So as you know, Kate Moss said in a WWD interview that "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." In fact, she says it's her motto.
Now the model is being criticized for her statement by British anti-eating disorder organizations:
Mary George of British eating-disorder charity Beat notes, "Comments like this make it even more difficult for young people struggling with an eating disorder." Moss's agents issued a statement explaining that the quote was taken out of context adding, "For the record, Kate does not support this as a lifestyle choice.''
Of course she doesn't, it's just her motto. Sigh.
For the record, here are some things that taste better than skinny (or any weight) feels: Lasagna, cheesecake, nachos, fresh guacamole, grilled cheese, hot chocolate on a cold day, peanut butter, mashed potatoes, mozzarella, oh my god now I'm really hungry. Gotta go eat.
UPDATE: Great minds think alike.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: More on Kate Moss and "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels".
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://classic.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/17290
Why are we attacking Kate's personal motto?
YES I get it, she is a [crap] role model for some young girls and women, but that doesn't mean she is perfect and open to a higher level of scrutiny than others.
Whether you believe her motto is a product of our thin obsessed society, or just her individual way of keeping herself at a weight SHE loves, I think this level of nit picking is ridiculous.
Perhaps we should be questioning the concept of a 'perfect' role model before we question Kate's own preferences.
I don't think Kate Moss even has that much influence over anyone anyway. This is a non-issue as far as I'm concerned.
You forgot pecan pie, grilled hot dogs, pancakes, spaghetti, steak, and banana smoothies.
Yeah, I do believe that all those taste better than how skinny feels, and I'm skinny, so I would know. Skinny doesn't really feel that great.
Skinny doesn't really feel that great.
Skinny privilege feels great! To Kate Moss at least. But if my experience is anything to go by, skinny itself feels like bruising your bony ass every time you sit down. And I'm pretty sure super-crispy french fries, cassoulet, bacon, sourdough pretzels, cinnamon roasted almonds, cake icing right out of the jar, Turkish coffee, and spicy-ass stir-fry with basil all taste better than that feels.
(All the comments to this post are going to make me hungry, I just know it.)
I think we need to get away from skinny and think about fit. Fit is empowered and you dont need to be super skinny to be it.
I dunno, I've always been skinny, and I've always felt great. I'm too skinny to experience the privilege that goes along with a certain BMI, so I can't really comment on that.
Nothing tastes as good as humble pie.
Don't forget macaroni and cheese!
pasta, pizza, ice cream, chocolate milk, macaroni and cheese
And macaroni and cheese, foccacia, ice cream, cherry pie, birthday cake, burritos, pineapple, white nectarines, Reese's peanut butter cups, pretty much every kind of cheese, ravioli, pumpkin pie, stuffing, and all the other Thanksgiving dinner accoutrements, French fries, onion rings, omelettes, chocolate mousse, grilled vegetables, olive oil, butter, fresh cream, etc., etc., etc.
Eating is whatever you is unquestionably better-feeling than dieting. Accepting your body size and shape, whether it is fat, thin, or somewhere in between, and eating according to your hunger levels rather than what society says should be your hunger levels, makes way more sense than starving or stuffing yourself.
Trying to silence the internalized pressure to be thinner than I am is damn hard; I'm not saying I don't have any of the cognitive dissonance Kate Harding has so brilliantly pointed out. I am, in fact, at this very moment, struggling with the idea that I supposedly 'should' be dieting as soon as Thanksgiving is over. But it is very, very clear to me that just eating whatever the hell I want is markedly, obviously, ludicrously more comfortable and less crazy-making that counting calories/points every single time I eat. It does NOT feel better than eating enough to satisfy my hunger, and it never will.
I've never really been skinny, so I'm not quite sure. I'm not obese either. I've always had a good self image until the last six months. I've never had any eating disorders. However, over the last several months I've really been struggling with my weight (I'm no bigger than I was before this time period). I'm not sure what it is as I've never before been affected by the media's images, etc. It's really odd, and it bothers me a lot.
And yes, all those things sound awesome, but I guess I can sort of understand that comment as a big(ger) girl. Yeah, a brownie may taste great, but it makes me feel even larger than I already am. So no, I totally disagree with her statement coming from her as she is less than skinny. She is sickly and has major issues with body image, but I can also understand looking in the mirror and saying, yeah, I look great - no brownie necessary. For some, me in particular, eating food is an emotional response, not a healthy one.
