Overweight in the UK vs Overweight in the US

Big women are only allowed on television if they're funny. 

True, it's difficult to be taken seriously if there is something physically that makes you stand out. Women with (natural) large breasts happen to have the same problem. I had a friend that would wear a minimizer bra so that when she was giving presentations people would look at her face and not at her breasts.

So, for large people it can be a credibility issue. People who are large are deemed to be less credible than their thin counterparts. That's why I like this forum, people can see only what I know, not what I look like.

I think there are equally the same mixture of larger men and women here as well as the states.  I am a big girl and I have varied from a uk size 16 to a size 20  plus I am very tall, which has caused a few problems..

Another example - I thought Kate Winslet was lovely & curvy when she first got famous, and I like her less and less the thinner & more Hollywood she has become.

She was slaughtered about her size in the US press.  Poor girl was very depressed about it.  I watched a interview with her on Parkinson years ago and her eyes were welling up talking about it.  I always think she looks great...

I think it is also harder to find sort of, "fun" clothes in larger sizes. 

I think its harder to find "fun" clothes in larger sizes because shops seem to assume that if your a big girl, you must want a billion trillion sequins all over your jumper - nasty!

She was slaughtered about her size in the US press.  Poor girl was very depressed about it.  I watched a interview with her on Parkinson years ago and her eyes were welling up talking about it.  I always think she looks great...

Which speaks to what I was trying to get at about I think she was accepted (as being bigger but lovely & healthy) over here, vs being viewed as fat over there.  But that's Hollywood for you.

Then again, there is Keira Knightley and that thing started over here. 

Again, maybe the whole celeb vs real people thing are two different things, but I do think the influence is there all the same to at least some degree in terms of media, etc.

Then again, there is Keira Knightley and that thing started over here. 

See, now I think she looks ill and needs a good meal. There is thin then there is ridiculous..same as ( can't remember her name now ) the woman who plays Alley McBeal.

As for people, I was very wrong to assume that when I got off the plane in the States that I would see some horrendously obese people.  I blame the UK media for that.  In reality..everyone was pretty much normal as far as I was concerned and no one stood out to be particulary huge....No more so than here in the UK.

There is thin then there is ridiculous..same as ( can't remember her name now ) the woman who plays Alley McBeal.

Calista Flockhart played Ally McBeal.

Calista Flockhart played Ally McBeal.

Thats the one! Thank you  - She is painful to watch sometimes.

As for people, I was very wrong to assume that when I got off the plane in the States that I would see some horrendously obese people.  I blame the UK media for that.  In reality..everyone was pretty much normal as far as I was concerned and no one stood out to be particulary huge....No more so than here in the UK.

Guess that means you didn't visit any malls in Houston, Texas (I can say this, attesting to personal experience having lived in Houston for 4 years and having done the mall experience).  I worked in downtown Houston for those 4 years and if I had avoided the malls, I might have left with your impressions as well.

See, now I think she looks ill and needs a good meal. There is thin then there is ridiculous..same as ( can't remember her name now ) the woman who plays Alley McBeal.

Give those women a sandwich! 

I was watching that Supersize/Superskinny program last night, and a segment of it has been following a group of four women suffering from anorexia nervosa - very sad & I just can't imagine.  Last night, they made them all eat an entire full-fat cheese sandwich, and the women were all seriously freaking out that just preparing and eating an entire full-fat cheese sandwich was a huge deal.  I am glad that their issue is being taken seriously and treated sympathetically, but it does make you wonder sometimes why people at the other extreme of the food/body image/weight issues spectrum aren't similarly viewed quite as sympathetically.  Sorry off-topic, it's just me rambling. 

  However, when I went to London last year, I felt quite rotund. 

I think it is more of a big city/fashion capital thing than a US/UK thing. When I am in London I feel like I'm surrounded by skinny women, but not when I am elsewhere in the UK. I also found that women in Manhattan tend to be slimmer than elsewhere in the US.

I also found that women in Manhattan tend to be slimmer than elsewhere in the US.

Erm...have you been to LA?

I think there are more "normal" sized people and less of an attitude about people who are overweight (obese is another issue). I also find that men here aren't nearly as superficial (even though I'm married) and are much more accepting of a size 16 girl than American men would be of a size 12/14 girl.

I also find that men here aren't nearly as superficial (even though I'm married) and are much more accepting of a size 16 girl than American men would be of a size 12/14 girl.

I was going to say something similar, but there are exceptions too on either side of the Atlantic, so I thought maybe it's just my experience of things.  It's kind of funny too because my British hubby initially fancied himself with a skinny minny, but now that he's got some real life cushion for the pushin' - he wonders what he was thinking of before. 

but now that he's got some real life cushion for the pushin' - he wonders what he was thinking of before. 

I have just spat my coffee out in laughter!    I love that...going to write that down....

Erm...have you been to LA?

I was actually just thinking that LA would be another exception. By the rest of the US I meant stereotypical "middle America".

There are probably  fashiony-skinny areas of the UK outside of London as well.

Basically, you are going to find more skinny women in areas where fashion and style are a big part of the environment.

Regarding UK men being less superficial - sorry, but I have heard UK men make obnoxious comments about women who aren't as thin as they would like (despite not being skinny chickens themselves), probably no more, no less than I have heard in the US. Maybe British men are just too polite/cowardly to say it directly to the woman's face. Fortunately, not all men are like that.

I think it is more of a big city/fashion capital thing than a US/UK thing. When I am in London I feel like I'm surrounded by skinny women, but not when I am elsewhere in the UK. I also found that women in Manhattan tend to be slimmer than elsewhere in the US.

I agree with this.  I am considered pretty slim in Chicago then I arrived in London and I got pretty self conscious about myself when I see how thin some of the girls are on the train.