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Media and perception of "normal" women.


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This article caught my eye and IMO shows how regular media venues can paralel the porn debate that states it can disort a mans "expectation" of what an average/normal woman's body "should" look like, this article caught my eye. Ms whoever was given mad props from viewers for having a "not unrealistic" body. Lol I say! This woman is very attractive and has a better body than most woman walking down the street. To the articles credit, a woman in the piece does bring this up and gives some stats to bring things back down to earth. Anyway, I think TV/movies/magazines can be just as damaging if not more in distorting a mans perception of what a woman should like like since we obviously see these types of media more than porn. Of course men can make this argument (as I have) that there are plenty of ripped good looking men in the aformentioned media types too so it can have that effect on women as well. Comments and opinions welcomed.

 

https://screen.yahoo.com/indiana-miss-usa-contestant-draws-232700859.html

Edited by SJC2008
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Shes still smaller than most women in my area lol.

 

Anyways, I dont think porn distorts men's views of how most womens bodies should look. Most guys know porn girls are very fake, and have lots of money to get things done to their body. If anything Id say porn gives some guys unrealistic expectations regarding what should go on in the bedroom physically.

 

What influences my preferences the most though, is the kind of fit girls I see at the gym or certain youtube channels.

Edited by kaylan
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Let me add,

 

Miss Indian is still considerably thinner and taller than the average American woman. A lot of people in social media are barking up the wrong tree if they think she represents what the average gal in our country looks like. Now...SHOULD normal women look like her...and is Miss Indiana's body healthier than overly skinny models or being overweight like many Americans? Yes, she should be a realistic role model and is healthy.

 

But its not like having size 4's plastered all over our media instead of size 00 - size 2 will change anything. Americans for the time being will continue to be big people.

 

And hell....for as much as people complain about expectations of body size and body image...none of that is stopping much of America from being at unhealthy or overweight sizes.

Edited by kaylan
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I just find it funny that the media had to bring the people back down to earth on this one. I undersrand where the fans were comming from in that she's not the typical rail thin model. I for one never understood why most models are so thin.

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WrinkledForehead

I don't know how tall she is but I'm 5'4" and I'm a size four. I don't think I look abnormal. Perhaps demographics play a role in this.

 

I read an article which quoted photoshoppers of models, and one stated that a decade ago he had to photoshop women to make them slimmer, but now he has to photoshop by smoothing hip and collar bones because the models' bones are too prominent.

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This article caught my eye and IMO shows how regular media venues can paralel the porn debate that states it can disort a mans "expectation" of what an average/normal woman's body "should" look like, this article caught my eye.

Actually a lot of pornstars if they had tried to be regular media stars in the beginning would have never made it due to size, age, etc. Regular media is less welcoming than porn

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I don't think it's necessarily the 'media's fault' per se. The type of men who get all caught up in media crap, are unlikely to make good partners anyway. It's the same as when men inexplicably blame shows like SATC for all their dating woes. Dude, if the woman you're with is being a bitch to you because she takes a TV series as her role model, you have bigger problems than SATC.

 

That being said, yes, media expectations and norms are pretty crazy IMO. But most people with any modicum of common sense know that, so it doesn't affect their lives and relationships.

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Meh...the media talking among themselves. The rest of us live in the real world. We are not stupid. We women know what our bodies are like and most men have seen naked women in the flesh. Hundreds of millions of average people find average partners...and go starry eyed over them.

 

Why were people (not the media) praising her as if she was a porker? Mind you she's a bombshell with a great body. Our unconscious programmed (whether you beleive it or not) by what we see. Why else would people be telling her you go girl?

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Lernaean_Hydra
Because her body fat percentage is a little higher than you would expect to see on a girl in her position. That's it. Yay...she doesn't work out or watch her diet quite as much as her peers. Good for her. That was sarcasm, by the way.

 

Well maybe that's a good thing. You generally don't get to be rail thin with extremely low body fat (and little muscle either, mind you) by simply "watching your diet", as you put it. :rolleyes:

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I'm the same shape she is but 5ft tall and a UK size 8-10.