I know the comment is a bit rambling, but I'm trying to work through this issue a lot right now, and sometimes just putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) helps that.
she is less than skinny. She is sickly and has major issues with body image
Thanks for chiming in! The opinion of Ms. Moss's personal physician adds so much to this conversation ... What? You aren't her personal physician? Then please refrain from calling her "sickly" or commenting on her body image because you are not in a position to know.
Uh, yeah, the level of nasty in that remark was pretty much uncalled for. Really? You're more concerned with defending frickin' Kate Moss over a girl who came on this forum to bravely tell us she's having weight issues - perpetuated by a culture that holds women like Kate Moss up on pedestals because of their body size and appearance?
Seriously. Get some perspective. As a fat woman, I'm pretty fucking sick of the "No, we need to turn the conversation back to how much teh skinny ladiez are hurting." Plus-size women are essentially invisible in the mainstream media and this is NOT NORMAL. Kate Moss's body type does not represent ANY KIND OF AVERAGE body weight of cross-sections of women anywhere on this earth. Why are images of bodies like Moss's everywhere, and images of bodies like mine nowhere? Because somebody, somewhere (like, oh, say, the entire fashion industry and our entire fucking culture) VALUES THEM MORE.
Try being fat for a week, if you think it's so much fucking easier or something. And try doing some media content analyses if you think women like Kate Moss are not represented at like 5 times the rate of plus-size women.
I think jrav81 was alluding to the fact that Kate Moss is known for having battled a serious coke addiction, which she may or may not be over yet. If a coke addiction doesn't constitute as sickly, I don't know what does.
Bleurgh. Mother Nature didn't make me to be skinny and I have no intention of trying to become skinny. I love my body and I love food. Life is way too short to waste it starving myself.
I don't hate the player. I hate the game.
I won't excuse the player but for Kate Moss, her lively hood depends on being skinny. I don't like it one bit but I totally understand where she is coming from. And I actually think that her comment is extremely telling and quite honest and should be discussed rather than attacked.
*sigh* I hate the f-ing game.
Gotta chime in with Fries and gravy a Canadian staple. While I'm at it ribs, lobster, vanilla ice cream, apple pie and roast beef with yorkshire pudding.
Also I am not surprised that a model would say something like that. The fashion industry is all about supporting unrealistic body images for women. Kate is only a symptom of a much larger problem.
Lest we forget; BACON.
The whole treatment of this subject is really bothering me, and I can't quite put my finger on it. It seems that many commenters have taken at face value the idea that her statement encourages eating disorders, which is overly simplistic to an almost insulting degree.
People with eating disorders KNOW food tastes good. We love food. We also happen to have a serious, life-threatening illness. And if it wasn't Kate Moss making some statement, it would be one of the other hundred factors.
I've also been thinking about this. That phrase is circulated among the so-called pro-ana community and is triggering. Does it need to be repeated over and over again and in the headline, no trigger warning? I know the media doesn't come with trigger warnings, but still.
I agree with what you're saying. It's insensitive to repeat such a triggering phrase without giving thought to how it could affect the readers of this blog who are dealing with eating disorders.
I understand why people are reacting to Kate Moss's comment by naming off the delicious foods they're not ashamed to indulge in. But at the same time I feel like it's insensitive and mocking women who suffer from eating disorders.
Perhaps you have a different experience, but when my eating disorder is active I hate food. Hate it to the point that going to the grocery store makes me cry.
Also, the idea that a culture centered on thinness promotes eating disorders is not particularly controversial. Witness the increased rates of anorexia in populations where television has only recently been introduced. Eating disorders are also to a great extent a culturally bound medical condition present only in cultures where thinness is valued.
There's also evidence that many eating disorders are precipitated by dieting. Dieting for weight loss (ie starvation) causes a feedback mechanism of continued dieting and food obsession, even in people without eating disorders.
So when someone promotes weight loss and the value of thinness like this, it is in fact a promotion of eating disorders, even if the statement was not intended that way.
Maybe I should have been more clear. I meant that I find it troubling that some people seem to think comments like those made by Kate Moss are the end all and be all of eating disorder causation. As though ending models saying things like this will end eating disorders.
There is definitely a link between the media and eating disorders. But I think it is dialectical and that culture is a huge variable left out of the equation.
And secondly, maybe obsessed with a better phrase than love. I was terrified of food, but I was still utterly obsessed with it.
