Letters to the Editor
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I used to read SVH
When I was a kid this and the babysitters club kept me entertained. I would rather have them not re-release the books if they are going to butcher them to reflect our cultural decline. Those books were just fine the way they were. Just re-release with a new cover and I will buy!
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Perfect size 4
Well, a size 4 is the new size 6 -- not because women have gotten skinnier, but because clothing companies, I believe, have started making clothes bigger. Apparently it makes women feel better to be in a smaller size, even if they haven't actually shrunk.
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You can do it!
"And I guess it is a sign of some kind of progress -- that no matter how unrealistic the blond, plastic heroines of my childhood were, the bodies of today's heroines are just that much harder to attain."
Suggestions:
1) Put down the fork
2) Go to the gym
Simple!
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um, vanity sizing much?
A size 6 from the early 80s is probably more like a 0 or a 2 today...perhaps Liz and Jessica have plumped up a bit in 25 years, rather than dieted excessively?
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LetterWriter is correct about size inflation.
Kind of lame that the publisher is boasting about such a thing, but it is true that clothing companies are making clothes bigger while keeping the size numbers low. I've heard Marylin Monroe wore a size 14. I believe that's what would be about an 8 or 9 now.
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clothing size standards
From Wikipedia:
"US standard clothing sizes were developed from statistical data in the 1940s-1950s. They are similar in concept to the EN 13402 European clothing size standard.
"However, as a result of various cultural pressures, most notably vanity sizing, North American clothing sizes have drifted substantially away from this standard over time, and now have very little connection to it. Instead, they now follow the more loosely defined standards known as US catalog sizes. These are on average 6 sizes larger than the original standard. So, for example, a size 12 on the old standard would today be described as a size 6, while a size 6 on the old scale would be what is today known as size zero."
As this drift continues to happen, will we have to invent negative sizes?
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OMG! Patriarchy!
Skinny heroines? GASP!
Dear Gaia, how will we EVER survive?
Is there no END to the victimization?
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womens clothes size
I thought one of the problems of todays womens sizing was that companies now call a size 4 what used to be a size 6 to help women feel better about their purchase? Would that not make them the same size? Did I not read that in this column?
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Vanity sizing, yes, but.....
....do we really have to have them described as "a perfect size whatever"?? What is perfect? I just looked at my old high school yearbook (70s) the other day and it was just amazing how few overweight girls there were....or underweight for that matter. Still, I remember being insecure about my body even back then. I can't even imagine what a basket case I would have been if we had had a fraction of the body-obsessing media prescriptive b.s. that we have today.
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size inflation
I'm guessing a size 6 in 1983 is actually smaller than a size 4 today. Gotta account for vanity sizing!
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Why mention size at all?
There is certainly a photo/picture of the perfect twins on the front cover of the book, no? And you’d just have to read a page to know that the twins are practically perfect in every way. Isn’t being slender, fit and perfect enough of a physical description? Why do they need to throw out a single size as if it’s the standard?
It’s my theory that they mentioned the size change knowing they’d get a little free PR on the blogs as people complained and discussed. I’m sure they expected readers to say, ‘but sizes have gone up’ in response to those who suggest mentioning specific perfect sizes is just another way to stress girls out.
But am I the only one who sees that some sizes have gotten smaller? Pick up your old favorite t-shirt from way back when and compare it to a new American Apparel t-shirt of the same size. Skimping on the fabric these days, no? Lots of very trendy, young clothing has gotten much, much smaller even if the sizes at Talbot’s have gone bigger. Just saying.
And also – these books were really, really bad in the 80s. Like ‘Saved by the Bell’ bad. You didn’t miss a thing.
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My favorite super heroine is...
Pearl Penalosa, AKA Ultra, developed by the Luna Brothers, and feminists should take note that she is probably the world's first "comic book" feminist super heroine, however people could make the argument that Wonder Woman was the first.
Ultra is independent, career oriented, but at the same time realizes that as a woman she is a minority, and has a problem finding suitable boyfriends/lovers that are not intimidated by her assertiveness and inner strength both physical and emotional.
However, like all super heroes, both male and female, Ultra has a near perfect body. Could you really imagine a fat, over weight, droopy, saggy, pimply faces, disturbingly hair, Superman selling many comic books?
As a young man/teenager, I was jealous of the X-Mens' (all of them) perfect abs, but then I quickly learned that I had to try to be an agent of good in other ways.
Could we still love the SVH twins if they had the bodies of averages girls? Yes, because they weren't/aren't superheros.
Could there someday be regular, adventurous, honorable, courageous, teenage girl characters for us to want our daughters to emulate? I certainly hope so, but I wonder how marketable that fiction will be?
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Never heard of it.
And I was in middle school from '86 - '88 (in NY, not in Botswana, for instance). I don't remember any of my friends reading this book, either. Just sayin'... maybe not as popular at it seemed back then. (Or as it seems to this book's promoter.)
Also, no matter what a teenage-lit book says is the perfect size, I know someone who is a clothing model for companies that need what they call a perfect size 8 model to tailor/fit their clothes. And the woman is damn skinny.