Hellbrown is a woman..? Good God.
Would Hellbrown care to define "larger woman" for herself?
A great many people might have felt ridiculous for one reason or another at school, but a great many people grow up, move on and put it behind them. Discrimination for any section of society based on themselves imo is self loathing. Natalie Cassidy doesn't seem to hate herself so she's already in a winning situation and miles above those who feel the need to call her Fat Sonia or Fat anything. I'd rather watch a size 14+ than a size 6 or 8 with their bones protuding thru their skin.

Well i'm a skinny woman and i cant wait to see Natalie's dance tonight i saw her training with Vincent on It Takes Two and she looked like she is gonna be a great dancer

Read the first sentence, then judge what you wrote in your second sentence. As a size 8, I personally feel as though I am being discriminated against by someone, probably because of their own self loathing

As for me - I wouldn't rather watch any weight. I'd rather watch a good dancer, regardless of what size clothes they wear. If that's a size 6 on the verge of death with 'bones protruding from her skin' or a size 14 who's so massively large that she could sink the Titanic, then so be it.

I thought Natalie looked great in training as well. I think it was unfortunate they put her in that awful short red costume last week. It was much too short for her. Why do they do that? They should look at the shape of the person and put them in the most flattering outfit, not deliberately put them in something that does the opposite.

BTW I'm also a size 8 and don't take offence at all if someone says they would rather see a more rounded women dancing.

You don't take offence when someone generalises a size 8 as a dying twig with bones protruding from her skin, and someone who the original poster doesn't want to see? Lucky you. I'm offended. It pisses me off when people try to defend larger women by insulting women like me.

While I totally understand your point of view (and, myself, am much more likely to coo enviously at a size 8 girl than slag them off for being rib-showingly skinny...)

...don't you think you're kind of harming your chances of no slagging by saying things like 'a size 14 who's so massively large that she could sink the Titanic'?

As a size 16 who has never yet broken a chair, got stuck in a lift, cracked a paving slab or, indeed, sunk an ocean liner, that strikes me as a bit 'pot and kettle'.

Oops...
And yet...
Having read Hellbrown's post it does read as discrimination and I personally find it shameful and offensive. If someone cares to take offense at an opinion, then so be it, but I didn't write "a dying twig", conscious of name calling, like Fat **** or Twiggy.
I was a size 10 till I got ill in my 30's and at one point plummeted down to below 6 and a half stone. I felt brittle and breakable, then struggled to put weight back on for 10 years. Earlyish menopause and I was overjoyed 6 months ago when I went to put on my size 8 stretch jeans and couldn't get them above my thighs.
I don't see it as a question/debate about weight or size, or even health, but about discrimination and ridicule. Natalie Cassidy is being ridiculed about her size yet to my knowledge no-one has ridiculed any of the "skinny" celebs for weighing less.

I think sometimes, in an effort to be ever so politically correct about weight issues, we are encouraged to be accepting of all weight sizes and consider everything ok. It is actually better to eat healthily and exercise regularly. With growing levels of obesity, the average weight is moving upwards, and while someone may be of average weight in the population, this may not necessarily equate to healthy.

I don't think ridiculing someone for being over or underweight is ok, but everyone should be encouraged to maintain a healthy lifestyle in terms of food intake and exercise. This attitude of it's ok to be overweight (or underweight) as long as you're happy is not helpful.


So you weren't refering to her weight. What did you mean by "She's a real person" then? How is she more real than anyone else?

After seeing how Natalie's shaping up on ITT, it looks as if she might be bloody brilliant! This is a dance contest, not a Miss World contest.

Hello you,
I wonder when people think of a small size they unconciously think of height, you are an 8 ( I agree as I've met you) but you are also quite small , which evens out, many pictures of small sized celebs seem to be in height bigger, which looks odd.

Just wanted to say I don't care about Nat on diets ,off diets, just hope she entertains ,dances well, and stays in the competition.

Since I don't care. I'm off. That why I don't post much :P

Hi party on Vincent thread for supporting Vincent and Natalie tonight around 7ish if anyone is interested

No I don't, I would like to be slightly larger but I'm not, so what. I'm only 5 ft 2 in so it isn't that small.

