Jezebel
You know that whole thing about how being superskinny is an ideal originated by the fashion industry and perpetuated by female competitiveness and like, totally NOT AT ALL what men are interested in etc. etc.? Well that's bullshit, says a story in the March Elle by Amanda Fortini, a 5'6 woman who dropped to 100 pounds a few years back. "Many men, I quickly learned, really do like frighteningly lean women, whatever they may claim to the controversy. As an average, medium-size young woman, I was unremarkable, innocuous. As a skinny slip of a thing, I was something of a sensation. In restaurants and at parties, men flirted at me extravagantly." Men in media and literary circles hit on her frequently and audaciously, (one of them with the awesome line, "You remind me of a heroine from a Joan Didion novel." (You know, "all bones and big eyes.") "As a male friend once put it to me, semifacetiously," she writes, 'A little anorexia is hot.'" But would they have thought it was hot if they knew what was swimming inside her guts??
That's right, it wasn't anorexia! Turns out she had a whole bunch of Entamoeba Histolytica , tropical parasitic protozoa she'd contracted in Belize, digesting her food for her! Ewwwww!
Anyway on a side note, she describes herself as someone who worked in "fashion magazines," but when you Google her it seems like she was also once on staff at the New York Review Of Books — which is sort of the annoying part: literati dudes actually dig waify anorexic types, in my experience, more than bankers. Because they are little and not very manly and it's not as brazen as digging girls with weaves and implants and also it's cool to hate on fat people. God I hate New York!
Comments
Assholes. How has the human race survived this long?
Super! That is great news because I am myself only one tapeworm from my goal weight! THEN the mens will like me!
craziness. Men are attracted to curves, it has to do with reproduction and something to hold on to during sex.
Ugh. So depressing. I don't have the willpower to skip lunch, let alone be anorexic. Anybody know where I can buy a tapeworm?
Ok even my huge misogynist brother saw a super-skinny girl on TV and said "EW THAT'S GROSS I'd rather have a girl with a little fat on her stomach than THAT." So if HE accepts you, ladies, there's hope! (Even though you'd never ever want to date him anyway).
men are not attracted to that crap. you have got to be kidding me. Someone give that woman a lobotomy.
Great! I just had lunch. I guess I gotta go back to no eating again. Thanks Elle for the update!
jk
Ummm, then why is every man I ever date always going on and on about my ass- the fattest part of my body? They like the cushion.
Well, that proves it, I guess.
honestly, how is this new? the smaller you are, the less threatening you are to the opposite sex.
What? All of my guy friends get freaked out by hipbones. Not sexy during sex.
In my experience, I got more attention from guys when I gained weight vs when I was at my sickest. This article seems whack!
@misssgolightly: ditto. not all men like skin and bones.
Okay, how many people are now going to want to get themselves some Entamoeba Histolytica? It will be the hot new diet. Ew.
Different strokes for different folks.
If I fuss about dudes liking skinny chicks, it's hypocritical of me to judge dudes for not liking fat chicks.
And, as a fat chick, I need dudes who swing my way if I ever want to get laid.
@Her_royal_Highness: Not always. I know more than a few men who genuinely like stick figure women, my SO being one of them. Since I don't idealize that shape, it baffles me too but it happens. Then again, I don't like the buff men that biology should command me to drool over either.
Let's keep this in perspective: this magazine also publishes Holly Millea every month in her various, life-changing plastic surgery escapades where she taunts her former lovers new girlfriends by stating she is a size four and has the vagina of a teenager.
So if she's a staff writer, I can't imagine the bar gets set much higher. I'm sure she'd drink water out of a Thai latrine if she thought it'd make her just a few pounds thinner.
It's a little true. I never had so many compliments from men as I did the year after recovering from pneumonia. But I don't think it's a natural attraction. I think they are just buying in to all the hype too.
@Her_royal_Highness: Where are the dudes you've been meeting? Cuz those aren't the same ones I know.
I was never so desired as when I weighed well under 100lbs. One of my BFs actually gloated to me that he was so happy that he had "the skinniest girlfriend out of all the other rugby players." UGH. I'm so glad I'm a grown-ass woman and don't date douchbags anymore.
Never have I wanted to reach through my computer and beat someone about the head more. Yeah, a debilitating mental illness - one with an incredibly high mortality rate - that ruins people's lives is, like, totally hot.
Fucking asshats. I hate people.
Or maybe...just maybe... some guys like anrexichic, and some guys like curvy girls. These reports needs to stop with the constant lumping of everyone everywhere.
@misssgolightly: Damn straight girly! My brother is the same way.
@Her_royal_Highness: I agree. I can't stand these skinny, stick-figure women. I've always been attracted to more curvaceous, fleshed-out women, because I think skinny women look unhealthy. Mind you, I'm probably not your typical guy.
