• velma@sh.itjust.works
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    5 days ago

    Taylor Swift is (supposedly) 5’10" and around 130lbs.

    That is skinny. Even according to BMI, she’s bordering on underweight.

    • exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 days ago

      Still seems like a definitional problem, with an imprecise meaning behind the word “skinny.”

      Even according to BMI, she’s bordering on underweight.

      Bordering on, but still on the “normal” side of the chart.

      Does “skinny” look to broad population averages, or celebrity averages, or even celebrity averages for that particular age, or some kind of ideal? Is “skinny” a pejorative, negatively loaded term?

      I wouldn’t call Taylor Swift “skinny” if that’s intended to mean thinner than ideal. But she is thinner than the American average. Is the American average considered “fat”? How much of a gap is there between skinny and fat, occupied by people who are neither?

      • velma@sh.itjust.works
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        5 days ago

        Is “skinny” a pejorative, negatively loaded term?

        Not in our society. Skinny is seen as the ideal.

    • Blisterexe@lemmy.zip
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      5 days ago

      I think it depends on where you live too, skinny (as in thinner than average) being a relative measure.

      I live somewhere extremely skinny by global standards and she wouldn’t be called skinny, people might say, “yeah I guess she’s skinny” if asked, but she wouldn’t be seen as “a skinny person” because she wouldn’t be far off the average. Same way a 5’8 woman wouldn’t be a “tall woman” in the Netherlands.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Yeah I’m around that height and I’d lose my adhd meds if I showed up to a doctor weighing that without a damn good reason

      • velma@sh.itjust.works
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        5 days ago

        Oh I’m aware. That’s why I threw in that even according to the faulty BMI scale for women, Taylor Swift is considered bordering on underweight to being underweight.

        That you think Taylor Swift isn’t skinny says way more about you than anything else.

        • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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          5 days ago

          Her weight has fluctuated, like most normal people. When she was closer to 115, she was closer to skinny, not at 130. Certainly not in the reference photo, which is probably the fullest I’ve seen her. There are plenty of photos where you could make the argument, but they look much more like the “exaggerated” sketch anyway. She is not skinny in the reference photo provided.

          • velma@sh.itjust.works
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            5 days ago

            When she was closer to 115, she was closer to skinny, not at 130.

            She was unhealthily underweight at 115.

              • velma@sh.itjust.works
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                5 days ago

                Wow you cleared up all the confusion immediately with this really clear definition of skinny and fat! WHHOOOAAAA WOWWWEEE /s

                • Anon7394@sh.itjust.works
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                  5 days ago

                  Skinny = unhealthily underweight.

                  Fat = unhealthily overweight

                  Anyone not fitting in the above two categories is “normal”.

                  • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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                    4 days ago

                    That is absolutely not what most people mean when they say skinny. Skinny is treated as a cultural ideal, and generally just means low end of healthy weight or low fat-moderate muscle.

                  • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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                    5 days ago

                    Correct. You could divide “normal” up a bit more with adjectives like “slender” or “husky”, but “skinny” and “fat” are on the unhealthy side.

    • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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      5 days ago

      From the photo she would appear to weight more than 130lbs (for 5 10 height). My one daughter is 130 at 5’ 8" and looks much skinnier than TS