Skinny Bitches

 

Hailing from California in the US, where “the clothes are big and the people are skinny”, the global membership unanimously acknowledges the mounting backlash against the “thinner side of life”.

 

One of the group’s more active participants is 17 year old Shannon from Brisbane, whose size 4 body struggles to find clothes that fit.

 

More concerning for her, she tells, is finding a place for herself that isn’t being banned from catwalks or stereotyped as ‘ED (Eating Disorder) chic’ in the current media climate on women’s body image.

 

“If you really want to find somewhere where skinny people are being discriminated against,” Shannon says, “look at the modelling and television industries”.

 

Public debate on what to do in response to the skinny crisis that is blamed for growing numbers of women with eating disorders and lowering self-esteem on body image, has lead to a number of polarising ‘initiatives’.

 

Prior to Australian Fashion Week in Sydney this year, calls were made to follow in Spain’s footsteps and ban overly thin models from the catwalk in order to dispel the long-term media idolisation of ‘unrealistic’ images of the female physique.

 

“Real women have real curves,” says Dove’s global ‘Campaign For Real Beauty’, a leading initiative by Unilever’s global brand to challenge the status-quo of beauty’s “narrow, stifling stereotype” and replace it with a “healthier, more democratic view of beauty”.

 

“I think it’s a great campaign,” says Sydney-based psychologist Louise Edwards, “I’m so happy they’re doing it. I think it’s fantastic!”

 

Findings from the 2004 global report on “The Real Truth About Beauty” commissioned by Dove showed that over three-quarters of women said they would like to see the media change the way it represents beauty.

 

When asked in which two ways, if any, the media could be doing a better job of depicting women in the media and advertising, the top three choices included portraying women of different body weights and shapes, women of different ages and portraying everyday women as well as models.

 

As Dove launched its advertising campaigns across print and television of beauty in ‘all shapes and sizes’, one size in particular was missing completely.

 

“In terms of what they’re trying to do,” says Louise Adams, “I guess you can see why there’s no ‘skinny girls’ – given that they’re the ones that were put up for such a long time.”

 

“They [media] take the stance that they are portraying ‘real women’,” says skinny-girl Shannon, “when in actual fact they are omitting those who are slender.

 

“Last I checked, all women were real and all were beautiful in their own way.

 

“The media has just decided to paint skinny people as the public enemy.”

 

“It’s in the nature of any kind of social change that there’s going to be a backlash for a while,” Louise says, “then it’ll settle down into some form of more moderate ground.”

 

Most of the public discourse on the matter is taking place online, with forums firing up for both the anti-skinny and pro-skinny argument.

 

For the former, another MySpace group has set itself against the backdrop of Dove’s ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ – it literally features images from the campaign as its background – and choses to reinforce the stereotypes the Dove campaign seeks to dispel about what makes ‘real beauty’.

 

‘Real Women Don’t Weigh 80 Pounds’ splinters the well-made intentions of the Dove Campaign.

 

The group recognises that “there are so many women out there who feel inadequate because they don’t measure up to the impossible ‘beauty’ standards set by our culture”.

 

Unfortunately, all good that the group sets out to achieve is seemingly discounted as it reflexes back onto there polarisation of stereotypes that contribute to the larger picture of unrealistic body-image for women.

 

“We are women who are tired of the stereotypes,” the group says, “or sex crazed females who represent our gender as a whole.”

 

“That does wonders for my self-esteem,” Shannon says, “You can’t just target another group of people. That in no way promotes acceptance of physical diversity. It just gives people something else to hate.”

 

“I get taught in my school health class that ‘boys don’t like skinny girls’ and that they like ‘girls with curves’.

 

“I’m not saying that we should all be taught that ‘fat is ugly’ but it seems that all everyone does these days is say ‘skinny is ugly’.”

 

In ‘The Skinny Petition’, there are many stories about skinny girls and women that have been subjected to negative assumptions about their body image that as a group or culture, we would like to be seen as collectively trying to fight against.

 

One of the biggest and most surprising concerns arise as multiple girls and women online and offline describe the habitual teasing of their weight and eating habits that have lead to paranoia and preoccupation with their skinny frames and diet, habits common amongst sufferers of eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia and binge-eating.

 

“It’s entirely possible for them to engage in those kinds of behaviours,” says Louise, “like covering themselves up or making sure they eat in public in order to protect themselves against perceived discrimination.”

