Tammie Hall is finally getting a dose of what anyone who is not "the correct low weight" gets every day. I don't begrudge anyone's natural body size, but I am sick to death of skinny girls whining about how they are picked on. It's nothing compared to what I go through as a woman who doesn't weight 120 pounds at 5 feet 8 inches. In fact, I haven't weighed that since I was 12.
At least poor Hall doesn't get discriminated against because of her weight. At least she fits into the ever-diminishing airline seats. At least she gets attractive clothing in her size, instead of butt-ugly ruffly, sparkly disasters.
Growing up, I'd have given anything to not weigh as much as I did. I would have given anything to have one boy think I was attractive; instead, I watched them buzz around skinny women like Tammie. And let's not forget how cruel skinny women like Hall were in high school. I still bear the mental scars from those years.
It is regrettable that our society's obsession with body size and image has reached a new target, but quite frankly, I can't really feel all that sorry for women like Hall. She and her sisters get the "picking on" but not the discrimination. When they start getting discriminated against, then I will be able to feel some pity. Until then, I say, gee, maybe you'll have some sympathy for those who've dealt with this crap for their entire lives.
-- Dawn-Marie Oliver
Tammy Hall doesn't need to apologize for being thin. In fact she should get a tax break for not contributing to the epidemics of heart disease, diabetes, back pain, knee replacements and other ailments that are taxing our healthcare system as the lard-assed baby boomers (who never could exercise self-control) age.
-- David Nierengarten
Tammie Hall, I'm crying you a river right now. Please tell me more about how, like, tough it is to be teeny. The appreciative glances from men! The jealous glares from women! The multimillion-dollar modeling contracts! Oh, boo hoo! I never realized it was so torturous to fulfill society's ideal.
-- Paula Henning
At 5-feet-6-inches and barely a size 4, I have heard all the outrageously rude and insulting comments about anorexia and bulimia. I have been accused of not being "womanly" and have been outright hated by other women. There are definitely some strong feelings going on out there. It's enough to make all us naturally thin girls put on baggy clothes and mope around feeling guilty about making other women feel bad.
But to hell with that! I embrace the word skinny. I like looking like Audrey Hepburn while I munch my Big Mac and fries on a break from shopping in the teen section at Nordstrom at age 40. No use feeling guilty about the genes you were born with, or suffering the out-of-control feelings of body-hatred some women seem to be tormented by. That's too much baggage for li'l ole me.
-- S.J. Woolfolk
Maybe Tammie Hall's thinness doesn't make her unhealthy, but it does seem to make her self-absorbed. Her article bemoans the way society offers advice and expresses concern about thin (or "slight" or "willowy" as she prefers to be called) people. She should take her own advice: Eat a Twinkie and get over it. People are obsessed with looks, whether one is lean, obese, has pink hair or 12 piercings.
And by the way, there is something definitely wrong with Calista Flockhart. Just compare the first season's opening credit sequence with the current one. You'll see someone who was slim and attractive and who is now skeletal and sunken. Sorry, I don't think a woman in her mid-30s suddenly found her metabolism's "cruising speed." Looks more like she found time to speed to the bathroom after meals.
-- Kelly Zito
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