'Skinny' Blogger Under Fire for Calling Kate Upton

[pixy0stix]

Remember us talking about this?

gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/skinny-blogger-calls-kate-upton-fat-piggie-132453239--abc-news-celebrities.html

A blogger who attacked Sports Illustrated cover girl Kate Upton’s sexy figure, likening the curvy swimsuit model to a cow and a pig, is facing severe backlash for her comments.

The unnamed female blogger, who acknowledges preferring the "skinny aesthetic," wrote in a July 8 post on the website "Skinny Gurl" that she has been deluged with angry emails and threatened with rape and death.

The controversy first began back in June when the blogger wrote that Upton was "confidently lumbering up the runway like there's a buffet at the end of it," and also called her a "little piggie" with "huge thighs, NO waist, big fat floppy boobs, terrible body definition … ."

She continued: "Did you know that humans are 80% genetically identical to cows? Well, allow me to prove it to you… ." That line was followed by an unflattering photo of the back of Upton's lingerie-clad body on the runway.

Since then, the fashion world's most influential insiders have denounced the blogger and risen to Upton's defense.

"Running this site where you actually praise women for staying emaciated and skinny and then to go out there and then track someone who has a normal body, I mean, she's got issues," said Lesley Jane Seymour, editor-in-chief of MORE magazine.

"She's laughing all the way to the bank," supermodel and author Carol Alt said of Upton. "I would just say keep your end up and keep moving forward."

Online, the hacker group Anonymous launched a cyber attack against the Skinny Gurl website, forcing her to change web hosts.

It's all resulted in some changes to her site, among them the removal of the "Starving Tip of the Day" and the addition of language that "explicitly prohibits the glorification or promotion of self-harm."

She also wrote that she planned to add resources for help with depression, eating disorders, and self-injury.

Explaining the idea behind the site - which she says is "pro-skinny" but not "pro-ana" (for pro-anorexic) - she wrote: "As a thin person, I was also annoyed by our double-standards around weight. For example, people think nothing of telling a thin woman - to their face, in front of an entire group of people - how skinny they are and even to suggest what they should eat. But I've never seen the reverse happen to an overweight woman."

The blogger writes that she was a model in school and now works in the fashion industry.

"I take personal pride in keeping myself thin (since people keep asking: I'm about 5'7? and try to stay around 100 lbs)," she wrote. She adds that she stays anonymous because she has "a real-world profession with clients and partners and this is a controversial subject, even in places like NYC and Hollywood."

While she acknowledged that she has had her "own issues" with food and eating and that those issues had found their way into the writing on her blog, she noted: "There's nothing wrong with saying skinny is beautiful, just like there's nothing wrong with saying curvy is beautiful, or red hair is beautiful, or anything else someone happens to find appealing. It's an opinion, and we're all entitled to them."

For model Alt, the weighty war of words is another example of the extreme pressure the fashion industry places on girls.

"Sometimes in this business people's expectations are a bit unrealistic and it's very hard to attain those kind of expectations," she told ABC News.

[AJL]

She sounds like a twat, however, no amount of twatiness warrants death threats and threats of rape.

[pixy0stix]

IKR? Why must it always come to that?

[UMaineTeach]

Jul 13, 2012 17:34:59 GMT -5 AJL said:

She sounds like a twat, however, no amount of twatiness warrants death threats and threats of rape.

that's what I was going to say
It would never occur to me to write someone death threats

[orangeblossom]

While I certainly don't agree with what she said. It was horrid and unnecessary, and it's no surprise she's had (and appears to still have) food issues.

That said, this sentence resonates with me:
she wrote: "As a thin person, I was also annoyed by our double-standards around weight. For example, people think nothing of telling a thin woman - to their face, in front of an entire group of people - how skinny they are and even to suggest what they should eat. But I've never seen the reverse happen to an overweight woman."

I was very thin growing up, through grad school and gradually put on weight after that. The weight after grad school I was okay with. I looked healthier and felt better. People always had comments, about how skinny I was etc, but the moment I started gaining weight people said things.

Most people would never say that to an average person or overweight person. Someone who hadn't seen me, even said something on my wedding day. I figured somebody would say something, but by then I was over it. The person who said it didn't mean any harm, but why was it necessary at all. Those first few times though, it stung having never been on the receiving end. I've had people say I can't weight until you gain weight. Who says that.

So again, I do not condone what she says and don't believe in her starving tips, etc, I do agree with that one statement and there are double standards.

[pixy0stix]

Newsflash - people say the most ridiculous things to women of all sizes and shapes. The whole "they wouldn't say tht to a fat person" is patently false.

[orangeblossom]

Jul 13, 2012 18:48:39 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Newsflash - people say the most ridiculous things to women of all sizes and shapes. The whole "they wouldn't say tht to a fat person" is patently false.

I recognize that, and may not have expressed it well in my post. I am under the belief that it's a "why say it at all" type of thing, but in my experience people felt more comfortable in saying it to me (almost gleeful/smug), because I was small and presumably wouldn't take offense to it, which was incorrect at that time.

So to be clear, comments on weight don't need to be said to anyone. People know what they look like, and whether they've gained or lost weight, and they don't need someone to point that out. Heck, even saying someone lost weight (meant as a compliment), may not go over well anymore than saying you've gained weight.

[meshaliuknits]

Jul 13, 2012 18:48:39 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Newsflash - people say the most ridiculous things to women of all sizes and shapes. The whole "they wouldn't say tht to a fat person" is patently false.

That was my thought when I read the OP (not orange's post, I picked up what you were putting down). People say crazy, unnecessary shit to people all the time. She ain't special in that regard.

Sent from my EVO