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.