Which is more damaging?

fteale
fteale Posts: 5,310 Member
edited October 2 in Chit-Chat
Size "zero" culture (which I actually have yet to see any evidence of in RL, it seems to be a magazine phenomenon), or vanity sizing, normalising being overweight? In the UK a size 12 (US 8) is counted as normal to small, and yet at 5'5" I was actually overweight in that clothes size.

People complain so much about the media and fashion industry pressuring girls to be thin, but I can't help feeling that with overweight and obesity levels being something like 60% in the West that that is a far bigger public health risk.

Replies

  • fbmandy55
    fbmandy55 Posts: 5,263 Member
    I think they are equally damaging. I can't really see being too thin and having a terrible sense of self-worth being any better than being obese. Maybe just less expensive.
  • DannyMussels
    DannyMussels Posts: 1,842 Member
    Being larger brings about a whole slew of new health problems.

    As well as difficulties in the hospital come operations and procedures.

    Clothing sizes nowadays are almost 1-2 sizes larger then 20yrs ago. I still have clothing from that era, and regularly wear retro clothing, even larges are more like 'mediums' or smalls nowadays.

    For the first time in my life, i wore a 'small' dress shirt this summer. I'm 6'0" 220lbs. I'm not 'small' or 'average' by any means.

    And they don't make guys XS.

    Sorta sad if you look at it that way.
  • Jemmuno
    Jemmuno Posts: 413 Member
    Marilyn Monroe was a size 12 US and she was considered gorgeous and sexy during her time. I think sometimes all these numbers and social pressures that are made up makes us think we're fat when in reality we're really not. It should be more about health than a pant size or a number on the scale. When you go to the doctor and he says your hearts healthy and your sugar levels are good, these are things to make you proud of yourself for taking care of your body. It's about living a healthy life-style!
  • Improvised
    Improvised Posts: 925 Member
    I think overall, being overweight is more damaging, but that's just me. I think my feeling of self worth is much worse now that I'm overweight, vs. when I was a size 4, and wanted to drop a dress size.
  • Sunny_1989
    Sunny_1989 Posts: 8
    I'm not sure which is actually more damaging. They both have their knives that are equal depending on who you look at. The focus needs to stop being on how to make people feel better about themselves because they can finally fit back into whatever size, because the sizes keep getting bigger. People need to focus on getting healthier rather than whatever size they are. Yes I do have a goal size, but I'm also working for a life change in my diet.

    As for the size zero culture, I believe they need to incorporate slightly larger women as I have known women in a size 2 that claim they are overweight and need to lose another 10 lbs when they were already looking quite like skin and bone, so instead of trying for a healthy lifestyle, they were trying for the size zero.
  • alliebeck2
    alliebeck2 Posts: 34
    I think they're both problematic; that being said, I do think that there are greater health implications with obesity than there are with "size 0". For people with the appropriate frame size, size 0 can be obtained healthily, whereas obesity is necessarily unhealthy. Science has shown repeatedly that regular, long-term low calorie consumption is unequivocally and causally linked with a reduction in the risk and occurrence of most age-related diseases (barring the presence of malnutrition, obviously).
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