Okay. I get it. The Skinny concept is going too far.

[Baitball Blogger]

I was a Twilight Mom in the beginning. Now, I'm glad it's almost over. However, as a mom I was thrilled that the franchise gave many kids their acting start. I followed the fan sites from movie to movie and got my first indoctrination into the movie making world, but also had a chance to see what the kids were up to in other projects.

And then, I came across this photo:

http://www.popoholic.com/2012/02/03/warning-ashley-greenes-ultra-sexy-stems-in-skin-tight-jeans-may-actually-make-you-lose-consciousness/

I can't believe they are glamorizing Ashley Green's near anorexic-looking effort! She was perfect before, now she looks like she's preparing for a twelve year old role or Concentration Camp survivor.

Here's the main article:

http://www.popoholic.com/2012/04/25/ashley-greenes-post-workout-hotness-continues/

[Scuba]

1. I never got it...

... but then Peter Paul Rubens is my favorite artist.

[arcane1]

2. I can't even view it at work:

Your request was denied because of its content categorization: "Entertainment;Intimate Apparel/Swimsuit;Nudity"


I had no idea that was even a category!

[Bruce Wayne]

3. You shouldn't be looking at nude swimsuits at work.

Unless swimsuits have clothes on, they're unfit to be seen.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. She is fully clothed.

But her legs are inhumanely thin.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. I have no idea who she is but she has no rear and her legs are

more like tooth picks.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

6. I don't know who the girl is.

Never seen her before. That being said, the second picture looks like she's a ballerina. She doesn't really look unhealthy, she just looks like a ballet dancer. I'm a big girl and I'm REALLY critical of the skinny crap, believe me.
I just googled her. OK. She looks like someone told her she'd get more parts if she lost more weight. She was way prettier before.

[leftynyc]

8. Not really

I go to the ballet all the time and they have very muscular calves and thighs. This one just has really skinny legs and no ass. But I have a woman in my office that has 2 kids and looks just like her - and she eats nonstop all day - if she wasn't my friend, I'd kill her. Some people are just built that way but that person on the site saying she's fit just cuz of how she looks in jeans is very foolish.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

9. Agreed.

It's like my mother. We take her to Chili's, she eats an enormous plate of food and two desserts and has never weighed over 100 pounds in her life. It kills me I didn't get that gene.

[leftynyc]

11. If we didn't love them, we'd hate them

My friend at the office has a heart of gold but when she turns sideways, she practically disappears. My father has the no ass, no thighs genes - I inherited moms.

[JNelson6563]

54. Thank you!

I am one of the people who doesn't gain weight. When I was pregnant I ate non-stop so I would have big strong babies (and managed to gain about 40 pounds! It required eating almost all the time though.)

I look very much like the girl in those pictures but I feel self-conscious about it and would NEVER wear such accentuating things. OMG.

I usually try to hide how thin I am. If you think being overweight draws ire, yeah, try being the skinny girl in a room full of women who battle their weight. Want to talk about "mean girls"...that shit can get pretty ugly.

I appreciate your comments on behalf of those of us who are this way by nature and not all suffering from eating disorders and what not.

Julie

[a la izquierda]

7. Her body is not fit...

You want to see a fit woman? Go google Annie Thorisdottir. That is a fit, beautiful woman.
Ashley Greene, whoever the heck she is, is gross looking.

[Baitball Blogger]

10. Greene is originally a Florida girl.

She got one of the coveted roles in the Twilight series, as Alice Cullen. People were at first not happy with her selection, claiming she wasn't pixie enough for the role, but she won over her critics. She also was the model for a SOBE ad where her bathing suit was painted on.

In sum, there was no need for her to lose weight.

[leftynyc]

12. I think she has made a splendid Alice

Nobody was more surprised when I was when a book my niece begged me to read lead me to become such a fan of the series. I haven't seen any of the movies in the theatre - I just spend the $15 (or whatever) when the movie comes to DVD - in NY the movies are $14 and I have to have my popcorn with diet coke also so it's cheaper just to wait and I figure a theatre of young women would be mighty distracting. When the last movie came out on DVD I had my mom, sister, niece over for an evening of Twilight - the 3 generations had a blast.

[Baitball Blogger]

13. It was a good bonding experience with my daughter also.

Just a shame that Kristen Stewart didn't nail that role. She looked the part, but, just fell short of a convincing Bella.

[leftynyc]

14. I thought she did well in the

Breaking Dawn movie. In fact, I think all of the sort of grew into their characters in that movie. I never really understood the Taylor Lautner craze because he always looked so young to me. Now I get it - that young man is hot LOL. If families had something to share in the whole Twilight thing, that can't be anything but a good thing.

