BULKY FRENCH THIGHS
22 march 2012 || annebarone.com
Yesterday morning, reading the news articles and analyses about the recent tragic shooting at the school in Toulouse, France, I observed a surprising photo of French women. One New York Times article included a photo of a group of people in Angers, a city in western France, observing Tuesday morning’s nationwide moment of silence for the tragedy. When I noticed that the photo included several French women, I clicked on the “enlarge” button. It always interests me to see French women in news photos. Generally French women will be chicer and slimmer than a similar group in a photo taken in the USA.
The large size of thighs of the three young women standing in the front of the group startled me. The first wore the currently popular skinny leg blue jeans, another the same sort of blue jeans tucked into knee-high boots and the third wore a short above-the-knee blue denim skirt with black leggings. All were stylish with their sweaters and leather jackets with scarves knotted at the neck.
But for so many decades I have observed (and envied) the ultra-slimness of chic French women’s legs that it was startling — and a bit disturbing — to observe the American-size thighs on these young French women. On one you can even see a “saddle-bag” pooch pushing out the upper leg of the jeans.
We know that excess weight and obesity are a growing problem in France. Still, I found the excess weight on all three of the women in the foreground of the photo surprising. And I suppose I was disturbed because I fear that American women who see French women as role models will claim an increasing number of French women with excess weight as an excuse to keep excess pounds that would not be best for their own appearance and health.
be chic, stay slim — Anne Barone
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