 

According to Weight Watchers I am overweight and need to lose about a stone and a half.

 

I don't think it's just a male thing when it comes to how a person 'should be'.

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Who are all these men who's only experience of what a womans body looks like comes from porn and the media? I get a pretty good smorgasbord just going grocery shopping. It's not like you can't get a good idea through the clothes most of the time.

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Lernaean_Hydra
Who are all these men who's only experience of what a womans body looks like comes from porn and the media? I get a pretty good smorgasbord just going grocery shopping. It's not like you can't get a good idea through the clothes most of the time.

 

I don't think it's the majority of men, but we've all heard it or seen it before, especially on forums like these. There really are a lot of men out there who would call a woman with the very same body shape as Miss Indiana "fat" and publicly deem her body unacceptable. Now who they go home with at the end of the night or whom they eventually end up with as a partner may have a vastly different body type - and may in fact be even larger than her - but we hear those comments more than we should and it does indeed make it seem as if these men haven't seen the body of an average woman. Hell, maybe they're all incels who really haven't....

Edited by Lernaean_Hydra
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todreaminblue

i think its a cocern to note that the focus is on the aesthetics and not the fitness and healthy lifestyle that brings a natural confidence and fulfilling life with abundant energy to spread around...i dont care what men want or like..and i am extremely heavy and guys gravitate when i dance.......i want my girls to be healthy and fit and yes two of them are overweight as am i ...but i can dance and i can get fit quite easily which i will for me not to please some guys ideal of a perfect boydy because i never had oen in the first place nto by the world standard.....but no guy could ever keep up so yeah....they needed fitness training and they had good bodies..... ....and i dont judge a guy by his body type....he shouldnt judge me and if he judges my daughters in front of me badly i shoot him...kidding...maybe not.....ill always have an inner fat girl when i lose her on the outside..... and i love her for her.......deb

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Lernaean_Hydra
What are you suggesting here?

I'm not suggesting anything. I said it quite plainly: "you generally don't get to be rail thin with extremely low body fat (and little muscle either, mind you) by simply "watching your diet". You'll note I didn't simply say "thin" or act as if one has to have an eating disorder to be a normal or healthy weight. I very specifically said very low body fat and muscle mass.

 

I am acquainted with a female model who is in better shape than the girl we are talking about here. My friend doesn't have an eating disorder or anything, she just keeps her caloric intake down to make sure she doesn't gain any more body fat. It's rather simple. Anyone who knows anything about diet and fitness can tell you this, "abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym."

 

Yes, I too know someone who keeps their caloric intake down to make sure they don't gain any more body fat. In fact, they obsess obsess over it and have been known to get depressed and exercise to the point of vomiting if they go over their allotted daily caloric intake. All of this, f course, happens privately and most of their friends would never know it.

 

But oh no, you have that one model friend so, you know...

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todreaminblue
I'm not suggesting anything. I said it quite plainly: "you generally don't get to be rail thin with extremely low body fat (and little muscle either, mind you) by simply "watching your diet". You'll note I didn't simply say "thin" or act as if one has to have an eating disorder to be a normal or healthy weight. I very specifically said very low body fat and muscle mass.

 

 

 

Yes, I too know someone who keeps their caloric intake down to make sure they don't gain any more body fat. In fact, they obsess obsess over it and have been known to get depressed and exercise to the point of vomiting if they go over their allotted daily caloric intake. All of this, f course, happens privately and most of their friends would never know it.

 

But oh no, you have that one model friend so, you know...

 

 

so true.......cheers....deb

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Working out until you vomit isn't a big deal. I've done this before myself, and so have most professional athletes.

 

Someone doing something for their job doesn't necessarily mean it's healthy. For the record, many doctors have worked 24 hours straight, but it isn't something they'd advise their patients to do.

 

You don't need to obsess over your diet to keep under a certain calorie intake, because I have done this enough myself as well. There are apps for a smart phone that will do it for you.

