Girl 1: Ugh I feel so fat!
Girl 2: OMG. Are you serious?! You're so not fat.
Girl 1: Look at my thighs!
Girl 2: Look at MY thighs.
Girl 1: Come on, you're so skinny!
Girl 2: So are you.
Familiar?
Researchers found that nearly all women engaged in fat talk with their friends, and that about a third of them did so frequently — regardless of whether they were actually overweight or not. Mostly, women complained to their friends about feeling fat or bloated, or about feeling guilty for not going to the gym or eating too much. For many, it was a way to reassure or to be reassured that in fact they weren't fat at all.
The predictable back-and-forth argument between two women where each denies that the other is fat was the most typical content of fat talk conversations. When asked how they felt about fat talk, the majority of women indicated that it made them feel better about themselves — that it helps to know that I'm not the only one who feels bad about my body.
Yet the study showed that women who complained about their weight more often — even if they were thin — were more likely to have greater dissatisfaction with their bodies. They were also more likely to buy into the media's thin ideal. Of course, it could be that it isn't fat talk that makes women feel worse; rather, it's that people who feel badly about their bodies to start are simply more likely to complain about them.
Still, the habit doesn't appear to help women improve self-esteem or change their underlying attitudes about body weight.
"Although social support and empathy are usually viewed as psychologically healthy constructs, constant reminders that one's normal-weight or underweight friends also feel fat may not be helpful in the long run. Such fat talk simply serves to reinforce the thin body ideal and the notion that disliking one's body is normative for women. Women come to expect this type of talk from their peers and likely feel pressured to engage in it."
The researchers found, despite the fact that so many women used fat talk to seek reassurance from friends, several women in our sample remarked ... that they do not believe their friends when the friends tell them that they are not fat.
From TIMES
I do this sometimes with friends on those feel-fat-days. But I don't like it when people say that I'm fat. Seriously. I get comments like Can you stop eating so much/ Your arms damn fat/ You need to go on a diet.
Seriously. I don't think I need to go on a diet.
I'm not even overweight. All of you have been brainwashed by the media that being skinny is healthy.
Read the article above and repeat to yourself. I AM NOT FAT.
Apply my motto to your life:
EAT, LIVE AND DIE.
You'll be a happier person.
Girl 2: OMG. Are you serious?! You're so not fat.
Girl 1: Look at my thighs!
Girl 2: Look at MY thighs.
Girl 1: Come on, you're so skinny!
Girl 2: So are you.
Familiar?
Researchers found that nearly all women engaged in fat talk with their friends, and that about a third of them did so frequently — regardless of whether they were actually overweight or not. Mostly, women complained to their friends about feeling fat or bloated, or about feeling guilty for not going to the gym or eating too much. For many, it was a way to reassure or to be reassured that in fact they weren't fat at all.
The predictable back-and-forth argument between two women where each denies that the other is fat was the most typical content of fat talk conversations. When asked how they felt about fat talk, the majority of women indicated that it made them feel better about themselves — that it helps to know that I'm not the only one who feels bad about my body.
Yet the study showed that women who complained about their weight more often — even if they were thin — were more likely to have greater dissatisfaction with their bodies. They were also more likely to buy into the media's thin ideal. Of course, it could be that it isn't fat talk that makes women feel worse; rather, it's that people who feel badly about their bodies to start are simply more likely to complain about them.
Still, the habit doesn't appear to help women improve self-esteem or change their underlying attitudes about body weight.
"Although social support and empathy are usually viewed as psychologically healthy constructs, constant reminders that one's normal-weight or underweight friends also feel fat may not be helpful in the long run. Such fat talk simply serves to reinforce the thin body ideal and the notion that disliking one's body is normative for women. Women come to expect this type of talk from their peers and likely feel pressured to engage in it."
The researchers found, despite the fact that so many women used fat talk to seek reassurance from friends, several women in our sample remarked ... that they do not believe their friends when the friends tell them that they are not fat.
From TIMES
I do this sometimes with friends on those feel-fat-days. But I don't like it when people say that I'm fat. Seriously. I get comments like Can you stop eating so much/ Your arms damn fat/ You need to go on a diet.
Seriously. I don't think I need to go on a diet.
I'm not even overweight. All of you have been brainwashed by the media that being skinny is healthy.
Read the article above and repeat to yourself. I AM NOT FAT.
Apply my motto to your life:
EAT, LIVE AND DIE.
You'll be a happier person.
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