What's with all the fat and thin posts lately?

[skygazer]

When it gets right down to it, does it really matter what a person's body type is if they're a nice person and you care about them? Honestly, I've never had a preference for either big guys or skinny guys - I like guys who are kind, liberal, have a good sense of humor, are mature without being dull, enjoy the outdoors, are globally conscious, etc.

I married a skinny guy first and a large guy second and I now live with a guy who is tall and well built and is absolutely gorgeous but what turned me into mush were his eyes and his smile.

Maybe you find a certain body type more attractive, but if you met the perfect person and they WEREN'T that body type, would it matter? It's what's inside that counts, I firmly believe that. I don't give a damn what you look like - I love all of you! So there!

[GOPisEvil]

1. Today?

This has been an ongoing 3-day flame fest.

[Cuban_Liberal]

2. It sure has been. n/t

[skygazer]

3. True enough

But days kind of run together for me here - I surf, I post, I sleep, I wake to surf and post some more. Is today Saturday?

Okay, nitpickers, better?

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

4. No, I'm sorry. Now we ask you to stick youself under a fingernail

with a sharp piece of wood.

(Hey, it'll wake you up for sure!) :toast:

[Cuban_Liberal]

6. May I have a root canal w/o Novacaine, instead?

:P

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

7. LOL.... No.... There's the symbolism of wood involved here....

Root canals are superficial embodiments of modern pain.

I'm a Mr. Natural kind of guy.

[Cuban_Liberal]

10. Purist!

:P

[skygazer]

8. AGGHHHH!!!! OUCH!!!!!!!

SHIT! DAMN! #@%*&%# Fracjkin rucklin grishmark bugglig shnuffliks!

Holy cow, is that the time? I've got to get dinner going?

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

12. Now THAT'S the Christmas Story kind of swearing I like!

LOL :toast:

[Cuban_Liberal]

17. Perv!

Wanna come over for drinks later?

:P

[mongo]

5. I must be to busy working - I missed it until today.

[CO Liberal]

9. It All Started a Few Days Ago....

...when someone posted a picture of an attractive, average-size young woman, and asked if she was "plus-sized". It seems the picture was being used to illustrate women's clothing in larger sizes.

I happen to prefer full-figured women - I have ever since I was ten. But many people in this worls tend t make fat people feel like second-class citizens, which is why I started the thread in praise of the BBW - Big Beautiful Woman.

[Cuban_Liberal]

11. The end result of 'an eye for an eye' is a blind, toothless world.

Wouldn't you agree that that's a reasonable statement?

[CO Liberal]

14. Some Men Prefer Thin Women, and Some Prefer Fat Women

It doesn't make either group right, or either group wrong. It's a preference - just like some men prefer blondes, and other prefer busty women.

It's what makes the world go 'round.

[skygazer]

15. I know when it started

I know how it started. I think I've seen all the threads associated with it. I just don't understand why there is such a fixation here about size and why it's gone on so long.

Why not simply appreciate women? Or people? Every damn one of these threads winds up with someone putting down people who are of a different body type than the one the thread was started to extol. Or weighing in on how unhealthy this type or that type is.

If we all looked the same or were built the same, the world would be a damn boring place.

[enigmatic]

19. Thank You.

This ongoing flame-fest has to be one of the more ridiculous I've seen here, and I've seen many.

You put it perfectly.

edit for typos..............again!

[Lizzie Borden]

13. I don't know but...

it's a waste of thought power.

[Cuban_Liberal]

16. AAAAAAAAAAA-men, Lizzie!

You get the gold star!

:thumbsup:

[FizzFuzz]

21. I don't entirely agree--reason:

the personal is political.

I haven't looked at ALL these threads, but they generally seem to focus on what kind of WOMEN are acceptably attractive to men. Or, threads of women feeling rotten for not measureing up to some outside judgement of worth, which they have internalized.

It sure does waste alot of thought power, which is why I dislike it so. Hey, I know how much thought power I wasted on this crap, on whether or not I looked good enough to recieve male attention over many years. I wish I could have that energy back! And I don't like the pain I see on the part of alot of women on this issue.

It illustrates a way that women are routinely either criticized or glamorized, publicly. Compared to men, I have to believe that women put up with much more stressfull and relentless public humiliation if they don't conform to standards that are much narrower for them, than for men.

