What if you were your goal weight or size? Would being a size zero (or whatever) make you any happier than you are now? Would it change who you are? An interesting documentary out of the UK called Super Slim Me sent two female journalists on a quest to achieve the gold-standard of weight loss: a size zero. Cameras follow the girls as they try every (legal) tactic in the dieting manual.
I haven’t seen this yet – I don’t have cable – but my friend recorded it for me and I get to watch it when her out-of-town family finally leaves in a week. (I know!! Who would pick their family over a neurotic friend and a BBC special?!?) I have, however, read every article I could find on it – call it schadenfreude – and watched all the clips available on YouTube.
I am looking for the answer to the perrenial Hollywood question: are they (you know who I’m talking about!) truly naturally thin, like they claim? Do they really achieve their glamorous tiny figures with sensible diet and exercise? Or do they go to extreme measures for their physiques?
“Just Ignore It – Don’t Let Them Make you Feel Crappy”
A commenter on Leslie G’s fantastic blog, The Weighting Game said this in response to a general outcry against the level of airbrushing on the Marie Claire Christina Aguilera cover for this month. I wish she were right. But the thing is – and this is why the Size Zero question really matters – it’s not just about telling yourself it doesn’t matter. These people – they – set the societal standard for beauty. It is insidious how these things worm their way into our collective conscious. You may not actively tell yourself that you equate thin with beauty, honesty, wealth, fecundity, intelligence, confidence and will-power but scientists say we definitely do. So are they selling us a lie?
“Some told me the size zero craze was a myth, that people weren’t really starving themselves to be that size – but in my quest, I discovered they clearly were.”
Dawn Porter, one of the journalists that participated in the Super Slim Me experiment wrote a telling article about her experience. So, please read some of her thoughts on the subject and then ask yourself – What if you actually got what you wanted?
“But I couldn’t fit into any clothes – the biggest size the designers Prada and Gucci stocked was as U.S. size 6 (a UK 10) which I was still a long way from being able to get into. I was appalled. How can anyone think this is normal? Are the designers telling us if we’re bigger-than a size [6] 10, we don’t deserve to wear their clothes? “
“But then a terrible thing started to happen. As the weight continued to melt away, I really liked how I looked. For the first time, my tummy disappeared, and even though I was permanently hungry, I was excited to see how much more I could lose. “
“My mindset started to change. Food was all I could think about. At night, I’d lie awake, starving hungry, fantasising about the first meal I’d have when I came off this diet.(Throughout the experiment, the hunger never went away – that’s another myth.) “
“But for all my joy at losing weight by week seven the depression kicked in. I’d never suffered depression in my life, yet here I was, so miserable I would cry for no reason. As well as the insomnia, I started to have violent mood swings, yelling at my friends over nothing. I had terrible headaches, and extreme constipation. It was awful. “
“It got to the point where I hated leaving the flat because I was terrified of what I might be given to eat, or whether I’d have the willpower to turn it down. “
“Even though I’d never looked so slim, I’d also never felt so insecure about my body.”
“although the doctor monitoring me every week said it was OK to finish the experiment, she warned that another month would have caused irreversible damage. “
“I’d never felt so unattractive in my life. When I asked a male friend how I looked, he said that I wasn’t as sexy as usual because I didn’t have the confidence I usually have. “
“But if men didn’t find me sexy, women kept telling me I looked amazing.”
“It made me realise how many people comment on thinness all the time. As a society, we’re obsessed by it. “
“What kept me sane throughout the diet, and stopped me from tipping over the edge and wanting to keep the new skinny self I’d worked so hard to achieve, was the realisation that my life was no better, or more successful, or colourful, when I was thin than before. In fact, the reverse was true. It was the single worst time of my life. The fact that I’d lost weight didn’t make a scrap of difference, other than to make me miserable and ill. “
“Men found me unappealing and women were jealous of me. I’d gained nothing, other than the knowledge that thin does not equal happy. “
“The Hollywood size zero is just a designer label for an eating disorder.”
Speaking as one guy, size zero is GROSS. I don’t want to see a bunch of ribs showing. Fit is beautiful.
Ah Andrew – now you’ve gone and done it! Every woman who reads this site is going to want to marry you. And that could be a-w-k-w-a-r-d, if you know what I mean;)
Ok I hate vanity sizing even more now! I’m a size 00 but I do not look sickly skinny nor are my ribs showing. I’m just really petite. I hate the so-called glamour and perfection associated with the size zero. A size zero on a 5’1 woman is an entirely different thing from a size zero on a 5’11 woman!
sigh… sorry for the rambling I just wish we could do measurements like men do and worry about the cut of the clothes and how they fit as opposed to what size it is. Why starve yourself to fit into a size zero if a nicely cut skirt/shirt/pants looks great on the body one has without starving it! As the woman from Super Skinny said she was much happier when she wore size 10s and could eat and drank as she pleased.
I loved this post. I think this concept is so underappreciated – the irony of it all!
I think most women (and I am among them) just don’t get it: If you are not happy at a size 12, or 8, or 2, then you probably won’t be happy at a size zero.
I am pretty small – I wear a size 1 on average – and it’s not natural for me. I have to work hard at it. I have to watch what I eat and exercise and all of that. Now, most of what I do is for health – and because lord I love me some running – but some of it has to do with vanity. And even then I’m not satisfied.
A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting a friend of mine who lives a few hours away. As I was doing my hair, she asked me what size jeans I was wearing. When I told her, she had this jealous look and said, “Oh to be so skinny.” I told her something then that I hadn’t shared with anyone else: it doesn’t matter. No matter what you weigh, no matter what size you are, you will always find something that you don’t like. There is always some body thing to be unhappy about. Always. At one point, I was even thinner than this (granted, I had some *cough* eating issues *cough*), but I was still not happy. And maybe my disorder had a good deal to do with it, but I don’t think so. I hate to generalize, but I think most women are the same. We can always find SOMETHING that could be better, trimmer, fitter.
I wish that it wasn’t this way. I wish that I could look in the mirror and say, “I love my legs because hold me up and let me run marathons and walk from the living room to the bathroom!,” but sadly, it is not that simple.
Okay, I will get off my soapbox now. And try not to post any more really-really-long answers like this for a little while.
Never censor your posts Alex! Take as much space as you need – you are exactly right. Love what you all had to say.
Anon – you are right, a size 0 on a 5′ woman is a world different than a 6′ woman.