Scarily Skinny Celebs: Nicole, Angelina, Lindsay, Mary-Kate, and more
June 7, 2007 by Kristen King
Filed under Women's Health
The cover of the current issue of In Touch Weekly caught my eye last night, and I just had to pick it up even though I’m not usually someone who reads stuff like that. Just look at Nicole Richie! She looks positively ill. No wonder the cancer rumors have started circulating… (Interestingly, there are also some pregnancy rumors going around!)
Courtesy of TheSkinnyWebsite.com, you can see the spread and read about Angelina Jolie’s shocking weight loss, as well.
Although Nicole, Angelina, and other celebs like Lindsay Lohan and Mary-Kate Olsen have become the poster children for skinny celebrities, there are dozens of others whose too-slim stature raises eyebrows.
Celebrities-Suck.com has a “skin and bone” parade of skinny stars including Teri Hatcher, Brittany Murphy, and Mischa Barton, among others.
The LA Times has a slideshow of Hollywood’s Slimmest Stars that features Nicole, Ashlee Simpson, Keira Knightley, Lindsay, Kate Bosworth, Mary-Kate, and Calista Flockhart.
So what’s going on? On the one hand, we have perfectly healthy people like Jordin Sparks being called obese and get-real crusaders like Joy Nash ranting about discrimation against “fat” people (self-inflicted and otherwise), and then we have celebrities who are literally wasting away before our very eyes.
Have we become a nation of physical extremes? How does this affect your own body image?
Contents © Copyright 2007 Kristen King
Today, it doesn’t affect my body image at all. I’m comfortable with my diet and my shape. I don’t worry too much about weight because to me, I may look just as great five pounds heavier than I was last month. Too, you have to factor in muscles, water retention, etc.
But in high school – wow! The summer before my sophomore year was when I was the worst. I started school at four, so I was the youngest in my class. I didn’t turn 15 until my sophomore year, so that summer I was 14 and my mind and body were still getting used to things like the good ol’ menses, hormones, etc. Anyway, I was within my ideal weight range, but heavier than my super skinny friends. Naturally, I felt obese. Then Toni Braxton came out with that “You’re Makin’ Me High” video (the one where her body is insanely in shape) and, well, I just fell to pieces, haha.
Thank God for growing up and gaining wisdom, huh?
I was beginning to think I was the only one grossed out by Jolie’s arms. She looks so sickly!
As for affecting my body image, Hollywood images don’t affect me one bit. I’m 30 and have come to accept my body for what it is and isn’t. I’ve worked hard the last few years to get healthier and in better shape, and I’ve had a lot of success, but I know I’ll never be stick thin–thank goodness as I (and my fiance) rather enjoy my curves
I live in LA and I can say the standard for women just keeps shrinking and shrinking.
I don’t think I’d make it in LA. I’d like to think I’m confident enough in myself to not be bothered – well, here in my surroundings and home, I am.
I don’t know how I’d react in a place like LA, though.
why do u leave out scarlett and victoria beckham the matchstick celebrities!!
Scarlett Johansson? I’ve never heard of her having weight problems. If you have a link, please e-mail it to me at kristen@b5media.com and I’ll take a look.
Posh Spice, on the other hand, well I just made an editorial decision on that one. :] But here’s some info on her recent too-skinny exploits:
http://tinyurl.com/zulyb
http://tinyurl.com/yqchl5
http://tinyurl.com/23aqy8
And here’s another blurb about Angelina, Britney Spears, and Nicole Richie, among others:
http://tinyurl.com/yshwmu
I have to agree on not knowing how I’d do in LA; I’m lucky to be in a culture that is pretty accepting of all women (southern Italy where curves are the norm), but in LA? I don’t know that I’d be able to stay level-headed.
IMHO, Victoria Beckham is truly in a league of her own regarding the stick figure, but Scarlett Johansson? It looks like perhaps her weight fluctuates, but I don’t think she ever looks emaciated or even unhealthy. Quite the contrary in fact!
I agree about Scarlett Johansson, too. I’ve never seen her so skinny she’s sickly-looking. I’ve often thought to myself that her face always looks much fuller than those of her boney co-workers.
Okay, I’m going to weigh in from a different perspective here. I’ve been known to suffer from lengthy bouts of anxiety (sometimes coupled with depression). When I do so, I completely lose my appetite. Fortunately (or not so fortunately as the case may be) for me, my body is on to me and my metabolism slows down to accommodate my decresed food intake. I also force myself to eat–which let me tell you is not fun. Hence, I’ve never looked like a concentration camp member. That said, I’m not so sure these women are starving themselves intentionally. Angelina has recently lost her mother (grief most definitely interferes with my ability to eat well) and Nicole claims her dramatic weight loss stems from anxiety over her breakup with her ex. From my perspective, that’s highly possible. I’m not saying it’s healthy, because it’s not, but it may very well not being a case of them *trying* to be waif thin. It may be psychological trauma making it near impossible for them to maintain good eating habits.
I hate that so many young girls idolize these celebrities. I agree with Sara when she says the standard for women keeps shrinking and shrinking.
I think that people should stop talking about these celebrities and critisizing them for being ‘too skinny’, it really makes no difference to any of you what size clothes they wear or even what they look like for that matter, just because they are thrown into the public eye more than most does not mean that anyone has the right to judge them on their appearance. In cases of anorexia and eating disorders, I dont see why anyone cares, and if girls are stupid enough to follow that path then it is of no fault of the celebrities that have suffered in the past, if it offends you than maybe you should stop reading bullshit gossip magazines and commenting on how ’sickly’ people look, get a life.