Keeping under 1300 cal/day takes quite a bit more obsession than keeping under 2000 cal/day. Obviously, not all of the women who are extremely thin are being obsessive over it (some genuinely have crazy metabolisms), but it's pretty undeniable that some are. To an unhealthy degree.

 

There is a reason why the majority of people suffering from anorexia and bulimia are women.

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I'm not a professional athlete, yet I've done it. I have a seriously out of shape friend who did a few jumping jacks, situps, and pushups, and he vomited too. It's really not as big of a deal as you're making it out to be.

 

Will you please point me to an actual medical source that says that exercising until you vomit on a regular basis is healthy and good?

 

Keeping under 1300 calories a day should be rather simple for a sedentary person because their body only burns so many while they sit around and do nothing all day. When I was cutting weight, I was lifting heavy weights and still keeping under 1500 a day. Not hard, nor does it require obsession. it also doesn't require a crazy metabolism to stay thin. In the USA, we have become used to eating well over 2 times what a normal person needs to. Fat culture.

 

There is a healthy medium between scarfing down 3000 cal/day worth of cheeseburgers and being medically obese... and forcibly pushing your body to be rail-thin. IMO the USA would curtail its obesity rates significantly by finding that medium.

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Lernaean_Hydra
Working out until you vomit isn't a big deal. I've done this before myself, and so have most professional athletes. You don't need to obsess over your diet to keep under a certain calorie intake, because I have done this enough myself as well. There are apps for a smart phone that will do it for you. Plus, yeah, I have that model friend.

 

Are you being intentionally obtuse or do you genuinely not understand good physical and mental health? I'm fairly certain routinely working out until you vomit or running until you hit "the wall" as a sort punishment for having a cookie isn't healthy, but hey, you did it that one time or something you must know better than I. But I digress, it would seem to me that working out for hours a day until your body absolutely forces you to quit is neither healthy, normal nor advisable. However if you live this way, perhaps you sir, have an eating disorder.

 

And no, most normal people don't need to obsess over diet to maintain caloric intake....until they do. There's a difference between keeping track and literally obsessing over knowing precisely how many calories a handful of walnuts contain so you can put that exact number into your tracking app. And god help you if you can't find a specific number.

Edited by Lernaean_Hydra
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Will you please point me to an actual medical source that says that exercising until you vomit on a regular basis is healthy and good?

It's just anaerobic exercise your body isn't used to. I always feel that way when I start boxing conditioning, once my fitness level goes up it disappears. No big deal.

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She is this shape because she puts weight on her middle as opposed to on her thighs and butt. ie she isn't the classic hourglass shape, if she doesn't watch it she will have a belly but not necessarily a bigger ass to go with it. Mystery solved.

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I just find it funny that the media had to bring the people back down to earth on this one. I undersrand where the fans were comming from in that she's not the typical rail thin model. I for one never understood why most models are so thin.

 

Most of them are born that way. If one is naturally tall and thin it looks good (to me). It is the ones who starve themselves to try to achieve that look that end up looking sickly.

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Gay men and straight women control the fashion/magazine industry but straight males get the blame for the images they put out

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regine_phalange

Im a woman, and I think her body is awesome. But maybe I don't count, because I am very forgiving with other people's bodies (with mine also) as long as they are healthy.

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I've never really understood this going after MEN over women's body image thing. Personally, the worst and most brutal critics of a woman's body are OTHER WOMEN. It used to bother me, but now I just chalk their critical, catty obsession with other people's fat up to their own lack of inward beauty ;)

 

It's like my momma said: a mean man is mean, but there is nothing meaner than a mean woman!

Edited by alwayshere
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I've never really understood this going after MEN over women's body image thing. Personally, the worst and most brutal critics of a woman's body are OTHER WOMEN. It used to bother me, but now I just chalk their critical, catty obsession with other people's fat up to their own lack of inward beauty ;)

 

It's like my momma said: a mean man is mean, but there is nothing meaner than a mean woman!

 

This is so true lol

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