Have you ever wondered what your body really looks like?

Spender · **Joined:** Fri May 02, 2008 1:10 am **Posts:** 8141

An article I ran across that I thought was interesting, but I couldn't decide if it was a good thing or bad thing. I took the website name out, but I don't know if that was absolutely necessary. I, of course, went looking for a body like mine, and it was very unsatisfying to the ED, because the weights are all in multiples of 10, so you have to round, and when I looked at the two pictures I knew they were skinny, but not triggering and not shocking. Dunno. Your thoughts?

Quote:

Ladies, have you ever wondered what your body really looks like?

A new website allows female visitors to see bodies that share their height and weight, reports Jezebel. [Website name] is a searchable database of mostly anonymous photographs of women (their faces are usually censored), tagged with information that describes their physical attributes.

Users can search through the gallery by selecting choices from several dropdown menus that include height (from below 4-foot-0 to above 6-foot-6), weight (from below 100 to above 300 pounds), pant size (size zero to 26), and shirt size (XS to 3X). They can also choose from four main body types: the athletic “banana,” the chest-heavy “apple,” the wide-hipped “pear” and the classic “hourglass.”

According to the website, “a recent study found that 95 per cent of non-eating disordered women overestimate the size of their hips by 16 per cent and their waists by 25 per cent, yet the same women were able to correctly estimate the width of a box.”

In a world of images that enforce a strict standard of beauty, telling women how they should look, founders of [Website name] say they aim to build a site that enables women to see what they really look like. Most women have “spent so many years looking at themselves in mirrors that we can no longer see what’s really there,” they say, so the site gives women and comparative view of themselves.

Visitors can also browse a section called “My Body Stories” in which participants post personal diary-esque entries about their bodies, along with their photos. Entry titles range from “Fat Girl Posing” to “I will find my body peace,” and detail each woman’s physical insecurities, as well as their journey toward self-acceptance.

[Website name] has just launched, and has put out a call for women to share their photos in order to build its collection. The photo submission process allows participants to block out part of the image to protect their identities.

FadingHippie · **Joined:** Mon Oct 09, 2006 1:38 pm **Posts:** 5324

in short I think it's an okay concept, but not well executed... and I also think it still places a large emphasis on the body, instead of other things

chickadee · **Posted:** Fri Aug 12, 2011 11:34 pm

I think something like that would be triggering for me. Because muscle weighs more than fat, you'd still get a variety of body shapes and sizes within the same height and weight- and for myself I'd know that it would turn into a competition of wanting to look like the muscular pictures of my size.

I see the point, and I think it could help some ladies.

*nicki

FadingHippie · **Joined:** Mon Oct 09, 2006 1:38 pm **Posts:** 5324

That's why I think it wasn't well executed... and there's no verification of weight of the ladies... people, due to genetics, can also carry their weight differently (even within body shape)... and there's different frame sizes... etc.

delenda · **Joined:** Fri Dec 25, 2009 9:00 pm **Posts:** 4369

Yeah, it has potential, I guess. But it relies on people to submit their own pictures with their own stats... I found a few that I think are actually really accurate, but I honesty found myself thinking "there is no way she is X inches tall" and even "there is no way she weighs X lbs". (I also found myself trying to scope low BMIs, which is what lead to the "there is no way she's that tall and weighs that little").

I don't know why'd you submit your picture with a dishonest weight though.

_________________
:topic:

There used to a body-image reality show, and one segment would have the woman select where she should be in a row of women (who had the same body type) from largest to smallest. Then they'd show the woman where she should actually be standing. It had another segment where the woman would see and touch her least favorite body part on another woman of the exact same proportions (which sounds way more sexual or bizarre than it was).

FadingHippie · **Joined:** Mon Oct 09, 2006 1:38 pm **Posts:** 5324

delenda wrote:

There used to a body-image reality show, and one segment would have the woman select where she should be in a row of women (who had the same body type) from largest to smallest. Then they'd show the woman where she should actually be standing. It had another segment where the woman would see and touch her least favorite body part on another woman of the exact same proportions (which sounds way more sexual or bizarre than it was).

I find that fascinating.

delenda · **Joined:** Fri Dec 25, 2009 9:00 pm **Posts:** 4369

I can PM you a link to a clip of the show (and to anyone else who is interested). There is a lot of number-talk in it, which I know people find triggering, so I won't post it.

Recoveredandproud · **Posted:** Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:44 am

I'm completely torn on this (I wound up finding it).

