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What is skinny
(lemmy.nz)
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this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2026
501 points (96.1% liked)
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Don't be mean. I promise to do my best to judge that fairly.
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Still seems like a definitional problem, with an imprecise meaning behind the word "skinny."
Bordering on, but still on the "normal" side of the chart.
Does "skinny" look to broad population averages, or celebrity averages, or even celebrity averages for that particular age, or some kind of ideal? Is "skinny" a pejorative, negatively loaded term?
I wouldn't call Taylor Swift "skinny" if that's intended to mean thinner than ideal. But she is thinner than the American average. Is the American average considered "fat"? How much of a gap is there between skinny and fat, occupied by people who are neither?
Not in our society. Skinny is seen as the ideal.
Yeah I'm around that height and I'd lose my adhd meds if I showed up to a doctor weighing that without a damn good reason
BMI is a terrible metric, and even then her BMI is on the lower end of the normal range.
Oh I'm aware. That's why I threw in that even according to the faulty BMI scale for women, Taylor Swift is considered bordering on underweight to being underweight.
That you think Taylor Swift isn't skinny says way more about you than anything else.
Her weight has fluctuated, like most normal people. When she was closer to 115, she was closer to skinny, not at 130. Certainly not in the reference photo, which is probably the fullest I've seen her. There are plenty of photos where you could make the argument, but they look much more like the "exaggerated" sketch anyway. She is not skinny in the reference photo provided.
She was unhealthily underweight at 115.
Aka "skinny"
And unhealthily overweight = "fat"
Wow you cleared up all the confusion immediately with this really clear definition of skinny and fat! WHHOOOAAAA WOWWWEEE /s
Skinny = unhealthily underweight.
Fat = unhealthily overweight
Anyone not fitting in the above two categories is "normal".
That is absolutely not what most people mean when they say skinny. Skinny is treated as a cultural ideal, and generally just means low end of healthy weight or low fat-moderate muscle.
First time?
Most people are objectively wrong.
Correct. You could divide "normal" up a bit more with adjectives like "slender" or "husky", but "skinny" and "fat" are on the unhealthy side.
Correct.
Yeah it says I know skinny women
I think it depends on where you live too, skinny (as in thinner than average) being a relative measure.
I live somewhere extremely skinny by global standards and she wouldn't be called skinny, people might say, "yeah I guess she's skinny" if asked, but she wouldn't be seen as "a skinny person" because she wouldn't be far off the average. Same way a 5'8 woman wouldn't be a "tall woman" in the Netherlands.
From the photo she would appear to weight more than 130lbs (for 5 10 height). My one daughter is 130 at 5' 8" and looks much skinnier than TS
It’s almost like everyone’s body is different or something. Weird.
It's almost like celebrities don't lie about their weight or height.
Taylor Swift isn’t plus sized.
If it is true she's 130 at 5 10, she must have really low muscle mass