05.03.07
Are we too hard on skinny people??
People.com recently published an article with the headline, “Keira Knightley ‘Devastated’ by Anorexia Rumors.”
The author, Monique Jessen, writes that Keira claims shes is simply naturally skinny and loses more weight when she is working:
It appeared that I were promoting something when I absolutely was not. I am thin because that’s what I am, and I was thinner at that point because of the work I do. Nothing else.
The article also says that Keira has even consulted her doctor on how to gain weight:
He told me that for someone of my body type to get to a [European] size 12, I would have to eat a lot of sh– food, stop exercising and drink loads. But I don’t want to have to go ’round eating crap and being really unhealthy in order for people to stop having a go at me.
The article made me really stop and think. I too, a very long time ago, was naturally quite thin. People would grab my wrists and comment on how tiny I was and then accuse me of being anorexic. I didn’t like it then, so I doubt the experience is enjoyable for Knightley.
But how do we deal with something like this? Knightley does go around wearing tiny dresses that show her bones and, whether she likes it or not, represents an ideal to many who will try to achieve her body. Should she be forced to cover herself up? Why isn’t she allowed to be a role-model to other skinny women who are unhappy with their thin bodies? We forget that along with Keira’s tiny body comes a flat-chest, lanky arms, legs that she wishes were longer, and an appearance that seems sickly to most people. Should Keira be forced to eat unhealthy food (risking her health and the possibility of being blamed for promoting an unhealthy diet) just so we can be content with her body? Furthermore, if she did gain weight, there would undoubtedly be articles questioning her emotional state and pictures of her newly acquired cellulite.
I think the problem with celebrities who are underweight comes along when they seem to have undergone drastic weight loss - as in the cases of Lindsay Lohan, Hilary Duff, and Nicole Richie. This shift tells the public that their previous bodies were unacceptable and inferior to their current size zero bodies.
But Keira Knightley has always been thin. Perhaps she was larger before she became famous, but we will never really know (although I doubt this is the case). I think that it is her responsibility to speak up, as she is doing now, and tell the world that this is her natural body and she has to learn to be proud of it whether society likes it or not. Her struggle to be comfortable with her OWN body, rather than her THIN body, is what needs to be stressed.
priyanka said,
May 15, 2007 at 2:28 am
The thing is, I’m not sure celebrities can just have their own unmarked bodies. They don’t exist in a vaccuum–they exist under a magnifying glass! I remember Keira Knightley as THE most ogled and talked/fantasized-about young actress by men, teenagers especially. Not only do I find it hard to believe that she is naturally that thin (with her strangely flat chest and bony arms, she looks like a very tall twelve-year-old girl, and an eating disorder is the most common explanation for that kind of underdeveloped-ness), but I also think she capitalizes on this thinness in every aspect of her career. And isn’t a bit insulting the way she’s basically saying, “I would have to eat a lot of crap and laze around like you people to look like you people”?
But it’s interesting to note this article in a series of “celebrity weight statements” (http://mparham.wordpress.com/2007/04/13/ugly-bettys-weight-statement/); most recently, I saw Rosario Dawson make a similar announcement in People, but hers I believed.
mrsmac28 said,
June 28, 2007 at 12:08 pm
I have to say that this article is the story of my life. I am the same age as Knightley and I have the same feelings as she does. I too have been to the doctors and the only way that I would be able to maybe gain weight is too eat alot of junk! I am 5′7 and I weigh 106lbs. I look up to Keira, she is a role model of a healthy skinny person who go through the same emotions about body image as I do. What I would give for vivacious curves, a plump round bottom, and a little somethin somethin in the chest area. It is very hard to except a body that people always comment on how skinny I look and how I should eat more. People who have known me my whole life do not question, but meeting people for the first time you get stares, and wearing a swimsuit, forget it, you might as well just sign your self up for the next tabloid. The girls will all comment, not soo much the men, but the girls are the worst, and it is not jealousy, it is hurtful assumptions of a disease that does not exist in the least! And I don’t think that Keira is being insulting to say that she would have to adopt unhealthy ways to look like someone else, I believe that it is a defense against people who tell us that they would have to starve and exercise 24 hours a day to look like we do!
latonawar said,
July 10, 2007 at 7:56 pm
I have known naturally skinny girls and painted them. Usually if a girl can eat anything she wants and be under weight she should have a small bone structure. Knightley has a medium bone structure. Eating sh means different things to different people, to me it means 4000 calories a day without exercise to a thin person who has a heavy frame it could mean over 1000 calories and has either meat or carbohydrates in it. I am 5′5 at my lightest I was 110lbs and my bones stuck out like hers. I know I wasn’t eating anything but vegetables, vitamins and soy at that weight. Anyone will be underweight “eating healthy” unless they have some kind of slow metabolism. So if mentally we know she is under weight what is everyone still wondering about? If you are wondering most people are underweight in Hollywood. Just check out the model weights on pro anorexia web sights. These are posted by women who are dieing to achieve clavicles like Knightley. I believe to gain weight a person only need eat 1/3 more and to loose weight eat 1/3 more at her age and metabolism of eggs, fish, meat, grains and vegetables in the right proportions. Further more if my doctor told me to eat sh I’d ask for a second opinion.
ladyluck6207 said,
November 15, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Oh this is absolute bs! I am a very thin girl my self. 23 yrs old, 5′5, 110-112 pounds and small breasted. I have the sprinter build. I’m the heaviest girl in my family for my age. My mom was 95 pounds after 4 kids and 40yrs old, no eating disorder what so ever. My grandmother… same. My father…135-145, quite small for a man. Some of us truly are just thin. Amazingly I can’t fit into anything below an American size 5, (/shrugs.. big hips?) even though ppl say I look smaller then some of my friends who wear size 0. I use to be picked on and put down so bad for my weight that when I was in high school I use to gorge my self just trying to gain a pound and used birth control for weight gain. At my peek I was 122. But I use to eat two meals worth at a single sitting and snack all through out the day. I’d eat nothing but the most fattening food. And guess what: I ended up very very ill from my eating habits, enough so I ended up having to have scopes done because my bowels just stopped working. Now, I just say whatever. Being skinny is better then being sick. I’m back down to 110. I can still eat anything and not gain a pound, as a matter of a fact, I have to worry more about loosing still then anything. I’m just tired of people picking on skinny people cause when they do it still feels like they are picking on me as well. And you know what: If I WAS anorexic, why don’t you stop picking on the skinny people and actually try to help them if that’s what you think the problem is instead of harass them, now what does that say about you?
My lesson learned… don’t give a crap. Yea, some people find me ugly because of my weight, and some are attracted to me. In the end I’m still just going to do me. You should just be you and stop worrying about everyone else. Its our flaws that make us beautiful, not how well we fit into the crowd.
If people find Keira sexy.. let it be. If you don’t, feel free to your opinion, and let it be.