[Baitball Blogger]

18. It's only upside.

They're on a very tight schedule which is why things aren't as perfect as they were in the Harry Potter movies.

All her other movies have been great. I suspect she's going to have that break out moment with non Twilight fans in Snow White.

[randome]

15. Not everyone who likes skinny is abusing their body.

Geeze, people, lighten up. Men like thin women and women like to be thin.

'Nuff said.

[a la izquierda]

20. So glad you posted this insightful comment...

from a woman with an eating disorder-because eating disorders don't go away like the common cold.
And way to generalize men AND women. No, not everyone who is skinny is abusing themselves. But thousands of young girls and women do.
What a pathetic, shitty comment.

(For the record, I'm 34 and in the best shape of my life...and I don't look like I'm starving myself to death)

[Baitball Blogger]

26. No, not everyone who is skinny is abusing their body.

But, mostly, skinny is genetically obvious from childhood. Before, Ashley was the poster child for healthy young woman. Now, she looks skinny.

[randome]

27. Her choice.

At least I'm assuming it is, absent evidence to the contrary.

[Baitball Blogger]

30. I would assume it's her decision,

absent evidence to the contrary.

[NYC Liberal]

32. Exactly. I've seen many ugly comments lately about skinny women that are just as bad as

those made about larger women. As is the case with comments about people who are overweight, there is a difference between expressing concern for someone's health, and calling someone ugly, gross, disgusting, etc.

[trumad]

16. She is my favorite Twilight character.

And a Major Hottie to boot....

[Baitball Blogger]

21. Gotta support our fellow Floridians.

Alice Cullen is also my favorite. I keep hoping they beef up her parts in the movies but, alas.

I also think they cut back on Nikki Reed's backstory. Would have loved to see her get her revenge in that wedding dress, instead of quick clips.

[obamanut2012]

17. Want to see a normal-sized young actress?

Actually, she's pretty petite, but she is fit and looks like a normal college kid. Ashley Greene didn't become so thin until after she started dating Joe Jonas.

Jennifer Lawrence, star of The Hunger Games, costar of X-Men: First Class, Oscar-nominated actress for Winter's Bone:

As Katniss Everdeen:




Red carpet for THG:

http://www.redcarpet-fashionawards.com/2012/03/14/jennifer-lawrence-in-ralph-lauren-the-hunger-games-london-premiere/

[Baitball Blogger]

23. We had an entire thread on this not too long ago.

I went through the books quoting excerpts to show where the author had pictured a much smaller lithe woman. The one thing I forgot to mention was, that it was important that the character look small and thin because her defense mechanism was to climb high into the trees where no one could reach her.

Before we get into another argument over this, I said that though she was not cast to type, Jennifer Lawrence is an amazing actress and her body stature plays less of a role in the next two books. Glad to see her representing the franchise.

[obamanut2012]

37. Lawrence is very petite -- she's tiny

She just isn't too unhealthily thin.

I don;t get what Katniss Everdeen has to do with Lawrence, any more than Alice Cullen has to do with Greene.

[Baitball Blogger]

38. Have you read the books?

When books get a fan base, (which is usually the first step in deciding to adapt a book to a movie) that fan base becomes important especially in a multi-book series. Because that fan base is usually the ones who buys tickets. Which means, you don't want to turn off the fan base early on. So, that's what Katniss Everdeen has to do with Lawrence. A casting director attempts to pick actors that come close to the characters described in the books to protect ticket sales. Lawrence's hair was dyed to fit the role, for example, but there is no question that her acting abilities took precedent over the physical characteristics which would have made her a better match for the character described in the books.

Alice Cullen has nothing to do with Greene. The filming of that franchise is over. Green is free to be whoever she wants to be. Which is why this decision is surprising, unless she's preparing for a role we don't know about.

[hedgehog]

19. Body shape aside, she's wearing high heels -

which in my point of view are right up there with bound feet!

[Baitball Blogger]

25. I'm hoping those high heels are adding to the illusion.

But she looks too thin even in sneakers.

[flvegan]

22. "Anorexic looking"??

This is a woman that spends a lot of time at the gym. She has low bodyfat. "Anorexic looking" judging by those pics is laughable at best.

Do be sure to post the same outrage the next time you see a guy doing Calvin Klein underwear ads, k?

[Baitball Blogger]

24. I'm not a Calvin Klein girl.

I think we're on thin ice here. AG was already in great shape before. She has lost even more body fat, which happens to be a necessary component for a healthy young girl.

