Cheat Sheet

Oops, he deserves the correct modifier: cretin.

I know the people here making comments calling this model underweight don't mean to be cruel, but it is only the flip side of the whole point of this story: you should not make judgments about another person's body unless there is demonstrated ill health because of it. I have been between a size 2 and size 4 my whole life (outside of pregnancy). My sisters are a size 2 and a size 6 and my mom was a size 4 until about her mid-50's when she went up to a 6, which is where she still is, at age 70. We are thin people. We all eat healthy and don't deprive ourselves, and I in particular have a pretty large appetite. I usually eat an egg and oatmeal and a banana in the morning with a smoothie with sprouted flax in it. For lunch, it's usually a tuna or chicken salad sandwich, sometimes with chips. I eat a very large salad in the evening--really packed, with at least a half an avocado, a mushroom or two, lots of romaine lettuce, tomato, sometimes zucchini, etc, etc...and eat something like a chicken breast with veggies and brown rice. I often will have another fruit serving, blueberries or another banana, and 1 or 2 cookies before bed. I am not anorexic and never have been, I am small and I guess I have a metabolism or whatever that does not tend to put on weight. Yet, I have been called anorexic a couple of times to my face (both times by men who had very large wives). I have curves, I have a bust, my body is proportional. And I shouldn't have to explain why my body is the way it is.

It is disheartening to see what the photoshopping does to images, but I think since I was young, I always understood that these images were more "art" than reality. And it is nothing new. In our town, there is a historic tavern which is now a museum, and there is a painting there of a woman that was altered because the original had her wearing her spectacles, if you look at the painting at a certain angle, you can still see them underneath.

I'm not making light of this issue, the image was truly grotesque because the RL company seems to have endorsed the outcome of an outrageous alteration just as many women are getting tired of having unrealistic "ideal" images bombarding them day after day in media. I hope RL does change the tide after this incident and better represent healthy women's bodies in their ads. Large and small.

VanessaA,

the term "under-weight" is a medical/technical term just like the word "tall" is a technical term. Calling someone a skinny b*tch is what we call judgemental. There is a difference. A doctor can write under-weight in your medical chart, a doctor will not write skinny b*tch in your chart.

Anorexia nervosa is a medical condition that is based on a LIST of requirements. You can be under-weight and NOT have Anorexia.

The model is 5' 10" and weighs 120 1bs, she meets the MEDICAL definition of under-weight. Her Body Mass Index (BMI) is 17.2, any one BELOW a BMI of 18.5 is under-weight.

BMI Values:

* Underweight =

VanessaA: You two are going back and forth about whether or not she is underweight. Regardless of whether she technically is or not, she is absolutely thin enough to be a model. For anyone that thin to be fired for being "overweight" is both criminal and immoral. RL should be badly, badly ashamed and nobody should purchase RL products. Honestly. This is asinine and should not be tolerated. I like thin women as much as the next guy, but we do not like walking skeletons and do not want our women to be painfully starving themselves. I shall encourage all women I know to avoid RL products.

VanessaA....did you see the cropped picture of her??? The problem is with RL, not her.

He should be thanking his lucky stars that the photo was leaked and that he was able to FIX this problem if it was indeed a mistake. Instead, he looks for a way to sue. What a classy guy, not! Too bad, I used to like his clothing. Not anymore. Am tooooooo big for them!

Yes, crymeariver, and I too am "medically" underweight, but I'm not actually underweight, as these charts cannot possibly reflect accurately what is best for an individual. Are you a doctor? Your sarcasm and vehemence about this issue is puzzling.

There is a photo of this model on this page: http://tiny.cc/2QHwG (if you scroll down) that apparently reflects her real body size. She looks proportional. She might, like me, have very small bones that make her size and weight what it is. Of course, there are many sad examples of models who do look to be emaciated, and do not take care of themselves as far as eating, or worse do become anorexic, as a way to stay unnaturally thin, I agree wholeheartedly that is a real problem (I had a friend in high school who I met after recovering from being anorexic--she had weighed 60 lbs at one point) and it concerns and worries me, especially for young girls and adolescents.

cryme..agree that she does sound pretty thin, but funnily enough, in a un-digitalized version of a picture, she looks okay.

Just do the math Van..The ratio height to weight sounds very thin. At 140 lbs and 5 7 am bony looking. Bless you for your argument, but if you ever experienced a person starving himself to achieve a media idealized self; you would probably spew a little venom yourself. Maybe there is good reason to be a bit passionate about this issue, eh? This RL situation brings puts the matter squarely on the table because it is a serious injustice to this model according to her!

Fascinating, crymeariver. With all of the liberal posts about how we have to strive to alter the second-classness (I made that word up) of the commonly accepted minorities like the black, the gays, and the hispanics, you are right out there with the real truth.

In the world, women are considered lower class, sometimes nothing more than chattel. In this country, about 1/2 of our citizens are discredited, yet the libs want to put their entire might behind minorities. Seems to me that until women are considered equals, no minority will ever rise to a true status of equality.

As for the selling of bodies, either via modeling of prostitution, it seems we run into the same question as we do with drugs. Is the problem with the dealer (like Lauren), or is it with the user (the men who demand it)?

Normal women are caught in the middle, with little control. They are shown what they "should" look like, skinny and scrawny, then sold diet programs to accomplish that. If women were smart, they would join forces and refuse to accept it. There is a happy, healthy median between 5'10", 120 lbs, and 5'2", 350 lbs. Both are acute problems.

Women need to head for healthy, and men would be happy with a happy woman.

After reading your remarks here, I have to say, also, crymeariver, as someone who works sometimes in the area of human trafficking, the analogy between modeling and prostitution is really so far off the mark. (And you seem, oddly, to forget that there are male models as well.)