 

Kristy has long since left school, but claims her tiny frame became an issue for her by five years of age.

 

“Kids at school started calling me chicken-legs and fatty (being sarcastic),” Kristy says, “It was then that I started realising I was different.

 

“‘Fatty’ was the main comment I used to get. Not realising at the time that they were being sarcastic, I started thinking I was actually fat.”

 

For Kristy, it lead to a case of anorexia by the time she was nine years of age and the only threat that could make her start eating was a last resort intimidation of hospitalisation and subjection to needles that her GP knew all too well she feared.

 

“I was on a diet of lamingtons and coke-a-cola because that’s all I would eat!” Kristy is now able to laugh about it.

 

Still approximately ten kilograms below ‘healthy’ for her height, she is clearly exasperated at her continual attempts to gain those few extra kilos.

 

“I ate Maccas every day for a year” she says, “It did nothing, I didn’t gain one kilogram. It doesn’t make any difference to my weight if I eat healthily or not, jus to how I feel energy wise.

 

“I even tried body building supplements. It still did nothing.”

 

While self-promoting Posh Spice is being spotted in LA flicking through pages of tough-love diet guide ‘Skinny Bitch’, other ‘skinnies’ such as Kristy and Shannon back in Australia find it more difficult to embrace their size and reap the perceived benefits it brings.

 

“It does bother me,” Kristy says, “But at the same point, I’m kinda used to it. I don’t think people realise the struggle I go through on a daily basis to put on weight. They just say ‘Oh, you’re so lucky!’

 

“I mean, I nearly missed out on my current job because of my weight!

 

“The guy who did my interview told me that he nearly didn’t give me the job,” she explains, “because I’m so little, he wasn’t sure if I would be able to face the big CEOs.

 

“He was afraid that they [the CEOs] might stand over me and try to intimidate me.”

 

And did they? “Not really,” she says, “nowhere as bad as the retail stores anyway.”

 

The opposite of what many may think, the retail environment exposes a contradiction in the ‘search for size zero’ many would have us believe the fashion world advocates.

 

“A lot of people look at me strangely” Kristy says, “especially the sales girls when a size 6 is too big.”

 

On the other side of the counter as well, Shannon tells about one situation where a customer chose to have a “dig” about her weight.

 

“He asked if we were busy, I said yes and that it had been a long day but that luckily I was getting my lunch break soon” she says.

 

“He responded by taking his bag and smiling and saying, ‘Yeah and while you’re on that lunch break you could always try eating something’.”

 

It seems a principle of the chicken or the egg – does a girl or woman’s skinny frame come from the a place of low self-esteem entangled eating disorders or does her body only invite commentary that causes low self-esteem that may eventually lead to an eating disorder?

 

The first step in combating the low self-esteem that can be the precursor or effect of the skinny girl or woman’s body would be looking at what they’re telling themselves about their bodies, says our psychologist Louise.

 

“We all talk to ourselves,” she says, “we all have a little commentary and when it comes to self-esteem, it’s what you’re saying about your body or about how you look.

 

“Test it out with reality! It’s interesting because women with eating disorders have mental filters. So they’ll walk down the street and compare themselves to other women but they’ll be comparing themselves to the very young, very thin women. It’s almost like anyone over the age of 30 isn’t there!

 

“Pay attention to all the women on the street, not just the ones you perceive as reality touchstones. That’s what I mean about reality – it’s about getting back into contact with reality.

 

“You just don’t realise how much you screen the world until you start looking at things like this,” Louise explains.

 

You could be forgiven for thinking most women do this on a daily basis, “I think it’s really normal!” she reassures.

 

“I also think that, psychologically, it’s just a matter of the extent to which it interferes with your life. So we might do it, but if you tend to do it all the time and then you really beat yourself up, that’s when things can get dangerous.”

 

A word of advice from Kristy, who has seen most sides of the skinny side of the debate: “The comments will always be there unfortunately,” she says.

 

“The best advice I can give… If you feel healthy, then you are. Forget about the numbers – they just don’t mean a thing!

 

“Just be happy with who you are, as hard as that can be some days. On the bad days – stay away from the mirror.

 

“And next time someone says ‘go eat a burger’, reply… ‘Don’t mind if I do!’.” 

 

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