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Shoud beauty pageants be judged on their health status?
Posted by goshopper1 • 4/30/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: beauty pageants, bmi, health, skinny, underweight
A Miss Universe contestant (Miss Australia) is skinny and has health professionals and nutritionists alarmed. She looks undernourised. Should health be a part of beauty, what do you think?
She is 5' 11", 108 lbs and has a BMI of 15.1
ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090423/entertainment/centertainment_us_australi...
User Comments
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She's too fat.-
Rolf!!!!
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I certainly don't think they should have to "prove" to anyone that they eat, but I do think that young ladies who have eating disorders need more help than a scholarship and a world tour can give them. If the young lady is simply built that way, she shouldn't be punished for her metabolism. If she's anorexic or bulemic, she shouldn't be rewarded for that. -
Beauty pageants are an incredibly sexist, a pathetic remnant of the last century.-
I agree. We shouldn't have them at all.
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Agreed. -
Agreed!
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I agree completely! -
Ditto.
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We should have a "Miss naked BC" pageant. All the female bloggers can send in pictures of themselves naked and I will judge them in my pants.
Tasteful shots only though please ladies! Any overtly gynaecological entries will be declared null and void and then Posted to "My hairy wife.com" -
I think we should have a Nude Aardvark show...
Wait! We already DO!-
But my nudity is my gift to humanity.
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Hm... I wonder how we can regift this so no one will notice...
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Why would you want to regift?????
A naked Aardvark is the gift that keeps on giving. -
So true... we gotta keep givin' it to somebody else.
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Aardvarks actually make ideal pets for people who find it hard to show emotion because you can't hug an Aardvark due it's many and varied skin infections and of course the constant dribble of urine.
But as I say if you lock away any attractive cushions and always remember the Aardvark is a treacherous lavender beast with a love of informing they can make marvellous pets for sociopaths and the elderly.
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Body Mass Indx ( BMI) is used to determine whether a person is underweight, overweight, obese or of weight within limits. It uses a person's height to weight ratio. This beauty contestant is way underweight. A BMI of less than 18 is underweight. Her BMI is 15.
Weight is also a good indication of a person's health. -
I think there should be a minimal BMI requirement to get in. Some runways are starting to do this. I wrote about it on my BRAINS blog -a story about anorexia. One of my good friends has anorexia.-
a low bmi does not necessarily equal anorexia.
the concept of bmi is as antiquated as beauty pageants. -
yep, BMI tests are inaccurate as they don't take muscle into account.
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Beauty pageants are nothing more than a parade of neurotic, anorexic women who are competing to see who has the best plastic surgeon.
What is irritating about our age is that the spectrum of beauty has moved away from the spiritual or moral qualities of an individual to their raw physical appearance. And we wonder why more people are dealing with psychological disorders than ever before - they believe they have to make themselves into some sort of object of fantasy, though the point of fantasy is, it's not real!-
Well put.
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I don't think this is necessarily to do with our age...it's always been around, just today it's more particular because we have HDTV...
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"What is irritating about our age is that the spectrum of beauty has moved away from the spiritual or moral qualities of an individual to their raw physical appearance. And we wonder why more people are dealing with psychological disorders than ever before - they believe they have to make themselves into some sort of object of fantasy, though the point of fantasy is, it's not real!"
Amen -
But women have always been adjusting themselves to appeal to the social norms...from never going outside in order to maintain pale skin to plucking hair from the hairline to make it seem like you have a larger forehead. I think the idea that people have only recently started caring about what women look like above all else is false. I think we just talk about it more and our societal norm has become something more overtly sexual than previously. I think this is a bi-product of women's lib...previously women were sexual objects for particular men, now they are just sexual objects. I think I'd rather have women being portrayed as meat but having a choice about it than being traded in marriage etc. like they were no better than meat.
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i think that's her on-camera weight, which means she's 10-20 pounds less than 108. -
Back in the 'Twiggy' sixties, I used to think that women in the diet commercials looked better in their 'before' photos: so it could be worse.
The Body Mass Index is, in my opinion, useless - except as a conversation piece. Quite a few of my relatives, for example, are short: with wide shoulders, deep chests and proportionately short arms and legs. They're 'obese' according to the BMI - just like Arnold Schwarzenegger was, when he played the title role in "Conan the Barbarian."
As for beauty pageants - they've come a long way since the Atlantic City days: and I'm counter-cultural enough to accept them as part of the global culture. -
Health is beautiful, but the health industry is not. It reeks of perfectionism and exploitation. People don't have to go to such extremes to make themselves up and over. Most of us are fine just as we are. -
Beauty pageants are moronic, however....this statement pisses me off...
"She needs blood tests, diet analysis and an overall assessment."
If she was OVERWEIGHT, you would never hear that statement out of anyone's mouth. For some reason it is considered politically CORRECT to publicly humiliate those who are very thin, while doing the same to anyone who is overly overweight is one of the biggest taboos.
"But Australian Medical Association president Rosanna Capolingua, whose organization represents Australian doctors, said the contest should impose a minimum BMI cut-off of 20.
"The most unhealthy part about it, though, is the image it is showing other young women who may view this as normal, when clearly it s not," Capolingua said."
Who the eff are they to say what is normal? Honestly this pisses me off as a thin person. I eat at least 3,000-4,000 calories a day, am in excellent health and my bmi is just barely into the "normal" level. I often hear overweight people complain of how people have made fun of them for being fat....well, the opposite is definitely true as well - clearly!
When people see a thin person they automatically assume that the person has an eating disorder and must be unhealthy. Working in the fashion industry, I know a lot of models - I also interact with them all the time. I have come across a couple who do have eating disorders, but I have come across just as many regular, non model women who do as well. The vast majority of thin models simply have good metabolisms and stay in shape. You'd be surprised just how much many of them eat! (and don't throw up or starve themselves afterward)
This sort of work requires a lot of energy, something which those suffering from an severe eating disorder often don't have.
BMI is almost two centuries old - and doesn’t take into account diet, exercise, genetic predisposition and differences of sex. I would personally be excluded from their beauty pageant because MY OWN bmi isn't even 20. I guarantee you that I can outrun, out-martial-arts-ass-kick, out-just about anything any of these guys who want to impose these antiquated requirements. According to them, I must be anorexic and extremely unhealthy. It's a wonder I'm even able to drag my corpse out of bed each day.
It's also worth mentioning that for the news article, they picked an image from the side where she looks the thinnest...media sensationalism at its best...as usual. I have seen many pictures of her as a model where she appears quite healthy.
If she is truly unhealthy, these so called "concerned" doctors and nutritionists should speak to her privately - not call her out publicly for all the world to see, based solely on a visual observation likely not even made in person. The psychological damage of this sort of public humiliation on a mass scale is really hurtful. The girl is only 19, and while she may be an adult - people at this age are often still quite vulnerable. -
Beauty pagents are livestock shows for people-
Another one comes, and another one comes, and another thread bites the dust....
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Someone exhibiting muscle wasting is obviously not healthy. -
I do agree that being thin is not necessarily related to an eating disorder.
Women who are thin may be so because of several factors, one may be eating less calories than they consume. It may be their genetic make up. Many are not unhealthy.
Some of you are right though, for beauty pageants there should be standards so young girls do not get misled.
As a matter of fact I just posted a blog a few days ago on obese children in the USA. About 1:5 4 year olds is obese. The research reported that there will be an alarming number of obesity related illnesses among adults in the future. -
i guess let d fat roll!!
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