Fat

[thatu]

How many other ways does QVC say "fat"? "Plus size", "larger", "curvier", "more rounded" ... must be more.

What about "thin"? Certainly not "minus size", "flat", or "less rounded", but sometimes "smaller".

Why not get back to basics and say fat and thin? The truth hurts and even more so when we take a good long look in the mirror. But I suppose fat and thin wouldn't sell anyone anything. Nobody likes to be the odd one out.

 

[Brissles]

A few tongue in cheek suggestions ..............

Thin - slender, wiry, built for speed, seen more fat on a cold chip

Fat - well covered, likes their taters, plenty to get hold of


Of course its equally upsetting to refer to a thin person as anorexic as it is to call a fat person obese.

 

[Caroleanne]

For the more slender figure I`ve heard athletic used but also heard this used to describe a chunkier calf!! ..and boyish too

 

[OokeyKat]

as its Christmas approaching - festively plump!!!! :mysmilie_5:

 

[jacqualina]

Of course its equally upsetting to refer to a thin person as anorexic as it is to call a fat person obese.

Not every person who is skinny is anorexic, so it would be upsetting and clinically incorrect to call them that. However, over a certain BMI people are considered clinically obese, but to call them that would be very upsetting and, in my opinion, outright rude unless done so by a medical professional. My mother was considered clinically obese, due purely to over eating for her needs, but she just looked a bit fat to us, so I think the term is used more liberally by the medical profession. I think the most important consideration is your health, not what you look like and my mother had many issues in later life due to her weight. I think if she had know what lay in store for her, she would have been a lot more careful of what she ate during her younger years.

 

[Tinkerbelle]

Yep I can see that going down a bundle. Fat, superfat and gargantuan!! Thin, stick thin and in need of medical supervision. And if those either of the scale are getting labelled then "normal" doesn't get to be normal. Lower middling, middling and upper middling.

Now in reality I would range from middling to gargantuan in QVC ranges and sometimes within the same range.

And whilst its very easy to say those things anonymously on a forum, face to face hmmm not so easy. And it wouldn't be a good sales ploy.

Some people are naturally very thin. Others naturally larger. Its very easy to label. I'm an 18/20. So therefore I'm what some of you would consider fat but I'm as fit and healthy as I can be given the health issues I face. I'm not defending my weight. I don't give a monkey's about what others think. Weight isn't always about over or under eating. And calling someone like me fat won't change my diet. I watch what I eat pretty much every day of my life. If I didn't is be gargantuan in every range.

 

[Dave]

How about referring to someone with an "Hourglass figure", then muttering - but all the sand has gone to the bottom!! :mysmilie_17:

 

[Spendthrift]

I wish Q would do more fashion for "All sand at the bottom" figures, as mine has been there for years, Well actually may be not as I no longer buy anything that has to be tried on from Q as it never fits, and very little from elsewhere either these days.

 

[Tiddlywinks]

Q is trying to sell stuff so will never intentionally offend a customer. They are never going to suggest a customer is fat... even when trying to flog a diet product or exercise machine. Insults don't sell.

Besides, I don't get the obsession most have these days of judging everyone by their looks - so what is someone looks different to the pack? Sometimes there's a tragedy behind overeating / anorexic appearance etc and those people (living, feeling creatures) don't need the added stress of sniggers or name calling.

 

[Samsmum]

How many other ways does QVC say "fat"? "Plus size", "larger", "curvier", "more rounded" ... must be more.

What about "thin"? Certainly not "minus size", "flat", or "less rounded", but sometimes "smaller".

Why not get back to basics and say fat and thin? The truth hurts and even more so when we take a good long look in the mirror. But I suppose fat and thin wouldn't sell anyone anything. Nobody likes to be the odd one out.

Couldn't have put it better myself!

 

[Vienna]

When I remarried and moved towns I couldn`t get my head around the locals here calling a big/overweight person " bonny ". Where I come from, the word bonny is associated with someone ( usually a child ) being pretty. My OH is a " bonny " chap according to his friends and relations but somehow IMO the description just doesn`t sit right, especially for a man. I just call him chunky lol

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

If I was a foot taller I could nealy be considered as having a decent figure! But I'm not so I am during good periods "curvey" and during not so good periods "overweight".

Like with eveyone else my difficulty in getting clothes is the correct proportion - short, neat bust, big hips, big calves. BUT I often see ladies who are much bigger in the arse and calf than myself with lovely jeans, boots etc so where the heck do they get them???

 

[Tinkerbelle]

The boots might come from Ted & Muffy. Daft bloody name but fabulous boots. My best friend is super slim and I have chubby calves but slim ankles. We both love Ted & Muffy.