It's weird that Kate Moss is getting slammed for repeating a 30-year-old dieting nostrum. She is the Twiggy of her generation. Her entire career has been one long celebration of ultra-skinniness as the aesthetic ideal.
Ultra-skinny model endorses dieting, news at 11!
There's a difference between endorsing dieting (problematic, but unremarkable) and endorsing pro-anorexia or ritual self-starvation (scandalous). The "this feels" slogan has been embraced by pro-anorexia activists, but they didn't invent it or popularize it. Oprah did more to make it a household word, by way of celeb diet doctor (and relative non-crackpot) Stephen Gullo. People are taught the slogan at Weight Watchers meetings.
Reading this makes me hongry. Where my noms??
Thanksgiving food - 'nuff said.
Also: pizza, Dr. Pepper, chocolate, burritos from Chipotle, fries with BBQ sauce, pudding, cookies...damn, now I'm hungry.
Sorry Kate, but I'll take the tasty yum-yums and a little extra pudge over a never-ending diet of salad ANY day.
(First time commenting here from my Blackberry - hope it works!)
Kate Moss did not make up this "motto." I've heard it many times before.
I actually appreciated this comment. At least she's being honest about the fact that she starves herself. Better than the models who pretend that they eat hamburgers and cake and are just "naturally" 90 lbs. It's sad and wrong, but at least she is admitting the reality of it.
None of us know anything about Kate Moss' diet. It could be disordered, or maybe it isn't. Either way, she didn't admit that she "starves herself" nor is she endorsing it. People are jumping on her for saying this, but when an overweight Oprah says it, it's positive and empowering?
The truth is that this mantra could be used in a positive or negative way, like many other mantras, behaviors, and beliefs. An anorexic teen who latches on to this mantra and uses it to refuse eating in general would be negative. An overweight adult who is trying to lose 10 pounds because SHE wants to and who uses it to turn down a second helping of dessert or a second margarita would be POSITIVE and APPROPRIATE.
I'd like to second Wonderwall's comment about Kate Moss's job, livelihood, lifestyle, career, etc being based on her skinniness. While the rest of us who aren't skinny for a living can nom on burritos, oreos, and beer to our hearts content, models, actresses and dancers just can't.
I compare it to singers and smoking. A professional singer CAN smoke, may ENJOY smoking, but for her career's sake she just wouldn't.
I second everyone's comments, with a capital "OM NOM NOM."
And I also think that it's slightly better that at least she admits that she starves herself. I hate that recurring female caricature of the "hot" girl (super skinny with huge breasts) who loves to eat bacon cheeseburgers all day. She's always showing up in movies and especially advertising, but I have never met her in real life. Go figure.
I find the idea of naming specific foods that taste good in response to this comment a bit odd. But there are definitely some extremely unpleasant things about perpetual undereating to maintain below healthy weight that outweigh any benefits of being skinny:
*Being hungry all the time and the attendant tiredness, irritability, and inability to concentrate.
*Isolation from avoiding any kind of group social activity that involves food.
*Lowered sex drive, lubrication, and responsiveness.
*Lots of unpleasant physical symptoms, such as lanugo, being cold all the time, dry skin, constipation.
*Depression.
Being heavier but not feeling any of these things feels so much better than being skinny.
I find the food responses odd too! If I ate high fat foods like lasagna, cheesecake, and nachos I would feel like crap and fall into a food coma. lol.
If I could like your comment a thousand x I would!
I've been skinny, from working out (I was in the fitness industry) and eating very little (I was a veg. who didn't like to cook). I worked at 3 gyms and 1 dance studio; my classes were packed because I was "cut" / showed a six pack, arm muscle definition, etc.
I was incredibly irritable, freezing even in the summer, my hair was very thin and broke off easily, my nails were thin and brittle, skin was dry, my attention span was shorter, I was constantly thirsty, and when I was in social gatherings with food, I ate normally and was full for days. Eating normal left me with a food hangover.
As I moved from intern to actually making a living in the industry of my dreams, I was able to leave the fitness industry.
I'm at a healthy, normal for me, weight & size.
My hair is fuller, my skin is not dry, I don't have to wear 4 layers of clothing at all times, I sleep well, my nails are not breaking off, I have more patience, etc.
Being at a healthy weight feels better that skinny.