This whole thing cracked me up. And I've had the same experience with "literati" dudes -- they LOVE the skinny hoes!
There are plenty of guys who go for skinny girls; It's NOT just women & gay dudes in the fashion industry. Dudes will SAY they like bigger chicks because it "sounds good" but their idea of "big" is usually, like, Charlize Theron. Just like how some dudes say they like "natural beauty" as opposed to girls who wear lots of make-up -- what they mean is that they like a girl so impossibly pretty that she doesn't NEED make-up like the rest of us.
(Disclaimer: I'm not trying to say we all need make-up to enhance our fabulousness or that all dudes are clueless idiots. Just that SOME of them are.)
Ooooh, South Bronx Parasite, here I come.
Mmm, sexy parasites! Gets me all hot and bothered, don't know about you guys...
Seriously though, the majority of guys I've banged have complained that so many girls DONT have hips and tits; but I do know a few that are skinnyphiles. Maybe gaybe guys, all of 'em.
But I don't live in a Big City, like LA or NYC.
Maybe other men, but not me.
@katastic: me too! I'm a fairly thin girl, but it's always my ass that gets the compliments. I never know how to respond, either.
Him: "You've got a great ass."
Me: "Um, okay...thanks?"
Every time I think I have my body issues close to conquered, I read something like this and think, "Where can I get some Entamoeba Histolytica?" Screw being skinny, I need to counteract this by eating chocolate for lunch (and so goes my shame spiral...)
@misssgolightly: What he said is still misogynist, though.
It's like when men say, 'I don't like it when women wear a lot of makeup,' but all of their porn and Blender mags are full of...women caked in make-up.
Men love waifs. I knew a girl who really was annorexic -- she never ate, and would put weights on her ankles when she went to her physician because he thought she was seriously underweight. This girl also had very low self-esteem, but oh how the menfolk lusted after her.
@mightymouth: Coming soon to a backstreet doctor near you! Also Get your boobs done half price!
@Lollia: Nor I. Buff men dont do it for me....then again weedy boys dont either. I am curvy and I would like to confidently sit on my man's lap without fearing that I am gonna break him in half.
Dick is plentiful and free, so I'm not going to change myself to get more of it.
Wow, way to be triggering, Elle.
@mightymouth: Next issue of Elle: Is Entamoeba Histolytica the new Atkins? Find out this new diet secret and more!
I think these articles full of generalizations are ridiculous. Yes, a lot of men might be attracted to super skinny waifs, but a lot of OTHER men like women with curves. It's impossible and incredibly inaccurate to lump anyone into any such category. Don't feel down on yourself because one woman experienced an onslaught of male attention because of weight loss via parasite, ladies. I can give you just as many women's experiences of a ton of male attention because they had some meat on their bones. It's all a matter of personal opinion, so eat your lunch. And dinner. And even dessert if you want it. Give me a break!
Whatever. In my experience, the curvier I am, the bigger my boobs. The guys seem to like that!
Part of it was probably her confidence levels when she was at her skinniest. Men are attracted to all sorts of body shapes, sizes, etc, but what really draws people (not just men) in is confidence. She saw herself and skinny, sexy and attractive and therefore, so did the dudes.
Tiny emo, probably pale from lack of sun exposure whilst writing the great American novel holed up in coffee shops dudes with concave arm muscles looking for equally tiny chicks who are "all big bones and eyes"--yeah, that sounds about right.
An anorexic friend of a friend had an arsehole boyfriend who used to carry around a photo of her when she was at her thinnest and show it to people, saying, "I thought she looked really great then."
I already have stabbitudes about this issue.
pffft, i'm not buying it. the comments sound as if they've come from a load of guys who can't not notice her weight loss, but don't want to say anything pejorative.
I don't hate on a guy for only liking skinny women. I hate on a guy for feeling like he needs to let women know that before they get their hopes up.
Men in "real world circles" will take what they can get, in my experience.
@CarrieMC: I hear ya!
Dang, that photo does not do Amy Adams justice. What is with Elle's consistently fugly covers?
@bowleserised: grrr, i'd have made him EAT that photo, the cunt.
@rednrowdy: You're right, that's what it is. Obviously, being in shape is generally a good thing and looks healthier and more attractive, but some guys just need a tiny, skinny woman to make room for their massive egos.
I knew a dude who thought really, really skinny girls were hot. But even if that's your thing . . . is it worth the crazy that comes with it?
yeah you gotta get out of there. i swear a third of your posts i think, this only matters in new york.
Douchie guys like anorexic-looking girls? Perhaps we should let them: they'll all be out of the gene pool in no time.
@bowleserised: FUCKING VILE. That makes me want to rip heads off.