 

[Marina]

Next do fabulous jeans, they are called ‘slim, lift and shape’, they even do them in petite and tall as well as regular.
They also do them in different cuts, I get mine in boot cut and usually in the sales section
http://www.next.co.uk/search?w=lift and shape&isort=score&af=#1_1875

Edit: I don’t think that the link above works on here, I tried to mend it twice but can’t get it work.

 

[Moth]

[mum writes]

I hate all the shapewear. When is somebody going to help us ironing boards? It has been the bane of my life - people calling me all sorts of names for being really thin but call them fat back, and, ye gods, all hell gets let loose because you were rude enough to use the F word!

 

[Bigbean]

My granny always referred to 'larger' ladies as wholesome or stout.....not sure which description is better if any.....but always said that in her day there wasn't any real stigma attached to being 'wholesome or stout', that people just accepted x body was that way and similarly the said ladies didn't feel the need to 'slim' and with no classes or magazines on this subject weren't under the same pressure as we are to conform to be the same body shape. Perhaps it was better in the early 20th century after all! My favoured description to fat is 'pleasantly plump' since it sounds nice and welcoming......

 

[thatu]

Q is trying to sell stuff so will never intentionally offend a customer. They are never going to suggest a customer is fat... even when trying to flog a diet product or exercise machine. Insults don't sell.

Besides, I don't get the obsession most have these days of judging everyone by their looks - so what is someone looks different to the pack? Sometimes there's a tragedy behind overeating / anorexic appearance etc and those people (living, feeling creatures) don't need the added stress of sniggers or name calling.

You've missed the point of my post. "Fat" and "thin" have been adopted by marketeers as descriptions of unalluring body extremes when in fact they are perfectly ordinary, old and descriptive Anglo-Saxon words for body shapes. Because of market forces, it's now considered rude or judgmental to call someone fat or thin. The point is that language changes and I'm highlighting the way in which market forces are doing this. Language changes aren't dependent on obsession, appearance, tragedy, stress or sniggers, just usage, and in this case we're all being led by marketeers to believe that "fat" and "thin" are rude when elementally, they are not.

OMG. I hope this doesn't lead to another row about poor fat people or poor thin people or those in-between. It's meant to be a thread about language change, so I hope it's not a matter of time before the PC brigade hijack it for their own ends by reading into posts what wasn't put there in the first place.

Stupid of me really to say this and I'm now waiting for the inevitable when someone challenges this. This could go on - and on - and on ....

 

[donna255]

I am hourglass, always had hips and ****s. When a teenager I could never get thinner than 8 and half stone, and compared to a friend at the same weight looked heavier than her and in fact wore a bigger size clothes. Its was the ****s took up the room.

But then there is apple and pear shaped, all are normal. Some have a boyish(supermodel figure), the rest of use are playboy shape :mysmilie_59:

 

[Weathergirl]

Surely it's the intent of the speaker of a word, the context, the tone etc rather than the word itself. On it's own the word "stinky" just means smelly. But used as an adjective it suddenly becomes an insult.

I have no idea why "thin" =good and "fat"= bad. I don't believe this for a second as I know a "thin"person who is practically at death's door and a "curvy" woman who looks amazing, but as a size 16 there are many ignorant people who would just try to insult her by calling her fat. They are just jealous because she is just gorgeous and they so obviously are not. Ugly people use ugly words.

 

[lynnonthelake]

Q is trying to sell stuff so will never intentionally offend a customer. They are never going to suggest a customer is fat... even when trying to flog a diet product or exercise machine. Insults don't sell.

Besides, I don't get the obsession most have these days of judging everyone by their looks - so what is someone looks different to the pack? Sometimes there's a tragedy behind overeating / anorexic appearance etc and those people (living, feeling creatures) don't need the added stress of sniggers or name calling.

You've missed the point of my post. "Fat" and "thin" have been adopted by marketeers as descriptions of unalluring body extremes when in fact they are perfectly ordinary, old and descriptive Anglo-Saxon words for body shapes. Because of market forces, it's now considered rude or judgmental to call someone fat or thin. The point is that language changes and I'm highlighting the way in which market forces are doing this. Language changes aren't dependent on obsession, appearance, tragedy, stress or sniggers, just usage, and in this case we're all being led by marketeers to believe that "fat" and "thin" are rude when elementally, they are not.

OMG. I hope this doesn't lead to another row about poor fat people or poor thin people or those in-between. It's meant to be a thread about language change, so I hope it's not a matter of time before the PC brigade hijack it for their own ends by reading into posts what wasn't put there in the first place.

Stupid of me really to say this and I'm now waiting for the inevitable when someone challenges this. This could go on - and on - and on ....

I'm afraid the PC brigade spoil a lot of threads for me,why can't people lighten up.