It was an attempt to relive the good times. The days when we'd huddle around the tv early on Saturday night and attempt to decide whether we fancied Dylan or Brandon the most. (Dylan for me, every time).
So when the new 90210 started, despite the knowledge that it was probably a crime for me to ogle the boys, I thought I'd give it a look. In fact, I hardly noticed the boys. It was the incredible thinness of the girls that caught my eye - after I'd missed their appearance on screen a couple of times, because of their incredible physical absence. Thank goodness they talked, that's all I have to say.
Now I'm a skinny one. When I was at school my nickname was 'matchstick legs' (witty, weren't they?). But even I never achieved such verge-of-death, skeletal skinniness. And this is attractive? Not when I was a teenager (unfortunately for me - I'd have been hot in 90210-land).
Yes, some people are naturally thin, I'm proof (although not as much as I used to be - childbirth, people, childbirth). A magazine here showed photos of two of the girls before they started the series. Slim, yes, but healthy-looking. Now they look like starved ex-show ponies. And, I'd say, they've been made to do this for the series. The justification was that 'well, that's what everyone in LA wants to look like' . Well, that's no justification to me.
It's both sad and dangerous that girls watching might aspire to this look.
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I haven't seen the new one so I can't comment specifically on these young women but the relentless skeletonization (yes-I invented that one!) of women in the media is desperately disturbing. I have an eleven year old daughter who eats like a bird. She is tiny. I am constantly worried about her getting enough nutritionally. Most of her food hang-ups are based on a fear of food itself but there is no doubt that she loves her thinness and is revolted by those who are overweight. She didn't get this message at home. (Unless of course she decided that her Mother's wobbly bits were gross). This is shining in from every source imaginable especially teen dramas.
I too was a skinny teen (alas children have done there worst to me too) but I still had curves. And I seem to remember all the guys preferred the girls with the hips and the boobs. The healthy-looking, womanly figure was the one to aspire to. Didn't we all want to be fit?
I recently saw a trailer for a movie starring Helen Hunt. I was so shocked by how thin she was I did wonder if she was seriously ill. To me she looked at least 10 years older than she is. Awful.
I wonder how the perception of beauty has become so distorted?
I've not seen the programme either (and am unlikely to), but the fixation on weight (or lack thereof) baffles me. I really don't see what's attractive about a woman who looks like she'd break if I got a hold of her, and I don't know a single man who finds the skeletal look appealing. Slender is fine, as is athletic and toned, but when I can see the bones - no thank you.
I haven't seen this show or the old one (except the one forgettable one I watched in season one) so I can't say how skinny these girls are. But I can guess. Some of the skeletally thin models are frightening to behold as well.
Oh, and to answer the question janey asks, the reason that we worship thinness is because we CAN, imo. Consider that when folks often starved, plump ladies were considered beautiful. They would be called fat today. And now that we all have too much food to eat, we worship the thin look.
At least, that's my take on it. What is rare is beautiful. If gold were commonplace we wouldn't be so excited about it. And they used to make aluminum jewelry that was considered rare and expensive when smelting the stuff was very difficult.
never watched a second of it, no reason to waste my time on such...
but you're right about 'thinness', hollyweird sux when it comes to health....
I'm going to start a rumor with my half info, but I think that there was a re-release of a YA book recently where the main character used to be a size 6, and in hte new version she's a 4.
I joke about my weight all the time, but I'm fairly comfortable in my size 12. I'd like to lose 20 pounds, but it's not something I'm crying over. I feel sorry for hte young girls today, given these impossible and extremely unhealthy role models.
Squinty Eyes? You liked Squinty Eyes?
And yeah, if they turn sideways and disappear, way too skinny. I don't understand it. WW may be onto something though.
Janey, my five-year old says she has a fat tummy. She's actually pretty tiny, but her chronically sick brother is skeletal, because he doesn't digest his food properly - so that just augments the messages she is already getting from the world at large. Sickening. It could be a major issue for us as she grows older.
WW, I can back up your point with a vague memory that some Asian cultures aspire to fatness, because it's difficult for them to put on weight. So, yes, maybe we all want what is hard to attain. But then, isn't it also hard to attain a strong and muscular, but healthy, physique?
Why is nobody reliving their youth other than me? Or have I yet to grow up...
Your youth is younger than my youth, McK. This wasn't one of my shows because my youth shows were things like Miami Vice (and even then, I only mentally qualified as 'youth'. Bummer.)
But the thin thang is vexing. My younger daughter is 5'9 and weighs maybe 120, and feels fat. Go figure, literally and figuratively.
Thank goodness she's a good eater, and likes everything from sushi to granola cereal. But I'm still on watch...
No. Everyone in L.A. does not want to look like that. Nor do I find it attractive, healthy, etc. It's very scary.
My nieces are a contrast. One is naturally skinny, the other is more zaftig and more well endowed. The skinny one admires Marilyn Monroe and the other admires Audrey Hepburn. Very fascinating.
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