Collarbones Are The New Black
It looks like Keira Knightley doesn’t have to worry too much about her lack of decadent flesh. Because the protruding collarbone is the next big thing.
[P]rominent clavicles can be a signifier of skinniness. Sharply outlined collarbones say “Don’t let this tent dress fool you: Underneath it all, this girl can fit into a sample size”… In fact, this most passive-aggressive of body parts — it’s a lot harder to get a protruding clavicle than it looks — is the perfect focus for a generation that, according to a 2003 Duke University study, wants to appear “effortlessly perfect.”
College Candy blames Rachel Zoe:
I suppose if you’ve taken the trouble to starve yourself down to nothing, you probably want to show off your bones and make everyone else uncomfortable and a little queasy. Two thumbs up for making bones cool Rachel!
And Ann Althouse throws down a little sarcasm:
Yes, it’s a kind of sex appeal. The kind that says there is not the slightest thing luscious or sybaritic about me.
Ultimately, my favorite quote is from Diary of a Mad Fashionista, who says:
We women of Rubenesque dimensions must band together and DEMAND that fashion take note of bosoms, buttocks, legs, plump dimpled elbows, and all of those other beautiful touches that make a female, well, female.”
Amen to that, sister. And somehow this makes me think of the concept of having “curves in all the right places.” Where are the curves in the wrong places? Who gets to decide what the “right places” are? Maybe we should start deciding that, right now. Dear world: The right curves are the ones I already have, and they are awesome.
And thanks to Kari for the link!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Fashion
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Dahling, thank you so much for singling out my quote. You might want to look up my entry on the death of Ana Maria Reston, which is several months back. And what a wonderful blog! I shall link you immediatement.
“[P]rominent clavicles can be a signifier of skinniness. Sharply outlined collarbones say “Don’t let this tent dress fool you: Underneath it all, this girl can fit into a sample size”…”
Now, OK.
My collarbones have protruded since I was 10.
I haven’t seen size 2 since I was 2.
I swear, it’s going to be lack of critical thinking skills that’s going to sink America in the end.
My suggestion is to learn your Mandarin dialects now, people.
Does this mean I have to stop liking collarbones? Because I do, I have, I’ve always liked collarbones. It would make me sad to have to stop.
My best friend has the most gorgeous, prominent collarbones and she is a semi-Rubinesque size 10. I’m with littlem, you don’t have to be bone skinny to have them stick out.
I lost a great deal of weight several years ago, like 175 pounds kind of weight (without surgery). My collarbones were the first to show it, and it was actually vaguely uncomfortable for a while. It felt like my skin had tightened and I kept pulling at my collarbones to pull the skin back up. Weird, I know.
I’ve regained some of the weight, but have managed to keep the sculpted collarbone look. They still feel uncomfortable sometimes.
I love that sexiness is now being attributed to bones. Bones! What’s going to be sexy next? My patella? Femur? Metacarpals? God forbid my cranium.
I gotta’ admit, I love my collarbones! When they first appeared after losing about 100 pounds I found myself tapping on them while I sat at the computer. Now that I’m lifting weights they look even more defined because of the muscles around them. I guess I’m not really a fat person anymore, but I’m not thin either. So it’s not just the emaciated that have collarbones.
C’mon Tish… you know you want to look like a Klingon!
I have not seen my collarbones in 3 years, but I do understand curves in the right places. come on, if it was’nt for that I would go off the deep end, many people cannot control their weight but they CAN control their shape(thank you stair master).
among black and hispanic men who get praised within the bbw community for being more tolerant of weight what do you think they are looking at?
A guy I used to work with got called a chubby chaser and his response was “I dont like fat I like big ass and if it comes on a thick girl so be it”.
Now looking at the women he dated in the past I feel he told the truth because some were thin some were fat but they all had the same shape(out in out) Thats right they were all hourglass even his current who is 200+ pounds she has a 41 inch waist like many here do but she has a 56 inch ass to go with it.
I was reading about this and it just boggles my mind – because, yeah, it’s BONES. Thin people and fat people and all people in between have collar bones that protrude. Gar.
It also doesn’t surprise me. There is SUCH a fear among so many women of looking larger than they are. And a lot of today’s fashions can make a person look bigger. It doesn’t shock me that people have come up with a way to signify that they “aren’t really that big.”
This illustrates something that bothers me, and I’m sure a lot of feminists (and non-feminists, I guess) feel the same way –
Why are women chopped up into pieces and body parts? Boobs, butts, tummies, COLLAR BONES? It’s this whole sexist thing with taking away our autonomy – we can’t be whole people if we’re valued one body part at a time.
BONES? I’m supposed to feel bad because my BONES don’t protrude? This kind of stuff never happens to guys.
I am extremely saddened by the fact that a protruding clavicle is seen as a great achievement…
“Hey! This is harder than it looks, you know! It’s very difficult to walk upright when I have such little muscle mass. You should be praising me for making the effort! Ooo….getting dizzy….”
I’m 240 pounds and I can see my clavicle…
most of the time any…if I’m not slouching.
*laughs*
What irritates me is when a bunch of people latch on to something and say that “THAT is the NEW sexy”….like no one can be attracted to something difficult.
