Celebrities like Longoria, who apply the word “fat” to themselves when they are clearly no such thing, might be part of the problem. But how about Mariska Hargitay, who referred to herself as full figured in Self magazine? My first reaction: “Mariska Hargitay? Really?” Glossed Over says:

Is Mariska Hargitay’s appraisal of her body self-deprecation, the misuse of a term commonly used to mean “plus-sized,” or the result of working in an industry where breakfast is a cigarette and a swig of Starbucks? I don’t know, but it depresses the hell out of me.

But then Jezebel jumps in to say that Hargitay might not mean what we think she means:

I sincerely doubt that Hargitay is trying to tell Self readers that she’s at all overweight. I think it’s more that terms like “full figured,” “curvy,” “plus-size,” and “big-boned,” have become so obfuscated by the dieting industrial complex that their original meanings are essentially moot at this point.

In mag parlance, Gisele Bundchen and Jennifer Hudson are both “curvy,” (which these days means “possessing breasts”) and Whitney from America’s Next Top Model is “plus-size.” We got an angry email after New York Times reviewer Manohla Dargis described Keira Knightley as “a big-boned beauty” because the reader had assumed that Dargis was calling Knightley fat. The thing is, Knightley is “big-boned” according original definition of the word, which is “having a bone structure that is massive in contrast with the surrounding flesh.” Her shoulders are broad and her clavicle protruding, but she has little flesh on her bones.

So now my mind is a little blown. What do we mean by terms like “thin” and “curvy” or “full figured” or “average” or “voluptuous,” and what should we mean? Is “full figured” automatically a euphemism for fat, and in the celebrity world (or the real world) is it automatically a negative thing? Is Keira Knightley really “big boned”? I don’t know the answer, but I sure would be interested in having the conversation.

Thanks to Nonk for the link!

[This is mo pie, with a slight addendum: Every Woman Has an Eating Disorder discussed the Gwen Stefani quote in this article, and pointed out: "She wants to be able to wear her line? Can't she, um, make some of the clothing a little bigger? We're always looking to designers to size up, in order to reflect the average woman--wouldn't this be a perfect opportunity to start?" Gwen admitted that vanity played a part in it too, and maybe she only wants to design skimy stuff, but... yeah.]

“Food can be an evil thing in the wrong hands. Here are a series of obesity-enhanced photos to show you what your favorite celebrity would look like with a few extra pounds. As we are all striving for that perfect weight, just take a few moments to have these images permanently seared in your brain, and food will begin to lose much of its appeal.”

Wow, I kind of don’t know where to begin. First of all, “a few extra pounds” equals to a couple of hundred pounds added to each celebrity. They all look like they’re wearing fat suits, of course—they don’t look like normal curvaceous women. It seems like the point is to make them look as grotesque as possible (at least in Gwyneth Paltrow’s case). Secondly, talk about value judgments—if these celebrities really were obese, it would be “evil”? And third… god, I don’t even know. Go see for yourself.