Skinny Women are not Women at all

Lisa Hoffman & Charles Atkins, MD

Published December 22, 2005

I stepped on the scale this morning and was shocked at what popped up. I’ve put on a few pounds and am determined to do something about this. I don’t like carrying the extra weight; it’s not good for the joints, the blood pressure and my self esteem. Still, I like to eat and have never been a fan of diets.

"I too have put on quite a bit," Lisa adds, as we settle in to the topic, "Due to my inactivity and not doing my exercises as I should. But it’s very difficult when people bring you food that’s been prepared in advance. You can’t really tell what’s in it, and it seems ungrateful to try and tell them not to use fat or sugar."

"Plus," I add, "Everything tastes better with butter."

"It’s for butter for worse," Lisa quips. "What makes it easier is that more and more companies send you catalogues for plus sizes. There was a time you couldn’t get larger sizes and had to try and make do by squeezing into things that didn’t quite fit. Now, the sky—or my hips—are the limit. And the clothes are not dowdy, but can be quite chic. So you don’t feel so bad about going up to the next size, and enjoying the shape and weight you’re at. After all, size, like your age, is only a number. But I’ve never been skinny. I was nearly ten pounds at birth."

"It’s part of our culture," I add, "we’re obsessed about our weight, but as a nation we’ve never been fatter. Something doesn’t add up…other than the pounds. Plus, we’re bombarded by a media that shows anorectic models as female ideals, and pumped up single-digit-body-fat men for the guys. Not surprisingly, the rates of eating disorders in both women and men have never been higher. It’s like we’re all desperately shooting for some ideal, and when we get there we don’t how to stop."

"In my time," Lisa says, "it was fashionable to be curvaceous. In those days I modeled for artists and sculptors who loved me the way I was. In fact, there is a statue done by the renowned Swiss artist Arnold Huggler called "Die Amerikanerin" "The American". A famous painter, Raymond Kanelba, who did a state portrait of Queen Elizabeth frequently had me model for him; he called me his ‘Venus’. So, I guess I’ve never had a problem with body image. What some might call "fat", I opt for a kinder word voluptuous—there’s more of me to love. If you think about great painters through time: Rubens, Titian, Renoir—they weren’t painting skinny dames. The female form was full and beautiful."

"It goes in cycles," I say. "In the roaring 20’s the flapper style was for women to be thin and flat chested. That changed and in the 40’s and 50’s you were definitely in vogue. Just think about the movie stars, Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, Jane Russell; these weren’t skinny women. Then came the sixties with Twiggy and Carnaby Street and the fashion has been the thinner the better ever since."

"You know I photographed Twiggy," Lisa adds. "It was in the Plaza Hotel…she was awfully thin. As her name suggests a twiggy can easily break; I’d rather be a tree and be solid. Plus, she kind of looked like a boy. To me, skinny women are not really women at all."

"Who is it that said, ‘no woman can ever be too rich or too thin?" I ask.

"I think it was the Duchess of Windsor," Lisa says. "But I was watching this terrible show on television with two anorectic sisters. Clearly, you can be too thin."

"True. What I find interesting, is that eating disorders on either side of the spectrum--either too much or too little--are forms of addiction. That as the anorexia, bulimia, or just plain gorging takes hold, people find themselves trapped in behaviors in much the same way an alcoholic has trouble resisting the bottle. It becomes a compulsion, an irresistible urge to purge, to diet or to eat or exercise excessively."

"That’s another thing that bothers me, all these extreme diets," Lisa adds, "How can it be good for you to cut out carbohydrates and eat a large amount of fat? What about cholesterol and your heart? The only thing I approve of is The Weight Watcher’s Diet because that was based on health. I knew its founder Jean Nidetch. She had been successful in taking off weight by following a healthful diet that had been designed by a hospital nutritionist. After a while, she gathered some of her close friends and started her first group in the basement of her house on Long Island. That’s the only diet I’ve ever tried, and not because I was unhappy with my appearance. It was more practical, and came about after I nearly missed out on interviewing Fred Feldman, the New York weather and traffic reporter. I was scheduled to go up in his helicopter and had called to make arrangements. We made an appointment for the interview, which was to include my going up in the helicopter as he made his report. At the end of the conversation he said, ‘I take it you’re over 21 and under 175 pounds.’ There was a pause, and I meekly said, ‘I’m over 21.’ He then explained how while he was giving his report he needed a free hand to write and would be unable to stabilize the nose of the copter, which he’d have to do in order to accommodate my weight. After his broadcast he did come down and took me for a spin in his glass bubble. But it gave me quite a shock and motivated me to join Weight Watchers where I took off 50 pounds."

"The thing I like about programs like Weight Watchers," I say, "is that they approach eating as a behavior. Because unlike many habits we’d like to change, such as drinking too much, or smoking cigarettes, you can’t cold turkey off of food. So coming to a healthy weight and healthy habits are about changing behaviors around how and what we eat, and doing it in a way where you don’t feel deprived, punished or hungry. It’s finding a balance, and not letting the scales tip too far in either direction."

"I suppose," Lisa says, while searching for the final word, "But if it’s true that some of us our worth our weight in gold; I must be priceless."

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