These post flurries provide a perfect example. I think that men generally don't recieve these kind of blows to their self-esteem that women have to put up with constantly.

[SarahB]

22. You are very right.

And, even if to a degree, you fit into certain standards, you get accused of having breasts implants, seen as vacuous and one-dimensional, expected to be "perfect" (even the "perfect" people are airbrushed), or sexually harassed.

As a woman, you just can't f*cking win when it comes to this stuff. It's tiring.

[FizzFuzz]

24. yep, I am totally with you on this, SarahBelle.

I try my damnedest to never refer to my personal looks, because that will have an affect that I don't want to bring into the picture. And it's not my point of my opinions. Plus, and maybe most especially, I refuse to get sucked into the women's habitual behavior of needing to refer to her looks. If I'm good looking, I can use that as if it confered some sort of legitimacy to my opinion!! If I am not good looking, I can feel crummy about myself or ask for some kind of charity attention. Neither approach is good for one's self respect, and in the big picture, that personal behavior would reinforce habits that aren't good for women as a group.

My point is to advocate for women's empowered point of view, whenever I can. So I chime in because there are alot of "issues moments" here that I want to see consciousness get raised on.


OK, I just said on another thread that I am tired of sounding so serious this evening, and now I realllly mean it! :D

:hi:

[NorthernSpy]

27. I think women and men have been judged on different grounds...

... but it seems to be far more acceptable -- at least here and now -- to openly judge women for the way they look, than it is to judge men on the basis of -- say -- income level and worldly success.

A man who proclaims his preference for women with certain physical characteristics is merely exercising his God-given prerogative; a woman who proclaims her liking for men with a certain level of affluence is a shallow, materialistic gold-digger. We can argue without restraint about what degree of adiposity makes a woman unacceptable and generally out-of-bounds; a similar discussion of just what level of yearly income might consign a man to loserdom would be "un-progressive" in the extreme.

To me, both looks and riches seem seriously flawed as measures of human worth. But I'm not sure why we should automatically accept that the latter basis for judgement is "worse" than the former. Having done so, we may have wound up with a "progressivism" that preferentially serves men's needs on the issue of mate-seeking, and defends men's priorities while ignoring or condemning those more characteristic of women.



(fixed: typo)

[Catchawave]

18. I try not to respond to those "personal" threads,

...because what might be flattering to one body type, may sound like an insult to another.

My friends and family come in all body types, racy little sports cars to humongous hummers. I love them all the same.

What's funny, my worstest enemies have come in all body types too. So is it the mind or the shape we love/hate?

[sundog]

20. yet another excuse for du'ers to eat each other alive

:eyes:

:boring:

[GRLMGC]

25. Yeah

There are enough opportunities for that.

[ForrestGump]

28. If so, my money's on the fuller-figured DUers...

What?

Why're you looking at me like that?

What?

What'd I say?

Tell me, what'd I say...tell me, what'd I say...tell me, what'd I say....tell me, what'd I say...

[Left Is Write]

23. I met the perfect man for me, and he wasn't "the" body type

I was generally attracted to.

However, his particular body (the teddy bear type) was attached to the most thoughtful, caring, affectionate, funny, loyal, smart, sweet, loving man I had ever been involved with. He also has eyes and a smile that could turn a girl to mush.

So I married him. :)

The problem is, while most people are willing to accept the imperfections of others, we wind up being our own worst critics, berating ourselves for our own perceived flaws, possibly even so-called flaws we wouldn't consider "flaws" in someone else.

I'm one of those people, and as I said in another thread yesterday, I've spent years breaking out of that kind of thinking. I've always been hard on myself, and really - that's no fun.

I'm glad we live in a world where people are unique and different. I don't want to live in a kind of Stepford world where we all look alike. I wouldn't want to look like the plastic reconstructions you might see on The Swan (I like my Nordic nose just fine, thankyouverymuch!), and I like that the world is made up of all sorts of body shapes, sizes, heights, and weights.

Our society has become hung up on image, and "perfect" bodies and "perfect" faces and the effects can be insidious, getting into our subconsciousness and damaging our self-esteem. Realizing it is one thing; fighting it in ourselves is quite another.

And that's my 5-cent armchair psychology for tonight. ;)

[EstimatedProphet]

26. Good!

Would that there were more people that felt like you do...
Unfortunately, there's a lot of creeps in American society that get off one way or another on making people feel inferior about themselves.