[flvegan]

28. Body fat is a necessary component for any human.

Your concern noted, what do you think (judging from the pictures alone) her body fat percentage is there? While you're thinking about it, I'm going to get dressed and start the car. I want to be first one out scouring the curbsides of gyms and nutrition clinics so I can pick up the discarded ADP machines no longer needed because they can simply inbox you with a picture.

[Baitball Blogger]

29. Going by the chart below...

http://www.builtlean.com/2010/08/03/ideal-body-fat-percentage-chart/

It's interesting. It says woman's essential fat ratio should be 10 to 13 percent, but average fat ratio is 25 to 31%. Yet they break it down further for athletes and fitness. A woman who is striving for fitness should have 21 to 24% fat. It makes sense. She needs it to keep up with the fitness regime. Since she was already in this range before, we can assume she is much lower now. So I estimate she's between 13 percent and 21%.

Not sure what you mean by your last statement.

[a la izquierda]

31. This is a young woman who spends a lot of time at the gym.

[Baitball Blogger]

34. She looks very healthy.

I'm guessing that certain kind of exercise regimes provide different results. Weight lifting will give you the kind of rippled effect of the pictures, but Yoga and other similar kinds of exercises might just make you look supple?

[a la izquierda]

40. My yoga instructors were always ripped.

Thinner than crossfitters and serious powerlifters, but ripped nonetheless.

[Baitball Blogger]

52. Then I don't understand why AG isn't getting that same look

if she's working at the gym as often as the article claims.

[a la izquierda]

61. That was my point upthread.

I am a gym rat. I crossfit and cycle daily. I am at the upper end of my weight to height balance, because I'm muscular.

One can be a gym rat, I suppose, if they live on a treadmill (and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, either). I know nothing of her diet, so I won't comment on that. But I KNOW about gym life and you don't look like that actress if you lift weights. End of story.

[w8liftinglady]

35. ah,yes... powerlifting.

I was hard as a rock when I competed.I was NOT anorexic...it's SO against muscle growth...

[a la izquierda]

41. My husband calls me his little

brick outhouse.

[Baitball Blogger]

58. LOL!

[flvegan]

36. And?

Are you seeking to compare the two? If so, please diagram that out.

I'll wait.

[a la izquierda]

39. The article in question called the actress a gym rat.

That's not a gym rat. Gym rats don't look like that, unless they live on treadmills alone. And no...I wouldn't compare the fittest woman on earth to a skinny actress. There's no comparison.

I've spent more time in eating disorder therapy groups than I care to to count, and with more young girls with eating disorders than I care to count. Because I have one. I haven't the foggiest idea if that actress has an eating disorder and frankly, I don't really care if she does or doesn't. She is part and parcel of an industry that makes girls feel badly about themselves and that is so problematic.
I also lived and worked in Hollywood for years before I wised up and realized that it contributed to MY disorder. I know what actresses are told, and they are not told to look fit. They are told to lose weight. I was consistently told I was too fat. I know that we live in a society that glorifies the obscenely skinny and it contributes to years of pain, heartache, and self-abuse of women and girls. It contributes the same to some men and boys.
When actresses and actors decide to say fuck you to that glorification, it'll probably stop.

[seabeyond]

53. this is a very good post a la iz.....

i cannot stress what a very good post this is.

[Baitball Blogger]

59. Kick to that.

[Whisp]

33. that looks horrible.

what is it with this 'smaller' the better? is it to make adults look more like children to sate some weird pedophilic desires?

[Codeine]

44. WTF?

She doesn't look like a child -- she's got a normal adult body. My own preference tends to a more zaftig body type, but I'm not going to imply a person is a pedophile because they think this girl looks good. Jeez.

[Whisp]

47. I was speaking of the collective sick minds we know are at large

There is no denying that women are too often made out to be 'girls' to be attractive to men.

[Codeine]

42. I'm not getting this. She looks fine. That is not a woman who is unhealthily thin.

I think we've all gotten so used to seeing overweight people that our benchmarks are skewed; this girl wouldn't stand out in any European street scene.

Some folks are naturally lean.

[Baitball Blogger]

51. This is what she looked like nearly a year ago.

Perfection.

http://www.hollywoodlife.com/2011/08/23/joe-jonas-ashley-greene-heartbroken-taylor-swift-demi-lovato/?v02

[Quantess]

43. She looks great.

Thighs could add some muscle, but she looks great.

People have gotten so fat in the last 20 years that normal-slim people look "skinny" nowadays.