Hell…I know a guy who has a thing for foreheads…
Is that what’s next?
Yup, I’ve always been able to see my collarbones. This does not make me thin. I can also see my lower ribs (sounds attractive, doesn’t it?) and that doesn’t make me thin either. It’s just that I store fat in my arms and legs and bottom first, rather than my torso.
I don’t think you really can control your basic body shape (without plastic surgery). I know very fit, slim girls who still have stomachs that stick out a little, because that is the shape they are. I’ve been smaller and I’ve been bigger, but I was still the same basic shape – my waist was still small compared to the rest of me. I can get thinner, but I will never have narrow hips whatever I do.
I do, however, agree that Keira would do well to get some decent protein down her, for her health. Yes, she probably is thin naturally, but she didn’t look quite like that in Bend it like Beckham…
when i was a teen i crash dieted for 3 months and starved away 50lbs the first thing i noticed was my collar bones sticking out and i thought it looked weird id never seen them before, like all dumb diets like that i gained most the weight back and my collar bones went away…i miss them…but do think keira knightley looks sick.
Some people, like me, have a naturally protruding collarbone…and yet the entire anti-skinny community seems to throw us into a box with the people who acquired that image to look better.
I’m so sick of skinny people being beaten-down to make way for this P.C body weight. So what you’re saying is that you also have an idea of what the perfect weight/image is, but you’re not positively dominating mainstream media so you’ll achieve that and then reign supreme? And then thin people will get a taste of what you go through? Bullshit. That’s hypocrisy. And it’s incorrect…because you all band together every day to tell us how disgusting and unnatural we are, anyway.
I know this is really old so I feel awkward posting on it now, but I just wanted to say that I’ve only ever heard that big collar bones were unfeminine and ugly.
Delicate barely there ones are what I’ve heard are the best. (and i’m not biased because i’m completely average size and they stick out as if i were emaciated)
Just goes to show that everyone has a different taste, and there is no real substance in these superficial concerns about what’s the next best thing to have.
To those of you saying you have to be anorexic or extremely thin to have prominent collar bones you’re wrong! I weigh 125lbs, I’m 5’4, I am curvy (but not fat), and my collar bones are extremely prominent. And they always have been. I used to weigh 140lbs and they were prominent then too. Sometimes it’s just body structure.
Every body is different. Personally, I love my collarbones. When I’ve lost weight in the past my collarbones were one of the first things to stick out. The body is a collection of angles and curves. I’ve described them as being freakishly prominent seeing as I was still technically obese and my clavicle looked liked it belonged to someone who could weigh 100 lbs or less. Its one of those things that has allowed me to hide my weight well. Nobody believes that I was actually morbidly obese prior to my surgery. It has got to be genetics because I know girls far smaller than me that don’t have that prominent collarbone body structure that I appear to have.
I have extremely large collar bones and am embarrassed by it. If I have a picture taken with a short sleeve collarless shirt, they protrude and look very odd. They became large because my family starved me in my late elementary and early to middle teenage years. They wanted to bind me emotionally to make me subservient to them, so they wanted to cause me to suffer by denying me food and new clothing and well just everything except shelter. They even denied me the right to learn to drive, though many years later I had help from a friend who taught me. But, the starvation I went through almost killed me. I was not anorexic. My family just made it impossible for me to eat. They would go out to eat without me and not bring back anything. They would keep no food in the house. They would require that I take the school bus to and from school. I would steel coins from my house anytime seeing them laying around just so I could buy a muffin or something at school. And, I would go to a church on Sundays due to the grace that a girl at school would pick me up and take me; I went just so I could get a free Sunday meal at the end of church, so I had one meal a week for about two and half to three years until which time my family lost custody of me and I went to live with a family who helped me stay in school and finish high school. Since that time, my skeleton has always felt strange as I had to deal with the fact that my body was starved during a critical time of growth when my skeleton was still forming. That is why I have large collar bones. I wish it were not the case. I wish I looked normal. And, people look at me strange if they see my collar bones so I try to hide them with carefully selected clothing that covers them up. To this day, I struggle with having difficulty digesting and eliminating food, as a result of what they did to me. Life is not always our choice; we cannot blame everyone who has large collar bones. It wasn’t my fault and I did not like looking so thin that my bones stuck out. It was due to family neglect and oppression.
You know what I dislike? I dislike the fact that now everywhere I go people say, you’re too skinny! Look at your collarbones! Thats freakish! Well you know what, I can’t help it! And point and fact is I’m not that skinny – I’M NORMAL. When was the last time you heard a skinny person put down a fat person? For me – I don’t think I have in over a year. But when was the last time you heard a fat person put down a skinny person? Everyday – without fail and no exaggeration! I’m a high school student and yes I’m slim and yes I eat healthy but I also eat ALOT and my bra size is 32DD – CURVES! I’m thin and curvy and yes my collar bones stick out. So all you ‘chubbier’ people out there stop starving yourself and STOP PUTTING US DOWN! It’s the way we were born and it’s all about YOUR body not your neighbours.
Also get off the skinny bashing wagon, we have feelings too and you guys victimise us more than I have ever victimised a heavier person!