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How many studies have you done about childhood obesity? I can assure you that plenty of fat people are born to mothers who ate healthful diets during pregnancy. I've done research on this subject for the past 12 years. There are many people who are born fat and stay fat, regardless of what regimens and "diets" they're put on. Even having weight loss surgery doesn't help these people get to a "normal" weight. But I know it's much easier for people to assume that someone must have done something "wrong" somewhere along the line, but it's simply not true. Some people ARE born with the predisposition to be fat. And even if they weren't, it's okay to BE fat, if that's what they are. It does more mental damage to hound a child about his or her weight incessantly. Some people are born with satiety issues. If you have more of the peptide, ghrelin, you'll be hungrier and feel less satisfied, even though you may eat the same as a normal weight person. There are ways to counteract obesity, but to say that simply putting a child on a "healthy diet" will eliminate a weight problem is overly simplistic. It's a very complex issue. If it were as simple as "diet and exercise" there would be no obesity.
It seems so suspect when people talk about their "concern for her health." I think it's just that this woman is getting attention and people feel it's undeserved because she hasn't starved herself to fit into the mold. It seems to really make people angry and upset. They seem to feel as if she's somehow cheated her way to where she is or something. I don't quite understand how so many women can begrudge another woman success. If anything, we should be celebrating her confidence. I'm always happy for other women when they are happy and successful.
Anyway, I'm exhausted from talking about this subject, so I'll say good night now. No ill will toward anyone.
I haven't done any studies on childhood obesity. However, I was a fat child with a fat mom, a fat dad, two fat sisters and a skinny brother (not sure how he managed that, but he did). Now, I have a fat sister and a skinny brother. My mom died at age 59 from a form of cancer that is caused by obesity. My dad died at 52 from colon cancer -- which I'm sure you know is caused by poor diet. My oldest sister died at age 44 from diabetes. Believe me when I say I see obesity as a health issue. It is. My mom used to tell a story about our family doctor. She would paint him out to be such a jerk (he kind of was) because the first time she took my sisters to see him for a check up he told her they were fat and were going to die young if she didn't start feeding them correctly. My mom was outraged. How dare he! He was even a smoker!! Where does he get off? Maybe you'd think he was angry at her for not obeying. Well, he was right.
I have been my optimal weight most of my life because at age 14 I decided I didn't want to be fat anymore. I was tired of feeling embarrassed and uncomfortable all the time. I lost weight rapidly. I didn't go about it the right way because I didn't really understand proper nutrition then. I restricted my calories far too much. But, I did go from borderline obese (thinking I was born that way and would always be on the heavy side) to thinner than most. I'm actually a naturally thin person. Who knew? When I feed my body the way doctors recommend it be fed, a lean muscular figure emerges. Now, I eat a highly nutritious diet and exercise -- I hope I won't succumb to an early death like my family did.
I don't dislike fat people. Most of my loved ones were fat people. I wish they were still here. It kills me to think that the only thing that kept my mom fat was the king sized snickers, bag of m&ms or oreos she consumed pretty much nightly. That was pretty much it. She was over 250 pounds (at 5'3"). If I knew then what I know now and she would listen to me she would be alive today. It doesn't take much to be thin -- you just have to avoid certain foods and more importantly consume lots of other healthy foods so your body isn't always in panic mode from lack of nutrition. When I ate a sugary, high fat diet as a kid I was always hungry -- because even though I was consuming an extra 1500 calories than I should have my body was constantly telling me it was starving. It couldn't do anything useful with the junk I was putting in it. Now, with the fuel I give it, it's always satiated. I can take or leave sweets, fried foods, alcohol, etc. I indulge fairly frequently. I just don't try to make a meal of crap. I eat clean about 80 percent of the time ... that's all someone needs to do. Pretty reasonable if you think about it.