I can’t really speak for everyone who’s chimed in here, but I still feel confident in saying I don’t think any of us who’ve commented are “offended” by another person’s weight – famous or not. That…well, that just doesn’t make any sense. To be offended by something, that “something” would have had to, I don’t know, attack me or insult me in some way. Something I don’t think a person’s body weight is capable of doing.
What, if anything, we’re offended by is how society – thanks in part to the media – is making these super skinny bodies expected. Young girls especially are affected by this. Women are allowed to weigh whatever they want; however, when society starts pushing the number on the scale instead of health and fitness, then, yes, I think we all have a right to be offended. That’s what you’re failing to understand – this isn’t about super skinny women. This is about women feeling as if they have to be skinny.
Being concerned about the pressures society tries to place on women does not equate having no life. If anything, it shows an awareness of the world around us and our drives to make a change rather than blindly conform.
What Alicia said. :] If only I were so eloquent.
KJ, thanks for your comment. I have to point out, though, that having an eating disorder has absolutely nothing to do with a person’s intelligence or lack thereof. It is a legitimate mental illness, not stupidity, and to imply otherwise is unfair.
I find women who are alarmingly thin to be just that: alarming. It doesn’t offend me — it concerns me. And it doesn’t offend me when people offer a different opinion. But I am offended when people cuss in their comments on my blog, so please try to refrain from doing that in the future. I am also offended when mental illness is linked with stupidity, because like I said, one has nothing to do with the other.
Thanks in advance for your sensitivity.
kk
It would be quite funny if they the stupid skinny bitches all started dropping dead from starvation.
Would it become fashionable? Would girls all around the world copy them and start starving themselves to death?
Its very bizarre and ironic that the richest women in the world look like the starving citizens of third world countries.
Hollywood needs to grow up and get a fricking brain.
I for one think that these women in the spotlight definatly influence females nationwide. It seems like one day there is a magazine commenting on how skinny and sick certain celebs look and the next day another magazine comes out stating how beautiful these women are. Sick or stunning?? Its all very confusing to young women, myself being no acception. I have suffered for years on and off with eating disorders and believe if there wasnt all this pressure for females to look a certain way, maybe the countries youth would have a better fighting chance.
LA is a breeding ground for a loss of appetite. It’s amazing and without fail – everytime I’m back in that city, I refuse to eat.
Editor’s Note: Edited for profanity. -kk
Dude wtf!??!?!
why do you guys care?
just because your all fat ass bitches doesn’t mean you have to go criticizing women who are thinner and hotter than you.
and by the way not all people in LA are like that. you cant judge people based on the media.
JESUS!! are you all f***ing retarded?!
saying all women in LA are superficial anorexics is like saying all women in the south are fatass uneducated housewives, which isn’t true. so just accept their appearance and let it be.being intolerant of their appearance isn’t gonna make you any more likeble. Just let people do what they want and shut up and deal with it. its people like you that start things like sterotypes and hate
Thanks for your comment, Lucy. Nothing says love and tolerance like calling people “fat ass bitches,” “f***ing retarded,” and unlikeable because you disagree with their opinions. Good job.
kristin kreuk have anorexia if you dont trust me you should see her image in http://www.kristinkreukweb.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=46&pos=10
http://www.kristinkreukweb.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=428&pos=44
you know what im a skinny teenage girl and i don’t think that this unfairness of judgement on girls is taking into consideration girls such as my self. You stand there and judge and speak of what you don’t know. I’m not annorexic, but instead i have one those fast metabolsim things, its an unfortunate thing that my brothers and i have been cursed with. But everyday for me being a teenage girl is a day of new insecurities, being plagued with the snobbish attitudes of other girls i get even more grief about being someone im not- an annorexic bimbo! now really you speak of unfairness toward you..have you ever given consideration to girls on the other side to whom you are constantly judging..me!
This is an answer for the narrow minded comment from lucy. I can’t speak for everyone but for me I care about these kind of issues because it’s whats going on in the world I live in. I care not becuse I’m jealous of their unnatural skinny bodies but for the fact that the media advertise them in the way that puts pressure on young vulnerable people to get the ‘ideal body’. In the magazines they are promoting celebs who are unnaturally to thin and therefore young people see these images and immediately think that they’re fat even though they’re perfectly normal. The pressure is immense for our society to be thinner and its fine if your naturally thin but most people have got bodies size 10/12 or bigger and there is nothing wrong with that! To be honest I’m so glad we all don’t think like you, what a crazy world that wouls be. Lets see some ‘normal’ figures in the top magazines and get the message across that as long as your healthy it doesn’t matter if your bigger then these generally unnatural figures you see in the media.
I think it’s good and normal for people like us to be concerned by how the “ideal body” is constantly shrinking. No-one here is trying to bring skinny people down, or insult them, or judge them. I really doubt the person who started this blog is secretly jealous of their malnourished bodies. Anorexia is a mental illness. it is serious and life threatening, and emotionally draining. it is not a lifestyle choice that we must acept, but a growing problem in our society that needs to be dealt with, preferably by puting healthy, curvy women on the magazines and focusing articles on health, nutrition and fitness, instead of “5 tricks to losing 20lbs in 2 weeks.” I dont see why people put rude, abraisive, and disrespectful comments on this blog. If you disagree that okay, but take your insulting and ignorant comments elsewhere.
Admin note: Edited to remove profanities. -kk
oi **** up *******, im happily a size 6 (australian) and people find that attractive, so shut your fat obese faces and go get some exercise. kirsten king has too much time on her hands ha