But anyway I think generally larger ladies are more sensitive about their weight so we should be more sensitive when talking about size, whereas thinner ladies don't really care if someone criticises them (obviously not in your case).

To me Holly Willowby is a good role model for youngsters (not that I am saying she is overweight, she's not, she's just not stick thin.)

This attitude really frustrates me. I'm thin, and really was sensitive to the stick thin, bony, anorexic etc comments I was subjected to. They are in no way complimentary. If I ever reacted to the comments, I was told that I should just take it as a compliment, as if being criticised is somehow ok.

Thin people have feelings too, and we should be polite to everyone, irrespective of our perception of what the level of their sensitivity might be.



Holly's hour glass figure (big boobs, big bum, small waist) is very unrealistic for most people with different body shapes to achieve. The role models should be those that exercise regularly and eat heathily, although this is difficult to tell just from looking at someone on TV.

We're only hours away from the big one (quite literally) and i can hardly wait.I expect Cassidy to be in a three-way dog-fight for elimination with Tufnell and DunWooden.I imagine she'll be saved by Alesha,desperate to curry favour with the feminist lobby and Len because she's a "Cockney Sparrow".

Thing is, every magazine interview features impossibly thin girls claiming they 'love their food' and avoid the gym like the plague. How can you sort those who may well have naturally fab metabolisms from those who are subsisting on lettuce, black coffee and laxatives, and are lying through their perfect teeth?

I think a healthy look, for the majority of people, is one where your bones don't show. Anybody who puts a concave chest on display, like Cheryl Cole did for last year's X Factor final, is definitely giving girls the message that the skeletal look is cool.

Shouldn't you get your homework done before you're allowed to come on here?

I hope to god you're not really a teacher.

Didn't Cheryl lose a lot of weight from stress after Ashley cheated? She is slightly healthier now.

You're right though, thinness is promoted in magazines, so it surprises me that obesity is still a far, far bigger problem in this country than malnutrition. And too much emphasis is placed on magazines in our blame culture.

The real problem though, is that these celebrities are role models at all. If teens were taught to aspire to be the real role models of society (the charitable), then it wouldn't be such an issue. But that's another discussion altogether.

[quote=Shappy;35671331]Didn't Cheryl lose a lot of weight from stress after Ashley cheated? She is slightly healthier now.

You're right though, thinness is promoted in magazines, so it surprises me that obesity is still a far, far bigger problem in this country than malnutrition. And too much emphasis is placed on magazines in our blame culture.

The real problem though, is that these celebrities are role models at all. If teens were taught to aspire to be the real role models of society (the charitable), then it wouldn't be such an issue. But that's another discussion altogether.[/QUOTE]

You can be as stunning as you like but if you're a bitchy cow or a thuggish oaf then who is going to like you and what bl00dy use are you?

OMG! No, I was being sarcastic. I don't think 8s are twigs, or that 14s could sink the Titanic. That was my point. I didn't mean for it to be taken seriously.

I think she'll surprise people. Shouldn't judge before you've seen her dance.

I think she will get fitter and fitter the longer she is in and she might just surprise us all.

I didn't expect Kelly Osbourne to be a good dancer, so hopefully Natalie will be better than people think.

I was originally looking forward to a car crash performance from Natalie tonight as I didn't think much of her mambo last week, but she looked quite good in training so we'll see! That little red costume was appalling though, silly costume department!!

And just to wade into the whole weight debate, just because the average UK size is 16 doesn't mean it's healthy. There are all kinds of increased health risks from being overweight, just as there are from being underweight. Is it the new Clover advert that says the middle is the best place to be? Well whatever, the best thing is to find a happy medium and be neither over- or under-weight. There should be a lot less emphasis on the latest diet or slimming pill, the message should be that everything is fine in moderation, along with healthy eating and exercise.

Although I do think the government could help by making junk food more expensive and healthy options cheaper! It costs twice as much at the supermarket if you're buying fruit, veg, fish, chicken etc. Drives me mad how cheap the rubbish is in comparison!!

its going to be a car crash