MUCH higher than when the men become emotionally unstable. Once a man becomes unstable or begins to lose control of their life, things can get really ugly.
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