I would love to see your studies about children who are just born fat. I have an avid, lifelong interest in this topic, and I have never read anything like that. I am aware some people are more prone to heaviness than others for a variety of genetic reasons, but that's the difference between someone whose optimal weight is 100 pounds vs someone who is 130 or so. We're not talking about vanity pounds here. We're talking about life threatening obesity.
Tess is a stranger to me. I'm not overly concerned with her health. I do wish her long life and good health like I do everyone, but I have no vested interest in her personally. When I look at her though I see death. She's 29? She's got 11 good years left probably if she maintains that weight. That makes me sad. A woman of that age should be looking forward to decades of optimal health. Instead, she's going to have a knee blow out, or worse a pancreas, before she knows it. There's so much more to life than ho hos. I hope she discovers that before it's too late.
I do admire her confidence and celebrate her success. More power to her. I wish she'd quit starving herself though and start giving her body more of what it wants and less poison.
I don't get it. What does the fake health concerns have to do with her getting paid to wear clothing in her size. Whatever! The ads she is modeling in are for clothing. The only thing they are promoting is "stylish clothing." There is no health message. Or "lifestyle message." If you think she is unattractive or the clothes are you can turn the page!
This is my big beef with the universe. Whether or not you think she is attractive, unattractive, too big, too small, too whatever it has absolutely no bearing on her ability to showcase clothing in her size. Why is this an issue?
Children are not "born fat". They are made fat usually by the mother.
Overfeeding and feeding the worst possible foods to give a child is what makes them fat. Also, its no joke that kids like bad foods like Rice Krispy Treats, doughnuts, cake, etc. so its up to the mom to manage and monitor their childs intake of that horrible stuff. But what do many moms of obese kids do? They let their emotions get in the way of common sense judgement so they want their kids to be happy and not cry so they give in and let the little guy/gal have those doughnuts they been crying about.
This is my big beef with the universe. Whether or not you think she is attractive, unattractive, too big, too small, too whatever it has absolutely no bearing on her ability to showcase clothing in her size. Why is this an issue?
My guess is that its an issue due to her extreme obesity. I mean, she's Gilbert Grape's mother size large. It has to do with portraying an extremely unhealthy look and in my opinion, celebrating and poor health. The plus sized models in the vid I posted earlier in this thread were totally fine. This gal is morbidly obese and the tattoos and foul mouthed, chip-on-her-shoulder bad attitude doesnt help at all either.
My 7 year old daughter saw her on my screen as said "Wow, she's really really fat. She needs to eat more spinach and broccoli so she can get healthy. There is no way she can do gymnastics like that. Is that what happens when you eat too much bad food and drink beer?". My answer - "Yes". The beer part she was alluding to the fact that my wife always tell me to not drink beer becuase its super unhealthy and will make me fat.
I don't get it. What does the fake health concerns have to do with her getting paid to wear clothing in her size. Whatever! The ads she is modeling in are for clothing. The only thing they are promoting is "stylish clothing." There is no health message. Or "lifestyle message." If you think she is unattractive or the clothes are you can turn the page!
This is my big beef with the universe. Whether or not you think she is attractive, unattractive, too big, too small, too whatever it has absolutely no bearing on her ability to showcase clothing in her size. Why is this an issue?
