Angelina Jolie, too skinny!

The only thing that really matters to me is whether or not she's happy with herself. Not even whether or not she's physically healthy or on drugs or I'm attracted to her or not. Even that doesn't matter all that much but if she hates herself that sucks, and if she doesn't good for her and she can look any way she wants, and if "the man" wants to hold up her look as THE look, that's valid to debate about but it's a separate issue than whether or not she's "too much" of one thing or another.

"too skinny" for what? to like? to be pretty? to be a good mother? to be a good role model? to be a good actress? to play a fat person in a movie? OK maybe yes to that last one but then look at Eddie Murphy!

The only hypothetical you didn't ask at the end there is the one everyone's been talking about: to be healthy. You can be thin to the point at which it isn't healthy.

And, probably to a lesser extent, to create unrealistic (or unhealthy) goals of beauty for girls who see her. Whether she specifically desires to be a role model or not, it's going to matter.

fair enough Yoda, though as i said whether or not she's "healthy" matters to me less than whether or not she's how she wants to be, which i saw no one discussing and as i stated is a more important issue to me when talking about body image --> self image. possibly nobody's discussing it because nobody here knows how she feels about herself so it's harder to get worked up and opinionated about but to me that's the issue and makes this thread something of a non-issue.

For the record I'm 6'3" and weigh about 130 pounds, nobody (including doctors) have ever called me unhealthy even when I weighed 125. I can't say I "identify" with Jolie in any meaningful way but that probably informs my opinion (such as it is) on this as well.

Anyone know Jolie's weight? Care to guess?

Hmm, I'd have to disagree; whether or not she's healthy is certainly more important than whether or not she feels good about how she looks; far more so, I'd say. Something doesn't become good, or healthy, just because the person wants to be that way.

Anyway, I've seen pictures of you and you never looked unhealthy to me. But of course, we are bringing some assumptions to this discussion, not only about our own personal histories, but about hers: she has a history of drug problems, and she's in a business where people routinely sacrifice this sort of thing to stay attractive.

The point is I'm not being rude.... Yes it does.


Thats exactly what has happened here, you feel the need to tell me this? Except Des has told me to "watch my tone" and since I'm accusing people of applying a certain spin to my comments I guess I should admit that I did the same to Des when she said this. This isn't an opinion, or the start of a discussion, this is 'watch your F**king tone kid'.


IOh, it sounded sarcastic? listen, what I'm saying clearly isn't sinking in, I guess you could probably say the same thing to me. I'm not expecting anything in return but I have already mentioned, "I can only apologise if people are misunderstanding my tone" its just one of those barriers we have to deal with on a discussion forum.


No, I guess not.


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As Ive tried to explain, the only thing I had against Cait is that she entered the conversation quoting my post and then stating her opinion.. So it felt like she was saying I was wrong since she exclusively quoted me, as apposed to everyone else who entered the topic and through their 20 cents on the table some saying to skinny, some saying otherwise.

So now thats what cait did.... at what point did I do that to Des?

No, I'm just saying that me being deemed condescending is a presumption based on text. Yet I'm being accused as 'presumptuous'.

I think you'l find the first person to comment on anyone else's post was cait when she quoted me (exclusively deciding to use my opinion to state her own, I have no idea why) and this ironically started this pickle. HYPOCRITE , sonter back to page one and educate yourself, then maybe you could apologise (I doubt that though). Whats this FAIL business as-well, go back to Youtube and laugh at people falling off their bikes please.

Good grief. Your civil rights are not in danger just because a mod told you to be careful how you talk to another mod. It's overly militant and defensive to think that you have to remind everyone that you're allowed to say what you want.

It's kind of odd that you'd issue this interpretation, then sarcastically bold the word "sounded" in the next quote. And then you go on to say all these perceptions are "presumptions based on text." Really, either you understand that we can infer things from text, or not. You can't have it both ways.

I guess I find it difficult to think much of that statement. It's one of the many apologies that aren't really an apology; there's a conditional in it, for one, and there's the clear implication that any error is with the people "misunderstanding [your] tone."


Well, then I expect you'll have plenty more misunderstandings in the future if you honestly believe that's a perfectly reasonable way of addressing people you don't know in the midst of disagreeing with them.


Then you're reading her reply in a really unusual way. Cait starts by agreeing with you that she's gorgeous, but then saying she looked too skinny the last time she saw her. In other words, she's pointing out that the two aren't mutually exclusive, which is completely correct and a very valid response to your post, specifically. Hence the quote.

How you could have possibly interpreted her post as even remotely hostile or confrontational (yet simultaneously not see your next reply to her as both) is beyond me.

You didn't do that to her -- at no point did I suggest you did EXACTLY the same thing to Des as Cait did to you. I'll quote myself here:

"So, you're upset with Destiny for directing an obvious comment towards you, which is exactly what you had done to Cait."

Well, yeah. Text is all we're using here. And something is not condescending based only on whether or not you intended it to be so. People are rude without realizing it all the time, in any number of ways.

