Well she’s not now. Don’t get your Calvin Klein’s in a bunch, it’s not like anyone is calling K. Mo. fat. (Hmm… K.Mo. Yeah, okay, I can see why that never caught on.) But in today’s game of anorexic roulette, the Waif herself comes out looking rather… normal.
Take Kate in the ’90s. Not even any visible ribs! And real breasts!! And yet every major publication hailed her as the malnourished poster child for Heroin Chic.
And who can forget her famous CK undies ad? Sure, you can see her hip bones. And her thighs probably wouldn’t touch if she put her foot down. (What exactly is she doing there? Checking for plantar warts?) But her arms have meat on them and you can’t count the sinews in her knees.
Then there is this magazine cover – beautiful in the simple way that she made famous – from 2001 (as far as I can tell). No model these days would go out with those collar bones! Where is the pop? The shoulder nub? Her cheeks even lack their signature sunken appearance (probably because she is, for once, posing with her mouth closed).
Even today, as evidenced by her current reign as October’s Vogue cover girl, she’s thin but, admit it, looks kinda normal – at least by media standards.
See, Kate just isn’t serious enough about continuing this Auschwitz chic that she started. If she were, she’d be doing the “banana bag” diet which is neither as porny nor as healthy as it sounds. The awkward moniker comes from the yellow color of the fluid in the IV bags. The fluid that starlets are mainline-ing in an effort to get their vital nutrients without the calories.
According to the Daily Mail, “Designed as IV drips for alcoholic patients in hospitals (who are undernourished from drinking more than they eat), this yellow-coloured liquid is being snapped up by those who opt out of eating in order to fit into their Kova & T Latex leggings.”
Why would anyone feel the need to be so skinny that they would choose to get their multivitamin via a saline drip? Because they’re competing with this:
And this:
Like I said, remember when Kate Moss was skinny?
Great post Charlotte! I was just thinking about this recently, how it used to be desirable to be slim, maybe even skinny, but now you have to show signs of malnourishment before you’re considered thin! Bones are in! But we’re supposed to believe it’s not an eating disorder when celebrities are finding new ways every day to not eat!! I must admit, I do enjoy reading about these people in the magazines, and seeing the scrawny pics, so maybe I’m as much to blame for the media’s repeated emphasis on heroin-chic. It just seems sad to me that young girls (and me sometimes..) aspire to an unhealthy and in most cases unattainable, ideal.
Its scary to put those pics side by side.
WOW. I had never realised quite how un-skinny heroin chic really was. Kate just looks naturally really slim here. Second Shivers about having to look emaciated before you’re even called skinny these days. I always laugh when the older generation in my family refer to me as skinny, but actually I probably AM to them. But compared to current media thinking I am Lil Miss Chubs.
What hope do our poor brains have?
Awesome post!
TA x
I’m with Shivers and TA. Although you just pointed out something that a lot of people are realizing: that in the 80s and 90s, what was considered desirable was at least some form of healthy.
Now it’s “who can find the best way to not eat”.
Always interesting material!
Thanks Charlotte!
You always have such great posts:) And I along with the others very much agree with Shivers- its amazing how in today’s world, “thin” is actually being emaciated. So if people are feeling the pressure to look thin, they’re going to automatically assume that they have to go beyond being thin and end up being faint and bony.
It is scary to think about – a society that calls Jennifer Love Hewitt fat (as if!) now has thin Kate Moss looking normal. So people on tv who are actually normal size (like Jordin Sparks) come off looking huge in comparison. Or take the Grey’s Anatomy cast. Meredith (I don’t remember her real name) is super super skinny, and Callie looks large next to her. But if I stood next to Callie, we’d probably have similar figures.
I’m so glad every time I read about some model finally getting to eat again. More Real Women on our magazine covers, please!!!
When I read the title I was like, haha Kate Moss not skinny, yeah right. But the picture comparison is crazy…you’re absolutely correct. It’s scary.
Makes me think in 20 years models won’t walk the catwalk anymore, but be rolled down in wheelchairs and strechers because they’ll be too weak to stand…but they sure will look pretty (barf).
So true- i was too young to pay attention when she was at her peak, but i did hear how everyone criticized her for being too then. Everytime i see her i think- yeah shes thin, but I could name about 50 celebs thinnner than her. thats because they just keep on shrinking.
Kelly Turner
http://www.groundedfitness.com
I’m with Shivers. Why in the world does malnourished=thin? In 20 years, there won’t be fashion shows, because the models’ legs won’t be able to hold them up long enough to walk the catwalk!
I keep hearing about all this pushback against the super-skinny gals, and companies wanting healthier, more normal models representing them. I have yet to see any of this talk turn to action. Dove is trying, but they’re “real women” are still well below the average size in America.
Who looks at fashion models anyway?
Yeah, I’m with Quix. I saw the post title and thought, “What? She’s TOTALLY skinny!” But after seeing those pictures . . . she’s really not, by the current media standards, is she?
That’s freakin’ terrifying.
Kate Moss, yes.
Those last two pix, yechh!
I am a guy, btw.
Charlotte, this is so crazy. Is it because now, every person in a magazine or print ad is photoshopped into impossible proportions, so now for TV and movies, we need actresses who actually look like this, or they look too fat to us?
It’s funny because when I go out to the movies or the mall, the girls who aren’t a size 0 all seem to be a bit more overweight than my contemporaries were in the 80’s and ’90s.
I remember looking at Kate Moss in the 90’s and thinking “Yikes! I hope this trend doesn’t continue!”
Damn.
ha! TOTALLY checking for plantar warts!
I feel like you can def tell her age more in the most recent cover…she surely has that ‘look’ of a model. It is crazy to look back at her old pics and know that people were freaking out over what today would be considered merely thin. PS the cover of US Weekly this week is ridic – the girl from Full House loses weight all on her own!!
That vogue cover is artistic and doesn’t highlight visible collar bones. That’s a step in the right direction. I wasn’t expecting an entire post on Kate Moss, but I like the spin you put on it.