I don’t think “skinny” is being used correctly here, which seems to be the whole source of conflict.
Taylor Swift isn’t skinny. She certainly isn’t overweight, but skinny doesn’t mean “not overweight”, it means thinner than average. It’s the opposite extreme of fat, with the norm being somewhere between. Taylor Swift is in the normal range. Emma Stone is skinny.
If you’re using “skinny” to mean “not fat”, obviously there’s going to be some disagreement with those who use “skinny” to mean “thinner than normal”.
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.
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?
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.
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.
I don’t think “skinny” is being used correctly here, which seems to be the whole source of conflict.
Taylor Swift isn’t skinny. She certainly isn’t overweight, but skinny doesn’t mean “not overweight”, it means thinner than average. It’s the opposite extreme of fat, with the norm being somewhere between. Taylor Swift is in the normal range. Emma Stone is skinny.
If you’re using “skinny” to mean “not fat”, obviously there’s going to be some disagreement with those who use “skinny” to mean “thinner than normal”.
In the context of the post they clearly were using “skinny” to mean “not plus sized”.
Right, that’s the problem. They were using the word in a way that’s inconsistent with the dictionary definition, causing confusion.
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.
Still seems like a definitional problem, with an imprecise meaning behind the word “skinny.”
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?
Not in our society. Skinny is seen as the ideal.
BMI is a terrible metric, and even then her BMI is on the lower end of the normal range.
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.
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.
She was unhealthily underweight at 115.
Aka “skinny”
And unhealthily overweight = “fat”
Wow you cleared up all the confusion immediately with this really clear definition of skinny and fat! WHHOOOAAAA WOWWWEEE /s
Skinny = unhealthily underweight.
Fat = unhealthily overweight
Anyone not fitting in the above two categories is “normal”.
Correct.