24 Comments
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Ashley Kulengowski's avatar

Wild that some people read, “We’re all entitled to our own looks-based preferences for our bodies” and jumped in to share their opinions on what bothers them about other people’s bodies.

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Jason Chastain's avatar

I don’t know who answered that survey back then… Jessica Biel’s body in those photos, she was a goddess. Superior to Jessica Alba of the time by far.

And I’m not sure how many women need to hear this, but the holocaust camp thin Hollywood chicks with ribs and bones showing are not appealing. The plastic surgery they are getting now is a horror show. The stretched face, the swollen lips that looked like they’ve been punched in the mouth… Ladies, please, being punched in the mouth is not an attractive look. 🙄

Athletic women are the hottest creatures on earth, even when they’re low body fat gives them a rather flat chest.

Obviously tastes differ; some men enjoy women with more curves. The full bodied Julia Roberts of Mystic Pizza was far superior to the skinny dieting version after she got famous.

In short, just don’t be fat and you will be well above average.

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Mikala Jamison's avatar

I'm only seeing it now, but I don't like this comment and will tell you why. I don't tolerate the shaming of body types/appearances around here; there's a way to talk about the forces that shape body/beauty pressures without criticizing individuals and the choices they make. I don't like comparing women to each other, I don't like the idea that women are exclusively doing things to appeal to men, and I don't like you telling people "just don't be fat," as if that's 1) easy and 2) necessarily an imperative toward any particular end. Please try to be more considerate next time if you're going to comment here

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Krista's avatar

I feel like this comment misses the point of the article. My takeaway is that body trends are fleeting, and trying desperately to appeal to male approval has the potential to lead you down unhealthy paths (especially when trying to emulate celebrities with far more time and resources compared to the average person). Not sure how you got to the point where you're responding by telling women what *you* think is sexy, like they should care.

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Jason Chastain's avatar

Well, I was saying natural is sexy, as in be confident and don’t go getting surgery on your face. Taking diet pills and looking super skinny isn’t healthy, healthy is attractive. All the fake stuff that women are damaging their bodies with to try to be more attractive, I’m encouraging them that they don’t need it. They look more attractive naturally. That’s what I was saying.

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Krista's avatar

I'm not trying to be a dick, but you're still centering what men find attractive as the primary issue of concern, rather than that women are making unhealthy choices to try and live up to societal standards of attractiveness. Rather than calling women who try to appeal to certain standards "horror shows" and "holocaust camp thin", take some time to deconstruct why women might have procedures, or go on diets. That constant pressure to be sexy/attractive (which your comments are furthering) is the exact reason many women have the procedures. But women can't win. Either they try to appeal and get called a horror show, or they don't and other men will denigrate them anyway for what a natural woman actually looks like, with the accompanying cellulite, stretch marks, acne, wrinkles, and other "flaws". The solution isn't to center the "natural woman" as a beauty ideal (since there is no "natural" way for all women to look, everyone has different body types and characteristics) it's to decentralize beauty from female worth.

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Jason Chastain's avatar

Krista, you’re not making much sense. First you’re dismissing my comments as “being centered” on what men like… but in the very next breath admit that women are trying to live up to beauty standards, which we all know significantly includes what men find attractive. Men.

All I was doing was reaffirming that natural lips, natural bodies are beautiful in their variety of forms. That you don’t need to surgically inflate your lips, etc. I don’t know how that affirmation comes across to you as negative. Of course there are different types of bodies, of course! And guess what? I’m saying that each of them are beautiful in their own way, that you don’t have to try to surgically alter one into whatever other type is popular at the moment.🙄

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Krista's avatar

I'm not sure what's not making sense. My point is that women should stop worrying about what men (like you) want all the time. My advice for you was to not, as a man, voice what you want women at large to do with their bodies. It shifts the conversation towards what standards of attractiveness should be, rather than why society is so concerned about what women look like in the first place.

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John Lawrence's avatar

I wonder if Swank's numbers had something to do with her role in Million Dollar Baby. Yeah, it was five years earlier, but I think that's the role Swank did that she's best known for.

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Eric Mader's avatar

Me I am sick to death of women who post about women’s bodies.

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Mikala Jamison's avatar

you may be in the wrong place

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Sandra Stephens's avatar

yeah but here you are, gobbling it up

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John Baker's avatar

Bulks it half the right word and half the wrong word for the examples given. They're definitely too hard, lean and muscular. They're a bit too thin as well. When it comes to women soft is preferable though with a little bit of firmness or lean in the centre. The right amount of tension is hard to describe. Rounded as well. It's natural and normal for women to have as though a layer of subcutaneous fat all around enough at least to smooth it out. Lost of definition, bones sticking protruding, muscles, etc is not good.

It's also reciprocal. The man is meant to be a little harder or bulkier. You see, I'm a brick and when I'm looking for a woman what I'm looking for is a pillow. It's like brick on brick action otherwise rather than brick on pillow. Brick on brick is worse than pillow on pillow.

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Mikala Jamison's avatar

This post is not an invitation for you to say what is “too” anything or what is “not good” with women’s bodies

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Anonymous's avatar

Shoulder-waist-hip ratio is also a thing, separate from muscularity, for both males and females. When women have extremely masculine proportions, or men have exceedingly feminine proportions, it's less of a "Yuck, what's wrong with women's bodies nowadays?" question, and more of a "What kinds of hormone disruptors are in our food and water?" question.

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Cary Cotterman's avatar

I can't speak for anyone else, but to me women with fit bodies resulting from athletic activity are very attractive. Bodies grotesquely bloated by bodybuilding and drugs are not. Hulk Hogan in a bikini is not my thing.

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Hol's Kitchen's avatar

Amen to that closing sentence.

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JD's avatar

Yeah, IDK about the survey, but I feel like there needs to be more discussion on proportions. There is healthy weight but also natural body growth from training/exercise. You can tell if people neglect working out parts of their body, as it looks odd/unnatural. Also, I think people can start to look odd if they grow certain muscles beyond what it naturally would be. I understand I am using the word "natural" and that its meaning differs by person, but I think there is an objective "average" that should be used.

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Some Vicious Mole's avatar

I’m so glad muscular women are in right now, and I hope it’s permanent. You have to give credit to superhero movies for this, say what you will about their effect on the culture in other respects.

The fact that the stupid ’00s “skinny vs. curvy” debate was won by “jacked” is a super significant cultural upheaval, and it’s primarily because of women in superhero movies imo.

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Ben Boquist's avatar

Think of baseball instead.

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Phil's avatar

That crossfit woman is clearly on steroids, she's a weird inclusion in an article about healthy body image.

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Mikala Jamison's avatar

i didn't say anything about whether her body has anything to do with healthy body image, i just included her as an example of the kind of muscularity some women achieve in the modern day that they didn't in the past

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Phil's avatar

You say " I shudder to imagine what those 2009 women would think of [her]", implying it's wrong of them to not like her body. The only problem you have with idolising muscular bodies it that it takes a lot of resources to achieve (the impliaction being it's unattainable).

Well those 2009 women are right about what the would think of the crossfit woman. And a much bigger problem than attainability when women idolise her body is that the steroids required are absolutely disastrous for health. How many bodybuilders do we need to see dropping dead in their 20s? Ultimately you chose that picture and spoke about it in at minimum neutral to positive tone, I think it was a bad choice :)

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