Look, it's clear this thing is pulled out of thin air. For whatever reason, you think Cait was going after you with the mere act of quoting you. I don't understand this in the least, and I hope you'll have another look at her reply and reevaluate that reaction. Everything that follows from there makes a heck of lot of sense if you take her post for what it clearly is: a simple point about mutual exclusivity. After that it's friends looking out for friends and endless volleys about who meant want.

yes i see what you're saying but i may not be able to articulate my counterpoint into such an elegant generalization. i suppose i'm getting away from my initial point that "it doesn't matter to me" which was perhaps too rhetorical. but i don't think i'm saying you can become healthy by imagining yourself as such at all.

i was pretty close to a girl who had been bulimic when she was younger. i'd be willing to guess that when i knew her she was generally healthier (probably exercizing less, but also did fewer drugs, ate better, didn't force herself to vomit), but the thing that made me saddest when she was describing her past experience was the feeling of dissatisfaction and self-loathing she had like nothing she ever did could maker her good enough or skinny enough (let alone too skinny).

i can see that my friend was probably too skinny, and also that her putting on weight and being healthier did correlate nicely with being happier, but when i say "too skinny" here i really mean she couldn't be happy with herself no matter how skinny she became. I don't know much about Jolie so I can't assume that about her and I don't think the speculation about her health is really amounting to much. Is she doing more drugs than she was in the earlier "healthy" photos? I don't know but it seems like the people calling her "too skinny" are jumping to that and similar conclusions.

The question is what perpetuates that kind of impossible ideal? One would think that it was the Greek standard. But it's not. It's something far beyond.

Anyone care to explain this gap? I've already tried, but everyone rejected it.

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Your rite, obviously. I apologise to Caitlyne, I read too much into that first reply. Its funny how the smallest little thing can escalate and then your arguing, not for the sake of it, but because it just feel logical to counter someone who telling you, you've acted out of character, or inappropriately. Or maybe its just easier than admitting your wrong and apologising. Sorry.

I have to disagree based on my own use of the word "gorgeous" which I meant to apply to the aesthetic as a whole, including her skinny frame. For me too skinny would imply she wasn't "gorgeous". I suppose the main reason I disagree that she can be both gorgeous and too skinny is that her thinness is so very visible in her face.

I think I see what you're saying. I didn't mean to suggest that you thought thinking = reality. Sorry if it came off that way at all. I guess I'm just saying that, to me, being happy isn't the only thing, because we often seem to want things that aren't good for us. I suppose you could say the person isn't "really" happy, but that's a fine line to walk. Hard to distinguish between a person who's doing what they want for the right reasons, and for the wrong ones. And, like your friend, it seems like they only see they're unhappy in retrospect.

All that said, yeah, there's a lot of speculation here. I think in Jolie's case we have a couple of strong reasons to wonder, though granted, at this point the discussion has become far more abstract, and less about her, specifically. Which was probably inevitable.

It's funny, because I alternatively feeling like arguing both sides of this, because my feelings on weight and body image are pretty nuanced. On one hand, yes, there are terribly unattainable standards out there and any number of famous people clearly putting their looks before their general health and well-being. On the other hand, the backlash to this can get a little out of hand, to the point at which we're praising Gabourey Sibide for being a "real woman," when she's probably going to have even more healthy problems than someone who's rail thin.

I'm guessing most of us have very different things in mind when we say "thin" or "skinny," too.

Well, goodness knows I can be needlessly argumentative. I have to walk a weird line between trying to keep an eye on the site as a whole, without butting into discussions that aren't my own. And I probably feel an overly strong sense of protectiveness towards the mods.

Anyway, this is very big of you and I apologize, as well, if I said anything particularly antagonistic. I may have disagreed but I like you just fine, in case that was ever in doubt.

That makes sense. I'm thinking Cait was probably using "gorgeous" to refer to how naturally she pretty is regardless of weight, or something like that. Or maybe just her face, dunno. But if you were using it to describe her on the whole, then everything makes a lot more sense.

Of course, there's still the issue of whether or not she's gorgeous in spite of her thinness, rather than because of it. I imagine we'd differ a little there. I always liked her when she was a bit curvier. I kind of assume she's gotten away from that because it probably doesn't age as well as being very thin, but that's just speculation.

Ask Rhoten what she looks like in real life. He saw her a few days ago at the premiere of Salt

Its an interesting point. I suppose I've always associated Jolie with her thinness, especially in her face with those defined cheekbones and jawline helping to really emphasise her huge lips (which in my opinion are wasted on that irritating pout. She's like Derek Zoolander "Ferrari, Lategra, ITS THE SAME FACE" )



I think you've hit the nail on the head with the age thing. I do feel sorry for these 'icons' who garner so much attention as a result of their appearance when they start to age. It must be difficult to accept.

She looks absolutely beautiful to me in this months issue of Vanity Fair.

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If I had a dollar for every existential crisis I've ever had, does money really even matter?

Here are some photos of Angelina on set of The Tourist, which should be released later this year.






She doesn't necessarily look unhealthy to me, but I definitely prefer the way she looked around the time of Tomb Raider.

I don't think she should've landed the role in Salt, it was hard to believe this tiny girl was punching people with such force that they fly to the ground. It was much easier to watch when she was a bit thicker as Laura Croft.

That arm looks pretty freaky to me, I must say. I feel like I'd break it off if I so much as shook her hand.

It's weird, I have tiny arms as a guy, but am still required to do around 50 pushups in a minute. I have a terribly high metabolism and can't gain weight if I wanted to. It is different in her case though, she was bigger at one point - but I guess I think a bit differently of the frailty of small arms


EDIT: And hey, it looks like she has some muscles on her legs.

I know, sweetie, but in my family, being overweight will give you a heart attack by the age of 45. Also, it's usually a lot easier to put weight on, than to take it off. With those two things said, I'd sooner deal with being too skinny.

Yes, but always keep one thing in mind, while you're looking at the photos of famous people . . .

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and quit rite.