This is true. My concern is that the very fact that we need a model as big as Tess to showcase clothing because of the growing segment of people that are morbidly obese like her. People used to not be this fat. Every year the average size clothing gets larger and people are fatter than ever-it's great to be confident in your skin but Im concerned about the acceptance of obesity when we all know that no amount of confidence can masks the many health problems that arise when your that size. My dad is fat. He's in his fifities and not even as big as Tess. He's on so many medications its crazy. He has skin problems, breathing problems, sleeping problems, etc. It's a huge concern for us because we know that he's risking his life being that large and not doing anything about it. Yes he pretends to be confident about it but he's as big as he is because like Tess he had a bad childhood and ate to deal with it and now that's how he deals with stress. And all is does is make him worse not better. Showcasing models that are this large essentially means that we've come to the point in accepting that being morbidly obese is okay because let's face it there are a large group of people that are morbidly obese that like my dad are very unhealthy and hiding behind a cloak of fake confidence. My mom said that growing up a person that was fat was considered to be similar to a woman that is a size 12 these days. My mom grew up in the seventies. In four decades weve seen that fat becomes fatter and that people want to feel good about being that fat despite the fact that it costs financially and health wise. Yes beauty is relative so I don't have to find her attractive--Im not plus size so I guess I'm not that market she's being catered to but I think about little girls that will identify with Tess and instead of trying to lose the weight embrace it and open themselves up to a lot of medications and problems. There's a girl in my class who is morbidly obese with terrible skin that she scratches all the time-patches of ezcema etc. The same issue my morbidly obese cousin has and my fat but not obese dad has. I could go on and on, but I do think it's more than showcasing clothes it's showing that we've got to this point where this many people need someone as big as Tess to showcase clothes to begin with. Why are people getting so big, and how does that get remedied? That's always in afterthought of mine when I see stories like this. I suppose Im slightly disturbed that obesity is now this large growing epidemic and a lot of people really don't see anything wrong with it...
If this was only an issue of showing clothes for an unrepresented segment then why currently do we mainly have models that are size 12 and higher, super thin models, muscular atheletic models but we have yet to have popular models gracing covers that aren't in any of these extremes? Models that wear single digit sizes but that arent stick thin, or super muscular. We seem to emphasize this need for models to show off clothes for those that wear the size but we have large group of sizes and body types not represented by the current segment of popular main stream models. Women like Tess that are chosen to model are chosen for a reason-it's a statement, a shock value if you will-it's not really all about showing off clothes and we all know it. This is why this is being made such a big deal by the media and news outlets because of the statement or message it sends out about fat acceptance. This is why I suspect that people are divided-some like it because they feel represented for once, others have problems with the message it sends.
I guess I'm in the latter group.
Last edited by Faith2187; 05-21-2015 at 02:42 PM..
Now, here is plus size runway modeling done right. The OP in this thread referred to Tess as being a "plus sized runway phenom" which is hilariously wrong and ridiculous.
What plus sized modeling is supposed to look like. When you see this, you see beautiful women who are larger than most, but your attention is on the clothing and how fantastic it looks, your attention is NOT on the model. Had they had Tess walk the runway immediately attention would be on her and her obesity, not on the clothing.
Actually, for me, immediately attention for Tess would be on her tats. They are a real distraction, IMO.
In the video you posted, their outfits were what drew my attention.
My guess is that its an issue due to her extreme obesity. I mean, she's Gilbert Grape's mother size large. It has to do with portraying an extremely unhealthy look and in my opinion, celebrating and poor health. The plus sized models in the vid I posted earlier in this thread were totally fine. This gal is morbidly obese and the tattoos and foul mouthed, chip-on-her-shoulder bad attitude doesnt help at all either.
Sorry, have to respectfully disagree TH is as big as Gilbert Grape's mother in that film. The woman in that movie was quite immobile & IIRC larger than TH. The thing about TH is that she appears somewhat height/weight proportionate.
I don't get it. What does the fake health concerns have to do with her getting paid to wear clothing in her size. Whatever! The ads she is modeling in are for clothing. The only thing they are promoting is "stylish clothing." There is no health message. Or "lifestyle message." If you think she is unattractive or the clothes are you can turn the page!
This is my big beef with the universe. Whether or not you think she is attractive, unattractive, too big, too small, too whatever it has absolutely no bearing on her ability to showcase clothing in her size. Why is this an issue?
And yet thin models are a command declared to all women and girls that they must be anorexic. It's an absurd double standard and people here are talking about this model in this context because she and others say that she is a role model to women and girls while also putting down thinner, healthier women and girls.
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It's an absurd double standard and people here are talking about this model in this context because she and others say that she is a role model to women and girls while also putting down thinner, healthier women and girls.
