curlylaura

Yay for Spain! Read the story here

Now if only other countries would follow suit.

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Fat does not make you fat. It's actually pretty important.

Amneris

I think standardizing sizes is AWESOME as it will make shopping and buying gifts so much easier. I shop at Mango and Zara all the time so I am loving that aspect of it. However, I don't really understand where people are getting the idea that there is all this pressure to be thin. Obesity rates and related health risks are rising and young people (people of all ages) are bigger and less active and eating unhealthier diets than ever before. If there is all this pressure to be thin on the general public, then why are so many people getting so big?

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curlylaura

Yeah, I don't get that either.

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Fat does not make you fat. It's actually pretty important.

Kaia

Becuase the pressure is so stressful, and stress often leads to overeating? And then the person who is overweight becomes depressed because they think they're ugly and despicable, which only leads to more emotional eating. It's a viscious cycle.

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Amneris

I don't think that the majority of people overeat because of clothing sizes or models' bodies, personally.

Incidentally, clothing sizes have become much larger these days to accomodate the "growing" population. Today's size 6 is not the size 6 of the '50's. The fashion industry, by upsizing, is just making us feel good about a serious lifestyle problem.

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Get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me. -Muhammad Ali

Eilonwy

I think that standardizing sizes is a silly idea. Who in the world is going to fit the "average" body type they're creating for each size? Maybe I'm just misinterpreting the story, but I'm glad that a lot of different fits exist. I know which range of sizes I fit, and I don't find it at all upsetting to have to by the same sort of fit with a different label on it.

Who Me?

I don't think they are suggesting that any of the clothing are changed at all....just the way the sizes are labeled on them! So instead of having to take 3 sizes into the dressing room to try them on, because you don't know how the sizes run in that particular store, you'll know what size to try on everywhere. It won't affect that some cuts at some stores fit you better than others!

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"I don't know! I don't know why I did it, I don't know why I enjoyed it, and I don't know why I'll do it again!" -BART SIMPSON

riotkitty

I don't think that models/celebrities excessive thiness directly causes overeating that leads to obesity, but I do believe there is a relation.

As the rate of obesity increases within the population, excessive thiness is seen as being more rare and therefore more desirable.

Also the media tends to paint a picture that extreme thiness is what is beautiful and classy, and it is something you either are or aren't. So many obese people probably think whats the point..achieving that level of thiness is impossible for me (and it probably is).

What needs to happen is an emphasis on healthy body sizes in the media, rather than a focus on extremes. Fortunatly, as of late there has been evidence of this exemplified in the Dove campaign and the show Ugly Betty. Spain's size-standardizing is positive in that it makes sizes just sizes and not status symbols.

And thiness has become a symbol of status. Rich celebrities are often very thin, while there is a strong corrolation between poverty and obesity.

Now I know that many women know better than to base their self-image on what the media finds desirable. But my concern is more about young girls and women who are just developing a self-image and have not developed the tools to question the media.

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Eilonwy

The body types that are currently the most desirable now are pretty extreme. There's the very skinny Kate Hudson look or a bootylicious Jessica Biel figure for women, and men often feel pressure to be ridiculously (and unattractively) muscular. Of course an appearance that's uncommon and extreme is always going to be considered the most beautiful. What's the point of an accessible standard of beauty?

But I think that the rise of photography, movies, and mass media has proliferated these images to the point that people feel like it's normal to look this way. And I think it might give some people the mindset that they'll never meet such a stringent standard, so they might as well eat, drink, and have a poor body image.

zmanzzzz

i like spain.

katethegreat

This sentence struck me- there was a time when overweight people were the affluent because they could afford all the rich food. Now, the cheap, accessible fast food is some of the worst stuff for you out there and the healthy, organic, pure food that keeps you trim is more expensive. I just think it's an interesting turnaround.

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Hairblogger ™

I think it's good that they are returning to standard size use... i don't think it's good that most labels often have vanity sizing (where a size 8 is labeled a size 6) it's just not honest... I think awoman whatever size she is doen't want to be lied to... ANd as for the models, no woman over five-four should be a size zero... A taller person can be a 2, but a six foot tall thin woman should still be a size four. The taller you are, you start to take up the size in your height. And based on medical BMI, there's no way an adult woman over 5/8 can be a size zero and have a normal BMI range (of 19.5-24) for adult men it's a point higher, but they have skeletal more overall body mass than women.