sex matters, and appearance matters to sex, for EVERYONE. Why is it so difficult for this to be taken in. The only possible answer is that we STILL haven't quite come to terms with the fact that puberty means that a latent interest in sex, which is present througout childhood, becomes a FULLY developed horniness at PUBERTY, it doesn't wait until someone is graduated from college and established in their career. So to summarize: anyone who's sexuality has not been aggressively repressed will be "obsessed" with sex and "obsessed" with their attractiveness i.e. their appearance from puberty onward. Deal with it.

And once these girls grow up, they'll find out that it helps to be thin when they're looking for a job, too. Surveys have shown that heavy women are less likely to get hired or promoted, even with equal or better qualifications. So it's not just friendships or sex appeal - being thin affects how much money you'll make or whether you'll be able to get the job you want.

Maybe these girls are just being realistic.

Anyone find it ironic that Broadsheet gets to share the page with the screaming red "FIND A MATE" ad(s)? Are these new? Why are they all advertising women? Why are the default search choices set the way they are? Why have meet-market ads on Salon at all? Yick.

What happens when those girls who are now better at science, math and leadership still get passed over for jobs in those fields? I can tell that I'm not taken seriously as a scientist(PhD, top 20 university) because I have curves (not fat=curves, but 40 inch hips/C-cup since I was 12). I've been winning science fairs since I had to give my size 5 jeans to my neighbor as a result of sprouting hips overnight. I really didn't beat my self up over it and didn't care if I wasn't too popular because I knew that as valedictorian with science fair medals and a full ride to college, I would be just fine. Now, I've been told that "You've got it going on..." more at conferences than that my latest invention is a good one. I think that the real stress comes from knowing that smart, curvy women scare the men we work with and for and that body image isn't just some fictious thing to be overlooked. It also pisses off the ugly older women in our department who give us the double sabatoge!

Examples of women getting screwed are abundant. Look at Watson's "The Double Helix". Mr Watson (Nobel Laurate) talks about how Rosilind Franklin would be more fun if she wore makeup and wasn't so serious. Then he stole her x-rays of DNA denying her what she's earned. That was the 50's, but now it's almost worse. Einstein stole his wife's idea and paper on the photo-electric effect, too. I'm supposed to teach that it was his idea. Now, I can't be either too plain like Ms Franklin or too pretty like myself(no wrinkles, big boobs) because no one can trust women who are either, it seems. At least the prof in the next hall doesn't talk to my chest any more! I think the girls are right to stress-out, even it is SO SAD. Someone fix it all, PLEASE.

I have to laugh. Most of the people telling girls these horrible things about their bodies and their minds are men over the age of 60. Miserable men on viagra. Men who trade in their nice and concerned wife for a 20-year-old. Or their talented wife for a little bit of a thing who won't challenge him or make him think.

It is nauseating that cocaine guzzling shrinkie dinks are eyed as beautiful when girls who keep a healthy diet and exercise program and look good in any size are classified as "nerds".

I hear the voice of gloom and doom at 51 years of age. I still have about 20 years left if I eat right and exercise, hopefully, but the Boys Club that you will find on the strip club first floor doing business want me to believe that I am shot; done-for; and certainly not viable to compete for business of success as they are.

We as women need to help the younger generations of men and women out of this fashion obsessive abyss. We need to tell women that they can do as well as men and that they need to communicate on an equal playing field and we need to teach them the rules of the game so that they can win in coming generations and not keep this foolish Boys Club mentality ruling any longer.

Metronyc

And he is an extremely hot dude.

People change, society change. In the meantime, find one thing about yourself that you find beautiful, and hopefully it will become many things.

Also, women sabotage other women more often then men sabatoge men.

"I have to laugh. Most of the people telling girls these horrible things about their bodies and their minds are men over the age of 60. Miserable men on viagra. Men who trade in their nice and concerned wife for a 20-year-old."

Well, of course men are to blame!! Women are incapable of making their own decisions about their life and need to be saved from themselves right? Don't feminists ever getting tired of spewing this bs?

Actually, if there are any men to blame for this, I would say it's gay male fashion designers who seem to prefer rail thin models with the bodies of 14 year old boys. blech

Nobody should be fat and ugly.

Proper grooming and proper health go a long way to making one very attractive and we shouldn't let that go in favor of some naive ideal of "it's what's in your head and heart that counts".

The problem is that our role models are often celebutards (Paris Hilton) and our culture has serious problems dealing with sex in a healthy way. We're a nation of lemmings and our role models are either emaciated and/or ridiculously inarticulate and anti-intellectual (GW and Administration). The problem is that we're trying to look like and act like the wrong people.