Comments on: “Size 0 is Overrated.”

By: Lillian Mitchell

Lillian Mitchell — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:05:06 +0000

It’s strange. I was trying on clothes. I’m between a size 2 and 4 at the moment in most designers. I put on a size 0. I knew it would be tight, but it felt strange to wear a size 0, uncomfortable, muffin-top, etc, for a minute or two. It’s vanity – plus curiosity about the size 0. Size 0 is a fairly new phenomenon.

When I was growing up, I wore a size 8 at around the same weight that I am now. My best guess would be that size today are two sizes larger than they were when I was a teen. I think today’s 4 is the 1970s 8. I know that I was called fat when I wore a 10 in the seventies and early eighties by my peers, family, physicians, etc and dieted and exercised like crazy to be able to wear an 8.

By: erica

erica — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:19:10 +0000

so funny/sad you bring this up. while picking up my sister from high school yesterday, which actually goes grades kindergraden – 12, I overheard three very young girls (couldn’t have been older than 11) validating each other’s thinnest. Two of them proudly exclaimed they were size 0s but they really should start working out and started talking about diets!

This was disgusting to me, throughout ALL of my school years, I never worried about weight or diet. Yes, I was a 0 way back then, lol, and yes, that is exactly why weight issues were the furthest thing from my mind! I felt like shaking these poor girls and knocking some sense into. My daily diet used to be complete JUNK. I wanted to tell them to pig out, have fun and live life, seriously THIS is the time for them.

I asked my sister was this common at her all-girls prep school, and she said very. I think that is so sad and dangerous… if my generation thinks 0 is prefect, I don’t want to know what’s next… or maybe hot curves will make a comeback?

By: hope505

hope505 — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:10:41 +0000

Joye ~ exactly so. Thank you for elaborating on that historical reference…& tolerance for my dystopian example…

Speaking of dystopian examples

I wonder why, with the rampant desire to be “size zero”, there isn’t more mainstream popularity with, say, corsetry?
hmm.
You just don’t hear of very many girls or women using corsets these days…I guess it’s been replaced by SPANX *haha!*

By: Isabel

Isabel — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:16:22 +0000

Hi, I have nothing really to say, but I just found this site and think it rules! And I thought you should know

By: Anne

Anne — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:20:10 +0000

I may be weird, but back in my dieting days I NEVER wanted to talk about it. I didn’t want to admit to anyone that I was dieting. Maybe on a subconscious level I knew it was not a good thing. And I still avoid discussions of weight. If someone brings it up I just don’t respond. Pretty much kills the topic.

By: crisitunity

crisitunity — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:16:55 +0000

When I was a teenager, I actually thought that my size 4 was a little too large. All the popular girls were 0 or 2. I can’t believe now what a poisonous environment that was (hello, private school).

I appreciate the even-handedness of this post, and I think you’ve made nothing but good points here.

By: Joye

Joye — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 04:35:13 +0000

Hope, you can joke about it, but for many years that WAS the standard of beauty in China. Girls permanently crippled themselves for the “perfect” 2 1/2 inch-long ‘golden lotus’ foot. They had to break every bone in their feet to do it, but it was considered beautiful, and so for ten centuries Chinese women bound their feet. The foot was considered the sole determinant of beauty, since the saying was that a girl couldn’t choose her face or the shape of her body, but she could show her true character and will in the size to which she chose to bind her feet.

Strange, that such a sadistic practice could be linked to what seems like an enlightened sentiment (you can’t choose your body or face, so maybe we should judge beauty on something you can choose). It’s just unfortunate that the standard they selected instead of body shape required such tremendous pain for girls.

By: maleesha

maleesha — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:43:41 +0000

I agree with hope505…why size 0? Are people trying to get to the mental 0 to disappear altogether, because they are so unhappy with themselves? I think the girl in the photo is way too skinny.

By: anniemcphee

anniemcphee — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 02:14:34 +0000

I first heard of size zero in 1984, when a tiny tiny little girl wore it. I didn’t even know there was such a thing – despite generally being rail thin, I was still size 4 or 5 or so. She was about the same exact proportions I was, but a lot shorter. I guess it’s not the same anymore though.

“Can you imagine if we as a society deified something else random, like, FOOT SIZE….women would have crutches as status symbols when their feet were so tiny they couldn’t support the woman’s weight anymore….
“Oh darling! Your feet are looking especially tiny!”
“Yes, I’ve gone down another half-size since summertime.”
::limps across room in horrible tiny shoes::”

Well, that’s exactly what they had in China before the revolution. Women crippled for life by footbinding and wearing the tiniest little shoes you can imagine. Or being deformed by corsets in the west. It never begins or ends, I don’t think.

By the way I know there’s a size double-zero because my daughter wears it whenever she drops a size. Which is generally whenever she’s away from home. However, looking at her proportions I honestly think they have vanity-sized zeros and double-zeros (I don’t know when) because she’s not THAT skinny.

By: Taydizzle

Taydizzle — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 02:02:46 +0000

lol, “then some chick will make history when a black hole emerges in place of her waisline and she is sucked into an alternate universe by the power of her own negative size…” Just what I was looking for. Hilarious but all so powerful in painting the problem that exist in this whole, “I must be thin or die” crap.