I think you hit the nail on the head. Perpetual under eating has got to feel awful. That's different from being skinny, though. Many people with eating disorders are not skinny. Many people who are skinny do not under eat. Being skinny can feel like anything, but under eating, man, I know how awful I feel when I skip just one meal. I can't imaging always feeling like that.
My Grandma's soup feels better than skinny!!! You know when I feel skinny? When I'm sick! Gross1!!
can someone use web savvy and put up a website:
thingsthattastebetterthanskinnyfeels.com or tttbtsf.com?
Japanese Curry, Thai Curry, Jet's Pizza, Mexican food in General, Korean BBQ, Mediterranean seafood, Dim Sum, Okonomiyaki, Bananas Foster, Steak,cold soda at a summer BBQ, eggs over easy, sweet potato home fries...
I honestly find it confusing that everyone is attacking Kate Moss for this statement. The fashion industry is warping everyone's image what's good looking, including and probably especially so that of young models. Kate Moss has been judged by her skinniness since she's 16. That makes her a victim of wrong role models herself.
How can she be a potential role model for a healthy body image? Asking that from someone whose super low body weight has been subject to public discussion and, I might add, mostly derision since she's been a teenager is really unrealistic and somewhat cruel as well. This woman had to take so much shit for being too skinny, it was everyone's pet peeve since she's first been the face of CK. No wonder she says this sort of thing. Her life and her choices are constantly under attack, while on the other hand she is paid millions exactly for being skinny. How can she be expected to make any sensible statement about anything related to weight?
Regardless of who came up with the "motto" if you are saying it, that is an eating disorder red flag. Look into the symptoms and if you have other red flags, please get help.
Kate Moss is a cocaine addict who may or may not be in a 12 step program.
She and many other models and actresses have used drugs to help them stay at an unhealthy weight.
She is not healthy, she is not the ideal, she is not your healthy role model.
It's not healthy to obsess about food, either way.
Food is a blessing, it is nourishment, it brings community together, it levels the playing field as we all need to eat.
Sadly, too many people in our world community do not have the basic nourishment they need to be healthy.
For Moss, starving herself is a choice she makes that serves her well in the industry she is in. That is sad, but, frankly, I care less about her and more about children who don't have that "choice", they are starving as a symptom of poverty, not word popularity. .
Can we move on from what this clueless popular person/public figure said and if anything use her statement as a reminder that so many are actually starving in our home towns?
Please.
If anyone reading this really cares, please be aware that if you can peel a carrot, you can help as a volunteer, feeding homeless, the war vets, foster kids, etc. etc.
Has anyone on this thread actually experienced hunger from poverty? Has anyone on this thread worked towards ending someone's hunger from poverty?
Maybe, just maybe, helping others is the answer.
I feel pretty uncomfortable with the way people are responding to Moss' comments. She's a model- she's paid to be extremely, possibly unhealthily thin. Why should we be shocked she might have a screwed up relationship with food? Isn't it better that she's open about it, rather than just claiming she's naturally thin and can eat whatever she likes? Being thin in our culture comes with all kinds of rewards (aka thin privilege), and it's not surprising that many women feel justified in giving up the pleasures of food to fit the skinny standard.
I guess it just seems like instead of having an interesting discussion about the pressures of fame and fucked-up body standards and thin privilege, many of the responses to Moss' comments just boil down to "LOL SHUT UP KATE MOSS OM NOM PIZZA." It seems like we could have a more intelligent discourse about why she would casually say such a thing, no?
This just baffles me.
A lot of people are patting themselves on the back all, "Oh I love nachos, therefore I'm normal BACON BACON" etc.
Personally, I have a bit of a screwed up relationship with food, and I would find it very difficult to eat many of the things listed here. My bf suggested that I have some tortilla chips with salsa tonight, and I almost felt attacked -- he wants me to be happy, but I see it as peer pressure. It's upsetting to be told that yes, you should eat normally {or whatever that is} because you're OKAY sweetie, when in actuality, everyone around you is saying, "NO NO YOU'RE NOT. The only way to be okay is to be thin thin thin, not just healthy."
I'm not skinny or fat, by the way, because I have a feeling - judging by the reactions in this thread - that that matters.
OF COURSE Kate Moss is going to have this feeling -- she lives in a world that values her thinness over anything else about her. Her thin privilege has gotten her a lot of things - wealth, fame, perks, etc. It pays to be thin, for her. So yes, she will probably have a messed up thing with food.
