filed in What Gets Me Through the Day
An Homage to the Skinny Girl
I was a shrimpy kid, and used to get teased for being short and flat-chested with legs the size of toothpicks. (The boys would call me chicken legs.) I got my revenge. As I grew older and kept my girlish figure, I realized that skinny genes come with advantages. To this day, I can eat whatever I want and not gain weight. But in moments of self doubt, I’ve wondered if my boyish body is attractive to men. Would I have achieved long-lasting romantic success with a curvier silhouette, let’s say, like Joan from Madmen?
It’s not surprising that my all-time favorite movie goddess is Audrey Hepburn. I draw inspiration from her gamine look, the pixie haircut and how well she wore her clothes. Here’s to the woman who showed us how to look good in flats.
Photo from 1954 on the set of Sabrina.
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Joan from Madmen has fantastic boobies and hips. But I’d rather be able to eat truffles all day and still fit into a size 2 dress. Way less work.
As someone who is also naturally thin, I can tell you that I’ve also been very insecure about my “boyish” figure from time to time. People are so careful these days about how they address those who are overweight but completely disregard how slender women feel when they hear things like “real women have curves” and “men don’t want stick figures.”
However, in my experience, plenty of men like slim women, and I’ve never had any complaints from the men I’ve been with (though some of them have been quick to state their dislike of overweight girls). I’ve also seen no correlation between body weight and which of my friends have married and at what age.
I really do think men have lots of different preferences, and many of them aren’t nearly as picky about body type as we think they are. Or maybe I should say that body type has much less influence on whether or not they want a relationship with a girl than we think it does.