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Health & Beauty

Trinny and Susannah's new body types piss off women, cause racist outbursts

cornet_cone.jpgTrinny and Susannah have created 12 new body types that are supposed to make us all feel better when trying to buy clothes...or something. In their new book The Body Shape Bible, they're apparently helping us by offering us new body type descriptions, other than the Pear, Apple and Hourglass, as this is apparently the "key to looking great".

Okay, I'm not even going to go in to how utterly ridiculous the new body shapes they've invented are. I'm not a "cornet", "skittle", "column" or a "brick". (Yes, BRICK.) And a lot of the women who commented said exactly that. However, what I did find interesting was the comments and interactions between the other commenters. Some women loved the body types, some lovely men tore them apart, and some thought it was a good opportunity to be racist.

The comments on this post were absolutely ridiculous. My favorite comment came from Christopher, in Los Angeles, who seems to be one of the few people who understand how absurd the whole concept of these body types are:

"Here is yet another blatant example of the media trying to pigeon-hole the female body into a few idealized categories. How many women are a perfect "Skittle" or a head-turning "Brick"? How many poor young girls are even now weeping silently over their computer keyboards as they behold the completely unrealistic "Column" in this article, or the obviously airbrushed "Cornet." Many female body types are not even represented here! Where is the Beer Stein? Where is the Diesel Engine Block? The Lump of Bituminous Coal? Why, I would not recognise my own mother (herself a Marmite Jar) in these shallow and simplistic stereotypes!"

However, not all commenters actually got the point. For example, behold Oliver Lee from Miami:

"Thankfully my wife looks like none of them and if you do, I really think you should excercise and eat a balanced diet. Choosing clothes to fit you build does not disguise the fact that you may be overweight or that your body is of a disproportionate shape. Take a good long hard look at yourself and ask yourself this question. Am I doing the best for myself and can I do better? I think you already know the answer."

To which Linda from Fife responded:

"Oliver Lee, I have no doubt most of the women in Miami will have had liposuction, tummy tucks, breast implants and face lifts. Get a life please, there are more important things than looks, health for one thing."

Adam from the US left a comment along the same lines as Oliver...

"You seem to have forgotten the person who takes the time and effort, to eat sensibly and exercise. None of these women are what an honest doctor would call "the picture of health". Even the "skinny" ones are flabby with no muscle tone. For instance, my wife. If she had no discipline at all, she would not be a naturally small person, but the fact that she cares about her health makes her a very attractive, sexy woman. Let's stop making excuses for ourselves.

Both Oliver and Adam pissed of Diana from England, as she said:

"Brilliant article - but how strange the really derisory comments about these women being fat comes from Americans - and one of them, unsurprisingly is a man, that's just a bit ironic, isn't it?"

Karen from the midlands then thought that she'd jump on the bandwagon of pointing out that the people who left negative comments about the women were American, by saying:

"I think the Americans commenting here, need to take a look around the cities of America and see the utterly revolting obese people waddling around. When they take their health and looks more seriously, then they can shoot targets at the rest of us."

Rrrrright. Here's the thing, Karen from the midlands: just because someone who happens to be American says something you disagree with, it doesn't give you the right to simply dismiss what they say because of where they're from. And YEAH there are fat people in America. There are also skinny people, and anorexic people, and healthy people - JUST as there are in the UK.

Que up Avenue Q's "Everyone's a little bit racist".

Posted by on October 19, 2007

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Comments

I think its really interesting how some of these men seem to think, that if you dont have an ideal body you should not be allowed to dress nice.

Posted by: Steffi | October 20, 2007 7:52 PM

These girls are just trying to make us appreciate our bodies! Have you not noticed that no body is the same? If not then you obviously aren't bothered about the way you dress! They are offereing more body type figures to get us to dress better, i thought i was an hour glass, i found out i was completely wrong! Wearung the right clothes does flaunt your good parts and hide the bad, you should try it!

Posted by: ema | November 20, 2007 8:55 PM

This article is another excuse for everyone to be totally GRUMPY! (for a lack of a more potent word) Obviously these women ment no harm but simply wanted to put their opinions out there. I am not FAT and UNHEALTHY but possess the stern viking figure (meaning im no skinny lass) but its nice to know that i can still look nice. Please get off your extremely high and grumpy pedastool and go complain about media advertising companies effect on young children... or something more worthwhile!

Posted by: Ally | October 11, 2008 1:21 AM

It's not racism to lob shots at Americans. Nationalism is what it is, and in this case, irrational nationalism.

The Yanks have a point that you've conveniently ignored. We should all take care of ourselves, which promotes both health and appearance.

Posted by: S. Walker | October 23, 2008 1:43 AM

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