Why aren't we talking about the culture that breeds this kind of 'motto' {which, by the way, Oprah has said numerous times on her show, so it's not just the skinny girls} instead of mocking the person who says it? It seems to me that that is the important issue, not proving who is the most well adjusted person who TOTALLY eats junk food not like those SKINNY MODELS omg.
I agree with you completely. While it's one thing to encourage people to consider the foods they enjoy and talk about ways to develop strategies to enjoy food, it's another to be like, HAHA PIZZA IS TASTY.
I'm not about to defend what Kate Moss said, but how can anyone be surprised? Unlike fashion models and magazines that have paid lip service to the idea of healthy body image in the past and then turned around to publish more Photoshopped images of skeletons wearing ultra-exclusive clothes, at least Kate Moss has beliefs consistent with her actions. More models, designers, and magazine editors should be this honest so that everyone can see how twisted the entire fashion industry really is.
Seriously, if she had said, "I recommend healthy eating and loving your own body, regardless of size," she would have been a hypocrite. Outside of the insular world of high fashion and supermodel fetishization, she's just a punchline - she was a 2-D character who slipped between the floorboards on 'Family Guy', for example. I say forget about Kate Moss and let her slip between the floorboards into cultural irrelevance.
Photoshopped images of skeletons wearing ultra-exclusive clothes
I have never once seen a skeleton wearing ultra-exclusive clothes in a magazine. I have seen many very thin men and women in said magazines wearing said clothes. Please refrain from insulting the very real people who work as models when critiquing the modeling industry.
Skinny is not a feeling.
"It seems like we could have a more intelligent discourse about why she would casually say such a thing, no?"
"She's a model- she's paid to be extremely, possibly unhealthily thin."
Maybe the answer to the above question is because people believe and allow the sentence below it. I was under the impression modelling was (at least should be) about advertising (mainly) clothes, not advertising being unhealthily underweight ("being paid to be extremely...thin"). It's this belief and allowing it that has to be changed.
As some of the other commentors have mentioned I find it really odd that many comments have been nothing more than "I eat this therefore I'm so normal" and "cake is good". In fact if I did suffer from an eating disorder I think I would be highly offended by those kinds of comments.
In regards to the comment by prtsimmons, I also think it's really not necessary to refer to a women who has obviously been highly influenced by cultural ideas of what women "should" look like, as a "punchline". Instead of attacking a woman for falling prey to what a lot of women fall prey to we should be discussing the actual root of the problem...not normalizing ourselves by making food comments or insulting another woman.
The favorite foods lists strike me as a kind of rebellion against the stereotype that women aspire to be thin above all else.
It is a little odd to see so many people saying that they'd rather enjoy their favorite foods, and their healthy bodies, and their active lives than meet some arbitrary social ideal of beauty. Odd in a great way.
These people aren't patting themselves on the back for being normal, they're fighting to reestablish what normal is. For too long, "normal" for women has meant guilt and shame and anxiety around food. Refusing to buy into that ethos is an act of rebellion.
I don't see how these personal testimonials are oppressive to people with eating disorders.
For that matter, we don't know if Kate Moss has an eating disorder. Not everyone who works to keep their weight down has an ED.
You also forgot to mention IHOP strawberry/banana pancakes and peppermint milkshakes! :)) What does skinny taste like anyway? I didn't know it was a type of food or drink =/ It's only a state of bliss.
I think its telling that she only emphasized being 'skinny' and not fit. Fit is empowering but simply being skinny doesnt make you fit.
Put me on board with the other folks who are troubled by the knee-jerk responses to Kate Moss's "motto" being centered on food. It totally ignores the issues at hand. In fact, I see the reaction to list of a ton of food as indicative of how dysfunctional the relationship between humans and food really is.
Do we honestly find it so very shocking that an underweight supermodel would confess to harboring disordered thinking about food? I'd rather Kate Moss be honest about what sounds like a disordered relationship with food than insist that she eats a healthy diet and that she's just naturally underweight. And this is coming from someone who's recovered from anorexia and bulimia...
I am naturally thin, but I also have to follow a specific diet to prevent migraines. My motto could easily be "nothing tastes as good as headache-free feels." I don't think anyone can label Kate's comment as inherently warped and wrong. The only reason she's being attacked for her comment is because people perceive her as being too thin, and thus assume she"must be a proponent of disordered eating habits. If she's like me, however, thinness is in her genes, and overeating to achieve an average weight truly does NOT feel "as good as skinny feels."