I live in the Los Angeles area where thin is IN-IN-IN and any amount of fat is SIN-SIN-SIN! I’d love to see the heroines depicted properly on bookcovers; but I’m just grateful that there are authors writing about women who have the same struggles we all experience in life! A large heroine is still a GREAT thing even if she’s not portrayed correctly on the cover of the book.

As far as the rest of this lively and interesting discussion… With the exception of the personal attacks on Tautou whom I have never met, I have to agree with much of what “Ketchup” has to say. I find that most of the attacks on her comments have far more to do with semantics than real issues. To suggest that skeletal women (and men) are grotesque in appearance is certainly logical and I find myself turning away from those images these days rather than envying them. At the same time, I find myself just as turned off by excessively obese. This doesn’t mean I’m judging the people who find themselves with these bodies. People need to freakin’ relax.

LIZ JONES: Why stick-thin Girls Aloud make me so angry

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1257927/Girls-Aloud-Britains-successful-girl-band–suddenly-skinniest-too.html

The girls looked fab before, healthy and good role models.
Now they look plain awful!

- Sarah, Cornwall, 15/3/2010 11:14

Yetunde, I agree, but they ALL look pretty scary to me, although Sarah Harding is by far the worst! And none of them are all that attractive either. Just haggard looking.

- J Froud, Bath, England, 15/3/2010 11:19

It’s such a woman hating message to be sending to young girls that size zero or so skinny is cool, attractive – it’s absolutely not and will ruin their bodies, internal organs and long term life expectancy.

In a world where millions die of starvation, it is so sick beyond measures that the western fashionistas influence and promote starvation in perfectly beautiful, normal young women (and men)

- Gill, manchester, 15/3/2010 11:11

Sparrow legs, bird brain.

- James, Yeovil, 15/3/2010 12:55

Nicola Roberts looks like a clown

- Mak D, London, 15/3/2010 12:48

It’s about time that the public, and women in particular, take a stronger stand in order to make some changes and protect our own daughters and granddaughters from this vile trend. Cancel subscriptions to mags like Vogue and others who feed on the “refugee look” for their sales.

- Ruth, Ramat Efal, Israel, 15/3/2010 13:17

At last someone has had the courage to speak out
Who on earth started this terrible fashion for looking like a stick insect ?
======

If these women want to starve all their curves away to a pre-pubescent shape that is their choice, however I would be very worried about anyone who finds pre-pubescent body shapes attractive.

- Jay, Edinburgh, 15/3/2010 13:00

A book with a fat woman as a major character, and she’s fat on the cover, too. Unfortunately, that’s a limited first edition.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1st-signed-Free-Live-Free-by-Gene-Wolfe-1985_W0QQitemZ200285697437QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Fiction_Books?hash=item2ea1f5359d

Next edition, not as fat, but still somewhat fat.

The later editions that I’ve seen don’t have people on the covers.

As everyone knows, it doesn’t take that long to write a few paragraphs when you have an ARGUMENT to develop. In case you haven’t noticed, you have yet to do it. On the other hand, it’s true that it certainly doesn’t take long to take cheap shots at people who disagree with you. Maybe that explains your “troll” and “harassment” framing. The reason I comment on this blog is because I find it interesting and the debates are interesting as well.

“Grotesque, gross, disgusting and other words you use to describe thin women are not words you can apply in this sort of argument.”

You have also yet to explain why one cannot use words such as grotesque in such an argument.

“They do not mean anything.”

You have yet to prove that such words have “no” meaning, when the rest of the world and every dictionary certainly disagrees with you.

“You use them too frequently for them to mean anything, even if they did.”

You have yet to dictate what is the proper frequency for using such words in an argument, and why there is a problem with my frequency.

“You have yet to explain what grotesque is and what is grotesque about audrey tautou’s face, hair and views.”

And you have yet to explain the meaning of every single word you use, plus what is not grotesque about Tautou’s face, hair, and views.

Why would anyone pick this poor woman as an example of “grotesque” thinness?

I have seen images of severely anorexic women, and frankly, I find those images frightening. But Tautou doesn’t look like that. Keira Knightley doesn’t look like that. Let’s be realistic, please.

=========
See what you did? Everyone must submit to your beauty/ugliness standards, otherwise they are “passing judgment on other people’s bodies” or not being “realistic.” Finding someone ugly or beautiful is always a judgment, so it’s an illogical proposition to say that only when someone disagrees with you that it’s a case of judgment. Every statement you write here about women’s bodies are judgments. And just as you have the right to pass your beauty judgments, so do other people.

@Simone: I am not telling you what to like.
Maybe you have changed your mind now, but you were certainly telling me what to like or not like when you said I couldn’t pass any judgments that were different than yours.

@Simone:
We should not hate people who embody the contemporary standard of beauty.
=========
And this is your biggest problem right here. You conflate over and over again an external beauty/ugliness appraisal with a hatred of the person. If we add the logic of other previous comments to this one, we get that you must hate all the people in concentration camps, because, according to you, saying that someone has an ugly body equates to hating the person. You continuously conflate the difference between the external appearance of a body and the valuing of the person.

However, since I don’t really believe you hate all the concentration camp or famine victims, I’m just pointing to the lack of logic in your views. Every time you think that I must hate the actress who play the “ex-wife in Night in the Museum” as a person, because I think she is very thin, it just shows how wrong you are. I know nothing about the woman, and feel completely indifferent to her as a person.

Looking at external aesthetics is not the same as evaluating someone as a person–although it should be criticized if it ever is. There are plenty of people whom I find extremely beautiful that I simply cannot stand as people. And there are very ugly people whom I think are just great.

Secondly, there is a difference between saying someone is grotesquely thin and they look grotesque. The first one is solely about weight, while the second is about aesthetics (independently of weight). You have repeatedly elided this difference.

When I said “Audrey Tatou is grotesque (in every way)” — I added the “in every way” for a good reason. Tautou is not some poor little woman like you claim, but a sorry little piece of crap. And in her case, I think all of her appearance is grotesque (body, face, hair), plus her personality and values. However, I don’t think she looks like she weighs 40 lbs. She nevertheless is very thin and gross-looking.

Personally: if the (presumed) protagonist is pictured on the cover, I do look at it, and it guides my mental image while I’m reading the book. So I definitely notice when the cover doesn’t match up. And I’ve been seeing all manner of coverfail for yeeeaars. My entire reading life, really.