I remember that exact photo of Jessica Simpson down to the blonde curls and leopard print waist belt but in my mind she's much, much bigger. I was a scrawny 16/17 yo and thought "I have to make sure I never get that big". I look at the photo now and she looks beautiful. It just goes to show the negative affects the media can have on you - especially as a youngster.

Yep. If you weren't practically skeletal, you were fat. The goal was size 0

As a curvy and chunky teen, this post made me so depressed :(

Every other TV show that I watch has actresses in it that look like they live on a lettuce leaf per day. And most of these actresses, A-listers or not, starve themselves in order to get hired at all. If that is the standard you judge people by, then anyone who is not underweight is automatically a whale.

Remember Karen Carpenter? Look what they did to her. Mean people need to start looking at themselves instead of running their mouths

Women have always been held to a higher standard than men regarding physical appearance. When men age, the lines on their face are called character. When women age, the lines on our face are called wrinkles.

It's crazy that women with flat stomachs and pant sizes in the single digits would be thought of as fat. I'm 40 so I definitely grew up around all this and always struggled with my body image. I'm a lot more confident now but I still struggle a little, even though I've been working out for over 20 years and I'm really healthy and in shape. Now they do body positivity but way off the deep end showing a model who is an XXXL. So it's tiny XS women or XXXL and that's inclusive? Why can't they just show an average sized Medium (like many in the photos above) for goodness sakes? Why?

I'm glad I'm old and grew up in a time that wasn't obsessed with criticizing body shapes. Of course I rarely read the movie magazines but I did read the newspapers. I never remember any headlines that someone was too fat, thin etc. Just not really news back then.

I am "plus size" to the media, yet by medical standards, am in great shape (weight, muscle, etc.) per my own GP. Per my media-skewed brain? I am fat. Per my late dad? Fat. Fat fat fat. We're meant to be addict-scrawny *and* healthy (you can't do it, btw, I know this as a medical doctor), but if you're not a certain shape (male or female)? You get shamed. It's insane. That I escaped anorexia baffles me and my shrink alike. I am over 50, I weight about 70kg (154 lbs for the non-metric) and 1.78m tall (70 inches for the non-metric). I can lift fifty pounds and carry it up stairs. Yet I am "fat". Sidenote: Still wear same jeans size I had 20 years ago by measurements, but they changed the numbers on the sizing. ARGH. I went from an 8 to a 14 to a 10 without changing body size!

we live and grow up in a really toxic environment for every human being

Hollywood and the media have a LOT to answer for when it comes to " weight " issues, teenagers and under read a lot of magazine's, and are influenced by them, and if they're saying size zero is " fat " then young girls will follow that. Media : take some responsibility....

I'm considered "not pretty enough" to be promoted at my second job. At a restaurant. I'm a US size 4 and there's a bunch of guys that have massive crushes in me. Yet, my self esteem is in the toilet. I'm trying to leave that place as soon as possible for WAY more reasons that this. I just found out about that last night, too. I really hate working there and it's only been two months. Too many red flags to count.

A lot of things make sense in my head know

I lived at that time. Was already able to read. While I wasn't particularly interested in any of the above, I never read anyone referring to them the way it is told here. Sources? Did that REALLY happen?

It was as bad, if not worse, during the 80s and the early 90s when heroin sheik was all the rage. In numerous TV family shows, the sons ragged on their sisters by calling them fat and/or ugly regularly. Quite a few young actresses developed eating disorders because of it.

Love yourself and remember you can just roll on all the skinny little bad mouthed jerks and smother them, having an ample backside comes in handy!

This fat-shaming garbage is what killed Karen Carpenter.

The actress Victoria Thom from Young & the Restless and Bold and the Beautiful was fat shamed a lot in the early 2000's. She was a (US) size 4

funny its 2023 and i am 58yo now, these photos they all looked super skinny to me now? lmao

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I’m female and have felt ‘forced’ to compare myself to beauty standards but right now I’d say the body image issue and beauty standards are way worse for men.

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No Actual real guy ever called any of these women FAt or whales or large. Only the media ever did that. And women it is your fault for listening. Listen to your boyfriends when they tell you you are not fat instead of stupid media trying to sell you s**t.