Hannah Cann tells us why she loves political correctness.
Do you have swine flu? No. Do you know anybody who does have swine flu? Probably not. So what's all the fuss about?
Can't afford ethical clothing but can afford a night out at Ziggy's? Jennifer Heyes discusses where students' priorities should really lie.
Three of The Yorker's blogs team have had a hard think about what general rules they live their lives by and written them down in the form of their own Personal Philosophies.
I’m not a real woman. Sure, biologically (to the best of my knowledge) I have two X chromosomes and I’m not inter-sex, I also define my gender as being female. But I doubt that by the new standards promoted by certain TV programmes that I could be called a ‘real’ woman.
Being 5’ 2” and a size 6 means that I don’t meet the new guidelines that are being created by a wave of new Television programmes such as ’Coleen’s Real Women’ to be ‘all woman.’
Coleen doesn’t care if you’re a size 8 to 18, because you’re a real woman. As a size 6 I fall shy of being included in this all-embracing, all-accepting definition of womanhood. Does that make me an impostor? A traitor to womanhood? Worse, it probably makes me one of those ‘stick insects’ who are anorexic and only exist to make other women feel bad about themselves.
I’m small and I’ve always been small, as are the majority of women in my family and (if we’re going indulge in believing that BMI gives an accurate approximation of ‘the correct weight’ to be) then with a BMI of 20, I’m healthy.
But, encouraging women who are fat or obese to believe that they’re ‘real women’ and they should remain unhealthy is equally as stupid.
I just feel so frustrated when people call me ‘skinny’ and suggest that if I put on weight then perhaps I’d be more ‘curvy.’ I’m satisfied with my body shape, at least I felt more secure with it until there was this sudden demand on women to have ’curves’ and to fall into the size 8 to 18 band. If I deliberately set about putting on weight I imagine the only curve I’d develop would be on my stomach. The point is, why if I’m healthy and the weight I should be for my size, should I then feel pressured to over-eat?
I’m all in favour of promoting models that are healthy, as I hardly think that eating cotton wool in order to ensure that you look like the tragic victim of terminal cancer is sensible, attractive, or sets a good example. But, encouraging women who are fat or obese to believe that they’re ‘real women’ and they should remain unhealthy is equally as stupid.
Instead of accommodating for the increase in obesity in Britain, (which is now helping to kill one quarter of our adult population prematurely) with ‘up- lifting’ songs such as Mika’s Big Girls you are beautiful, being healthy should be promoted.
Admittedly, Coleen’s show wasn’t encouraging women to be fat, but it did set about defining the boundaries of ‘real women’ to the exclusion of those who are healthy and thinner and perhaps to the inclusion of those, for example size 18, who are probably over-weight.
The crux of the problem here is wanting to know what ‘size’ a woman is all the time. Clothing size and BMI don’t give particularly accurate representations of the amount of fat a person is carrying or the state of their health. Instead of encouraging women to dream of being the ‘ideal’ size 10, or the supremely ‘curvy’ size 18, we should be encouraged to be healthy and accept the size that we are.
omg - I agree with you sooo much. I am so fed up of all this 'real women' crap.
If you have a little look on facebook you'll see loads of groups dedicated to 'real women'. Supposebly celebrating the beauty of all women. However, to be celebrated you do have to be curvy, ie. big boobs.
And of course far be it for skinny people to protest to such comments as 'skinny bitch' or 'you must be anorexic' or 'why are you so fat'. But if you turn around and ask your larger friend 'why are you so fat' - well that's just not acceptable.
'Real women' have the XX chromosome...
The only thing that can define what a 'real woman' is is biology. Chromosomes and anatomy.
How can you be a fake woman? A bloke in drag? Waxwork?
This colleen character is clearly uneducated, foolish and after a quick buck.
"The only thing that can define what a 'real woman' is is biology. Chromosomes and anatomy."
... except that's a bit unfair on those women who are born with male/ambiguous bodies.
And re the article, so true! I hate when people like 'Colleen' try to define women as 'real', etc. And the whole dress size thing is so silly, it's different in every shop, and really it doesn't mean anything. Size is all to do with body shape and what's healthy for the individual. I'm a size 12-14 and Angela is a size 6, if we swapped sizes I'd be horrendously underweight and Angela would be horrendously fat!
I always found those Dove adverts using 'real' women horrendously patronising.
No-one needs to be told what body shape you should be and I'm pretty sure the fair majority of girls would aspire to look more like size 10-12 kelly brook than size -30 Hollywood actresses anyway.
Also, unless you have a serious eating disorder (in which case, that's a medical issue and as such requires specialised treatment) you will be aware that the whittled down figures we see in magazines are ridiculously airbrushed. We're not stupid but 'they' seem to have decided we are.
We should have 'normal' sized girls in magazines yes, but to make a huge spectacle of it highlights the unattainable nature of size zero and makes it all the more appealing to people who aspire to it because it's in some way exotic.
The more it's spoken of, the more appealing it will be.
comment deleted by the author It's not just women, of course. I'm quite thin but I would never consider myself to be spectacularly healthy. I just have one of those bodies where I can eat absolutely anything and stay in a similar sort of shape. Likewise there are people who weigh double what I do and regardless of strict dieting are unable to lose any weight... and are very healthy at the weight they are.
I used to be more slender and have thinner shoulders, less bulk, and was accused of not being a "real man" as a result - I kicked their ass in football though. Now I am more "manly" in shape and am heavier and less agile on the ball, and would not consider that it makes the slightest bit of difference to how "manly" I am. It's infuriating.
It's great that they're trying to break the stereotype that the thinner the better but it's a shame that they're creating new stereotypes in the process - namely that anyone below size 8-10 must be anorexic and subhuman.
I'm also one of those guys who can eat anything and still be considered skinny, and one of the things that really pisses me off is when people make personal comments along the lines of me needing fattening up.
They wouldn't think it acceptable for me to say they need to loose weight... which is why that's exactly what I'm going to say next time it happens 
lol James. But yeah, it's a one-way system. People feel that they can insult thin people and tell them they need to gain weight but insulting someone for being 40 stone is no longer allowed. Prejudice laws and general culture in the UK often seem to be one-way, for some reason.
comment deleted by a moderator You must log in to submit a comment.
Report