Are Skinny Women Really More Attractive?

It seems like such a stupid question to ask – are skinny women more attractive than women who are believed to be overweight? After all, when exactly do you class a woman as skinny or fat? Two women can weigh the same, but be different heights and shapes, and dress differently, so it might be hard to tell. Plus, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Although there are men who are attracted to skinny women, there are also men who prefer curvier women. The trouble is that when you’re continually exposed to the notion that skinny is good and overweight is bad, you can find yourself believing that the only way to be considered attractive is to be skinny.

This is a celebrity-obsessed society and you rarely see anyone in the spotlight looking less than perfect, unless they are coming in for ridicule. On the odd occasion a celebrity might have put on a few pounds, they will be castigated for it, with the most unflattering pictures published and critical words used against them. Although these individuals are paid huge amounts of money to present themselves in a certain way, reading these kinds of stories has an impact on ordinary individuals, too. You may be an ordinary woman who leads a busy life, with a full-time job and kids to feed. You may not have hours to spend in the gym, yet you feel a certain pressure to stay slim.

It isn’t only women who are affected by such images, since men are also exposed to the idea that skinny women are most desirable and that being overweight is bad. This can affect the way they behave around women, since it is perhaps less socially acceptable to be with women over a certain size. When a woman is overweight she may be the subject of teasing and name-calling and not all men are able to cope with that. It is perfectly possible to be overweight and attractive; you don’t have to be skinny to be considered pretty. At the end of the day, there is more to a person than the way they look and why would you want to be with someone who likes you simply because you’re thin?

The only trouble is that it is hard to be satisfied with the way you look when you’re continually comparing yourself to other women, especially women whose job depends on them being slim and fitting a particular mould. Wider society seems to want to impose on us the idea that being fat is bad and being slim is good, and we’re always being told how obesity rates are going to cripple the economy and health services. This clearly has an impact on how you see yourself, in terms of weight and size. Although being skinny or fat may not determine your attractiveness, it can impact your confidence, and if you don’t like what you see when you look in the mirror, this can influence how you present yourself to other people.

The Benefits of Being Attractive

Given the choice, most people would prefer to be attractive than to be considered plain or even ugly. Although there may be some debate as to what it actually means to be attractive – since beauty is in the eye of the beholder – you can usually tell when someone is naturally beautiful. Of course, you cannot divorce someone's external appearance from their internal character. An extremely beautiful woman may not have the same kind of appeal if she is rude and condescending to everyone she meets. However, when you're passing someone on the street, you only get a split second to evaluate whether you find them attractive or not.

When you're attractive, life seems so much easier, because everyone wants to be around you, perhaps hoping that some of your beauty will rub off on them! You are unlikely to be picked on for having any kind of physical defect when to everyone else you seem to be perfect. This can put a certain amount of pressure on you to always look good and you may not always be sure what people's intentions are when they befriend you. However, it is much easier to feel confident about yourself when you are attractive and everyone else knows it.

Being attractive can therefore benefit your self-esteem, which could give you a boost in other areas of your life. If you're confident and outgoing at school, the likelihood is that you will perform better, which will give you more options in life. You may decide to go to university, so that you can pursue a career and it clearly doesn't hurt to be attractive. You may not be able to rely on looks alone, but turning up for an interview conducted by your future professors will certainly leave a positive impression on them.

The same applies when you go for job interviews, as employers have so many applicants to deal with that anything which makes you stand out can only be a good thing. An employer, especially one involved in providing a service directly to clients, will obviously prefer someone attractive to represent his company. If you're going to be meeting and greeting potential and existing clients and customers, it helps to be considered physically attractive. Consequently, you can find that your good looks help you get on in your career. It doesn't matter what kind of industry you work in, being attractive provides you with an advantage over your less attractive co-workers.

It doesn't seem very fair that being attractive can help you get ahead in both your personal affairs and professional life, but that is generally the case. That is why even those individuals who are not considered to be a 'natural beauty' spend so much time and effort on their appearance. Increasingly, people are turning to cosmetic surgery in order to improve their looks, so desperate are they to be considered attractive. However, it is one thing to be conventionally attractive on the outside, but what about intelligence and personality? Surely they must count for something.

Can Gaining Weight Make You Feel Less Attractive?

It is always frustrating to gain weight and sometimes you feel that it is out of your power to stop it. You know that stepping on the scales is only going to make you depressed and so you don't, but you can't ignore the fact your clothes no longer fit you as well as they used to. You struggle to zip-up your jeans, your stomach hangs over the top and none of your tops seem to cover it up effectively enough. It sometimes reaches the stage where you hate looking in the mirror and where you feel so fat and ugly that you won't even let your partner watch you undress.

Clearly, then, gaining weight can make you feel less attractive, especially when you feel you have no control over what is happening to your body. Your weight gain may be the result of pregnancy, taking medication, illness, stress, depression, or just pure gluttony! Whatever the cause, though, you sometimes wonder if it's ever going to stop and if your weight gain is the result of your eating habits, you may just end up eating more to cheer yourself up a bit, even though you know you are only making the problem worse.

You may find yourself with clothes that no longer fit, so that a trip to the shops is required. This can be rather depressing when you take a selection of outfits into the dressing room and find that none of them fit. If you've got no clothes to wear, you obviously have to buy something and so you look for clothes in a larger size, but often you don't really care any more. You may be inclined to buy something that is comfortable, though not necessarily flattering to your figure, just because you don't feel you're worth making the effort for.

When you hate the way you look, it is hard to find the motivation to make an effort over your appearance, as all you can focus on is the fact your thighs are huge, your arms are flabby and your stomach is bigger than you'd like it to be. You may find that instead of getting dressed to look good, you just wear clothes that disguise your size. People around you may notice that you've put on weight, though this may have more to do with your attitude than the actual changes to your body. If you're downcast all the time and try to cover up as much as possible, someone is going to notice.

It doesn't really matter how attractive your partner finds you or the fact that you continue to get chatted up after gaining a few pounds when you hate your appearance. If you feel unattractive, this can undermine your confidence and make it harder for you to enjoy everyday activities that you used to like doing. In the scheme of things, gaining weight isn't that big a deal, but when you're the one piling on the pounds it can affect the way you feel about yourself, so that losing weight is sometimes the only option.