Comments on: Another reminder of those impossible standards

By: Interrobang

Interrobang — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 22:06:44 +0000

Thank goodness I work in a profession where, even if you get well-known for your work, you’re unlikely to ever become anything resembling a “public figure” (pun intentional in this situation). I don’t think I could handle the pressure without getting shirty at someone, and then I’d have to deal with being called fat and bitchy at the same time. Remind me again how sexism is supposedly a thing of the past?

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 06:17:45 +0000

What is wrong with people? I am raising three girls and I worry about the pressure they endure early on with the barrage of skantily clad hoochie dolls and revealing clothing lines being marketed to them. Society sucks. Good post!

By: car

car — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:33:40 +0000

Smartpatrol – I’ve never watched Lawson before, but now I love her.

By: preying mantis

preying mantis — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 17:05:34 +0000

“I absolutely HATE that commercial. One stereotype (sexy, skinny girl) pitted against another stereotype (mousy, average girl) …. over scraps of food, with the supposed irony that for the first time ever the skinny girl is actually envious of the mousy girl. And to rub salt in the wounds, the mousy girl actually lights up at such a compliment as a skinny girl be jealous of her poor sad self.”

I actually figured that whole thing had to do with soap operas (it’s funny because women watch them, you see). The dialogue, the thin actress, film style, etc. seemed to fit, and nothing else really made sense. Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time a commercial just didn’t make any sense while still managing to be offensive.

By: Isabel

Isabel — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 15:22:14 +0000

Go to the gym, my ass (–the size of should always be irrelevant to other people). Go to the gym? Go to college. Go tutor kids. Go work to make your family secure. Go call your grandmother. Go do the laundry, for God’s sake.

I think I love you.

By: verte

verte — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 11:39:49 +0000

I have mixed feelings about Ms Lawson. On the one hand, yes, she is representative of a different kind of body that men find attractive, etc, etc … BUT! I kind of feel she’s rattling against feminism. There’s one sequence I recall on Nigella Bites where she reminds her audience that she is not ‘some deranged superwoman’. I can’t help but think that her traditionally feminine shape and her domesticity are kind of interlinked, especially in terms of why men find her attractive.

By: Smartpatrol

Smartpatrol — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 09:56:41 +0000

I've had a baaaaaaaaaaaaad crush on Ms. Lawson for some time now. I watched this video of her (Warning: Chocolate + Lawson = Sinfully Delicious) & all I could think of was how badly I wanted to be the spoon she's using near the end of the clip. I love to cook, & her picture is the centrepiece of a mini-shrine/veneration shelf just above the stove in my kitchen. So my fury over stupid comments made about her don't come from a completely unbiased, objective source. What does deflate the stupid things said about her is picturing her actually uttering this quote

‘STFU, I am beautiful’.

& suddenly I can't stop laughing.

By: ELM

ELM — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 03:32:20 +0000

Wow – the Times must have thought Julia Childs was built like an elephant… and when is the write up about Paul Prudhomes less-than-svelt figure?

By: Kat

Kat — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 02:15:15 +0000

Speaking of setting women against each other, has anyone seen the new Quizno’s commercial? It’s the “Flatbread Sammies” one.

Oh I am so glad you brought that up. I absolutely HATE that commercial. One stereotype (sexy, skinny girl) pitted against another stereotype (mousy, average girl) …. over scraps of food, with the supposed irony that for the first time ever the skinny girl is actually envious of the mousy girl. And to rub salt in the wounds, the mousy girl actually lights up at such a compliment as a skinny girl be jealous of her poor sad self.

Ugh. Boycott Quizno’s. Make them stop the absurdity.

By: annejumps

annejumps — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 02:13:43 +0000

And it’s not even as simple as fat vs. thin. If you’re thin, even though you have a certain amount of thin privilege you have to be the right type of thin. Take it from me, an Olive Oyl type, a.ka. wrong type of thin. The entire gag of the Olive Oyl-Popeye-Bluto relationship was that they were fighting over someone like her.

And too, in the past in the West, when only the relatively wealthy were able to consistently afford rich food, being plump was desirable and being thin was not. It was about status. This is about trying to hold people to whatever standards are most difficult to meet at the time.