Read the LabelFollow

I guess on some level I knew that clothes sizes were manipulated by the clothes manufacturers. A story I heard this morning on the radio confirmed that peripheral knowledge. If the marketing professor they were interviewing is not exaggerating the size 6 that I thought I'd maintained over the last twenty years is actually like a size 10. She says the vanity sizing trends have also reached men's clothes. You may think a 36" pants is based on a 36" measure, but that's not necessarily so.

The point that Krishna is really making in this article is all about labels.

Are we really gullible enough to fool ourselves with labels or have we simply grown accepting and comfortable with larger sizes in both our clothes and our bags of fries?

Isn't it rather paradoxical that on one hand we claim to despise the unrealistic body image that the fashion industry continues to sell us with anorexic-looking run-way models yet on the other hand we eat up their attempts at making us feel like we're mabye, just a teeny bit like that skinny model because we fit into a size 6 dress (that used to be a size 10)?

Should there be standardized clothes sizes or portion sizes for retail establishments to adhere to (that would mean MORE regulation!)?

Would you be cool living, working and traveling in one of them lounging mobile chairs like the fatties in Wall-E used? I might be ok with that, but I doubt they do very well in the snow.

The brits, always trying to make us Merican's feel inferior (ok, so maybe they don't have to try that hard) have been attempting to tackle the body image issue. This year they initiated the 'Body Confidence' awards

To see what a woman's body supposedly really looks like at various weights and heights and types check out My Body Gallery.






Edited, Sep 26th 2012 3:13pm by Elinda

I think they've changed up shoe sizes too. I started out adulthood wearing a 6, then for many years i wore a 7 now I wear a six again.

Seems like standardized sizes would be helpful for on-line sales.

Most people are. Especially the ones that order everything off a menu and a diet drink.

Mo' cholesterol, mo' obesity-related morbidity.

All babies look like the Michelin Tire Man.

Except mine, who was a beautiful angel.

No, actually my other one was rather skinny, except for a one-month period where he was a bit chubby.

I never understood the diet coke rant thing. I mean, I get it from a "I have five more minutes of stand-up to fill and need jokes" point of view but, realistically, 1,500 calories + 0 cal. is better than 1,500 calories + 1,200 more calories with zero nutritional benefit. Maybe neither is a stellar dietary decision but one is significantly worse than the other.

I've also said why. Fake sugar makes you crave real sugar, because you're telling your body you're consuming sweets, it gets none, and it craves more. It's a viscous cycle. Not only that, but fake sugar is SO sweet, that it dulls your taste buds, so that when you do consume foods that are normally sweet, they taste less sweet, then therefore craving more sweets.

Forgive me for not scouring google but here is a decent site from almost two decades ago of some studies done on aspartame: http://www.wnho.net/emerging_aspartame_facts.htm

Or, you know, who the fUck cares, let's just keep making ourselves sicker and fall back a couple more rungs on the evolutionary ladder. I'm just a hipster who is too cool for Diet Coke.

Except when consumed with meals containing sugars and other carbohydrates, I'm sure your body sees and consumes those other sugars and the effect is not nearly as bad as you like to make it out to be. If all you were consuming was fake sugars and your body never saw anything to use it maybe then it would be a problem... (but of course you'd have other problems as well)

Edited, Sep 27th 2012 12:09am by TirithRR

Yes, I'm sure your conjecture about how metabolism works is a much more reliable fact than the apparent hyperbole I'm making out of science. Just go enjoy another can of that sweet, sweet nectar.

Nah, beer for everything.

Without it, she couldn't make her trifecta claim.

If the menu is on a wall...