[Baitball Blogger]

50. Well, you said it yourself.

She could add some muscle (and fat) in her thighs.

[sendero]

45. All this angst..

... over someone's body is kind of silly.

I'm a guy, and I was skinny as hell most of my life, just born that way and hated it.

It took a lot of work to not be, but it seems to me that most of the folks here calling it "unhealthy" and such are just jealous. Like guys who complain about "musclebound" guys. Yeah, you'd like to be musclebound yourself.

A lot of what we look like is what we were genetically born with, I'm not wild about my face either but I don't hate people who hit the genetic jackpot and got a handsome one.

If there was ever a "just get over it" subject, this would be it.

[Baitball Blogger]

49. I'm all for being what you were genetically meant to be.

I even suspect there are people we refer to as "obese" who are probably fine without our meddling.

The problem comes from the acting world where kids are watching and looking for role models.

[sendero]

62. Women complaining about skinny models..

... is the equivalent of me complaining I don't like like Brad Pitt. It is pointless. And these folks are not "role models" they are what many or most people aspire to look like - they wouldn't sell product if they weren't and if they didn't sell product they would not be there.

Is anorexia caused by skinny models? I don't know. Do people engage in self-destructive behavior in pursuit of one of the most coveted things an American can have, i.e. good looks or a "better" body? Sure they do, look at the guys at the gym pumped up on steroids (or look at a football player or a basketball player or a baseball player or a Tour De France contestant for that matter).

People who become obsessed with their personal appearance have probably always been with us and blaming lingerie ads isn't really helpful IMHO.

[Baitball Blogger]

63. There is plenty of research out there that supports the position.

I'm more surprised that you're not familiar with the ongoing battle to keep young girls from causing harm to themselves to meet a body shape that ISN'T part of their natural make up.

Like that woman who subjected herself to countless surgeries to look like Barbie. Of course, she was a grown woman and had the money. Hard to feel sorry for her.

[madokie]

46. Skinny people, fat people

I happen to be skinny and have dreamed my whole life about why can't I be normal, weight wise, hell mental wise too for that matter but anyways I'd give my first born to be what is considered to be a normal size. I can sympathize with over weight persons or persons like me who are underweight. Sometimes I wonder if my size doesn't have something to do with the rough time we had as poor white trash when I was just a toddler. I'm more inclined to think that my problem is mostly in my head and my size is in my genes. Over the years I've grown to accept that I won't be breaking anyones back when they carry me to my grave except of course that I don't want to be put in a hole in the ground to take up space that we are quickly growing out of enough of.
I wish people didn't dwell on ones size and accepted us who don't fit the norm with out the snide remarks like he or she is so skinny or fat and just let us live our lives as we are without the extra burden of constantly being reminded of our being different.

[Baitball Blogger]

48. This isn't about people who are genetically, gifted, with skinny genes.

It's about actresses who put themselves through rough ordeals to attempt to become this ideal of skinny. Though I can understand going through that process when they're preparing for a role that involves hunger, I don't condone it when it's about the depiction of a normal kid doing normal things, because that actress becomes a role model which other kids try to imitate.

[redqueen]

55. Are you surprised by the repeated attempts

to claim that she just naturally looks very thin due to a genetic predisposition or what have you?

I sure hope not.


It's also interesting to note that this 'some people just can't gain weight' stuff never gets any serious consideration when it's aimed in the other direction. Don't you think?

[Baitball Blogger]

57. Nothing surprises me any more.

We all start from our own personal references. Communication is bridging the gap between your personal references and theirs.

Frankly, I'm surprise that communication ever succeeds. LOL!

Maybe I prefer the written medium best because there's a record left behind that people can't deny. With verbal conversation it's too easy to find wiggle room from one conversation to the next, one person to the next

And you're right. If people want to claim that skinny is a predisposed genetic disposition, then you can say the same thing about obesity. Especially when many fat people can claim they hardly eat anything at all and still can't lose weight.

[chrisa]

56. She's very skinny. Consider this, though

It could be genetic, as in, no matter how much she eats, she doesn't gain any weight.

She could also exercise for hours per day (which is really not a good idea, but w/e), or have an extremely lean diet.

[a la izquierda]

60. Genetic predisposition is not the point.

One of my dear friends eats like an ox and is thin. She looks perfectly healthy.
This is about an industry that makes people feel bad about themselves for their body size. I'm 5'2" and 118 pounds. I was "heavy" when I was 110 according to a casting person. For real?? When I was a senior in college I weighed 85 pounds and was starving myself to the grave.