On the one hand it was somewhat reassuring and interesting to see what I do really look like (roughly anyway) and I think it also illustrates quite well how different people look at the same weight due to their muscle mass or how big a chest they have etc...

But I did end up doing inevitable looking at people my height at ridiculously low weights (which tbh I agree with Delendra.. some of the very low weight ones for my height anyway I don't think are correct) so whether the initial positive is out weighed by the negative I'm really not sure.

violetcrumble_99 · **Joined:** Mon Nov 30, 2009 8:15 pm **Posts:** 238

Ah, I looked at the pictures of women at my height and weight, and... it more or less just confirmed what I already perceive my own size to be. I didn't get any surprises.

I don't know, I think that's a good thing...? (Perhaps it means I'm losing the distorted perception?)

I remember when I was anorexic, I happened to see a photo on someone's camera of a girl whose face was obscured... I thought "what the hell, who is that girl? she's so freaking emaciated, why do her parents even let her out? :pouting:

" and got a bit stroppy, before realising it was me. :oops:

Classic moment of seeing someone with the same height/weight as me and thinking they are vastly thinner... :roll:

Now, looking at this site has put me in a similar situation, yet I'm reacting in a very different way. Yay? :mrgreen:

p.s. Even though I see the benefits of this site (in helping to debunk distorted perception), I'm also worried about the potential for misuse.
It could turn into a catalogue which girls with disordered eating could flick through to find the "perfect body" and thus figure out their goal weight

Or, it could be used as thinspiration.
Or, it could promote unhealthy competition ("That girl is thinner than me, ugh!")

Kara-Corinne · **Posted:** Sat Aug 13, 2011 10:00 am

Interesting article, and interesting concept.

I think that because the pictures are self-submitted, and people can enter whatever weight they want, the resulting images aren't always 'real'...

I noticed that when i entered my information, the pictures were taken at odd angles, making the women/girls appear thinner.

I like the idea of it... seeing someone like you, but the problems mentioned above like different people carrying weight in different ways, etc. means that the pictures may not actually look like you in general...

another warning, some images contain self-harm scars, and could be triggering.

LWap · **Posted:** Sat Aug 13, 2011 11:33 am

Possibly triggering/trigger warning on the site.

I googled because I was just curious. I have recognized that no body is really going to look like my body and that as much as I want to compare, I can't for that reason. ( :topic:

Probably/possibly a good thing.)

I found a picture that looked like the woman had newish SI and I went to flag it. You can't flag because of SI or possible ED. I have a problem with that.

Spender · **Joined:** Fri May 02, 2008 1:10 am **Posts:** 8141

I clearly underestimated all of your googling capacities. One other thing I did, though, was enter my information with what should be my lowest healthy body weight and realised that my eyes are so distorted that in some cases I could not tell the difference between the low weights and the healthy weights, although I was more disturbed when I entered mid-range body weight for my size.

Becky · **Posted:** Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:02 pm

I'm guilty of googling/trying this too. Honestly, I was horrified initially because I assumed it would be massively triggering (and I don't trigger easily) but instead I found it sobering. This is of course because all the other girls in my weight category have such vastly different body types. Now, bare in mind, I had to guesstimate (for lack of a better term) my weight as I do not know what I actually weigh. But Kat's right in the sense that people carry their weight differently. I could tell you that if I knew what I weighed, I still probably don't look like the number on the scale says I should.

That being said, I can understand why such a site is flawed. Someone would find their weight and see photos of someone much, much larger and go, "I knew it! I'm so fat!" Or someone could find someone thinner than and go, "She's thinner than me! Why can't I be that thin?"

chickadee · **Posted:** Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:31 pm

Ok, haha, when I originally replied to this post I didn't want to fess up that I'd googled and found the site... turns out I wasn't the only one.

:lol:

*nicki

Recoveredandproud · **Posted:** Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:17 pm

LWap wrote:

Possibly triggering/trigger warning on the site.

I found a picture that looked like the woman had newish SI and I went to flag it. You can't flag because of SI or possible ED. I have a problem with that.

Just want to second that.... it seems probably a majority of the actual body stories (cos I thought I'd have a look at that and see if that was sort of another side of the site) are from people with eating disorders, a lot very thin, some with obvious new self harm beating themselves up about their body.... some openly say that it's not a photo of them now but a photo of them at their lowest.... that says something not positive about the site I think and the direction it could (or is) going.

Have you ever wondered what your body really looks like?

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