Model Natalia Vodianova Explains it Is Better to be Skinny Than Fat, Dummies

[witchcurlgirl]

"Come on, guys, it's better to be skinny than to be fat!" So said 30-year-old model Natalia Vodianova as part of a panel discussion at the British Vogue Festival over the weekend. (This was after she was asked, "It's undeniable that models are very thin, expected to be very thin, and thinner than 99.9 percent of the population. What message should you be sending out?") Vodianova, who started her career at 15, and has worked for Guerlain, Givenchy, Calvin Klein, Louis Vuitton, Yves Saint Laurent, L'Oréal, David Yurman, Marc Jacobs, Stella McCartney, Versace, Diane von Fürstenberg and Chanel, continued: "We eat well, we exercise — please, do the same and you will look like this." (Wait, if I eat well and exercise I will look like a 5'9" Russian?)

She went on: "I'm sorry, but today the NHS [Britain's National Health Service] are fighting against obesity, children are taken away from their parents because they're too fat … And here we are, defending that we are healthy and skinny." She also said: "I respect my body — my body is my temple. If I eat like a pig, I feel like a pig." And: "I must say I actually came to [an event at] the V&A after giving birth to [my son] Victor, three days later, and I was wearing Givenchy Couture." And!

I don't want to offend people who are trying to lose weight — if you want my tip, everyone should look into the only diet I've ever done. When I was little I had ulcers in my stomach from not eating very properly. I had really bad digestion and suffered from it for a long time. Then somebody recommended the blood type diet. Ever since, I have more energy and I've been doing it for five years now. It really works for me. It's not about eating more protein or more carbohydrates — it's which protein you eat, and which carbohydrates.

Don't you feel more enlightened now?

Model Natalia Vodianova Explains it Is Better to be Skinny Than Fat, Dummies

[Belt Up]

Like I'm going to listen to a woman with a five o'clock shadow.

[Melyanna]

[SillyME54]

I kinda get what she's saying. The way she said it made her seem like a moron but hey, she's a model. She didn't become famous based on her brains. I'm not saying models represent a healthy body - the fashion world has an extremely warped idea of an ideal body type but that's another issue - but people today are fat! I kow i'll prob get a lot of flack for this but i think its disturbing. And a lot of people are prob obese but don't even know it because society today has a skewed idea of what a healthy body should be. Children are getting fatter and fatter to because instead of going out and plaing and running of tose pounds, they just plop in front of the tv or computer after eating. It's gross.

[Novice]

She's wrong in that children in the UK are not taken away from their patents because they're too fat (or not that i've heard of), however, if they looked like her (see below) they just might be for neglect & malnutrition. Those legs are not "normal", not even compared to the model next to her...


I've been that skinny & I've been fat. It's not WHAT I eat, but WHY I eat it. I don't think I'm alone on that.

However, I do think that she has proved that not eating well impairs brain function & growth.

*waits for the "I was misquoted" retraction*

[DeChayz]

Is this chick the one SoThin was obsessed with?

[sputnik]

that's another girl in the pic

[MrsDark]

She needs to make a lot of money while she has her looks.

[fgg]

Is this chick the one SoThin was obsessed with?

i think she's the one deutche loved.

[CornFlakegrl]

Whatever, twig.

She talks about how all of the overweight people have skewed "normal" while ignoring the fact that the ano- walking sticks have "skewed" healthy / beautiful.

[Honey]

So here's Natalia Vodianova dealing with a huge press mess. So what's a girl to do? Well, in comes the glory of social media. Vodianova took to Facebook to publicly post her response to all the recent media attention... and this is what she said...(do feel free to share thoughts...)


I guess the reaction of the press is expected to be negative when I said it's better to be skinny then to be fat at the Vogue Festival this past weekend. However on the background of arriving from China where most people leave under the poverty line and have to share food and watch how much they eat to survive and on the background of how I grew up where sometimes I had to skip meals so there would be food for my little disabled sister and that feeling of missing bread so much some days because on some days we had no money to buy any (reason I had ulcers as little girl was constant irregular eating) could give an explanation why I felt moved to give another prospective on this issue.

I felt angry actually now I think about it. Our industry is scrutinised for giving false image and criteria of beauty and provoking eating disorders however there are other industries that might be even more to blame like food industry that constantly reinventing ways of pushing food on us. Makes people stuff fridges with food, buying pills, millions of books on diets, shopping for the right clothes to hide those extra few pounds, beauty products. I guess some would say that's what makes our economy go around. Yes, I choose to do more and eat less. Sorry world economy, I am a bad client!

It makes me feel even more sad that so much has been taken out of contexts by tabloid media. It happened to me in the past and still follows me around (like anorexia that I never had would be a good example! Just another case where words were interpreted at the desire of the journalist and copied by many). This time a really fun two hours I shared with Lily, Eva and Jourdan and our audience, where we had everyone laughing through most of it and where for 5 minutes I felt like a stand up comedian and had to add NHS and Daily Mail into it just to lighten the heavy subject of body issue up, turned into a sour one.

Again taking into consideration that the format of the event was not a speech by me but interaction with the audience it is clearly been blown out of proportion by some journalist/s to create a scandal. If I was giving a speech I would have chosen my words more carefully of course but considering the format and that so many people came up to me afterwards and told me how happy they were to have laughed and were glad that I was so "normal" and direct at the conference I doubt I offended someone there and if I did I apologise because I surely only meant to highlight a different point of view.

Back on the topic of discussion I wish I did say at the time, that I assume there is very little Anorexia or Bulimia issues in countries like Africa, China and Russia today!

Fashion Foie Gras: Natalia Vodianova responds to 'It's better to be skinny than to be fat' backlash

[greysfang]

Not buying the victim attitude, and the thanks for all the supportive pms from this bitch either.

[SuriCruise]

Back on the topic of discussion I wish I did say at the time, that I assume there is very little Anorexia or Bulimia issues in countries like Africa, China and Russia today!

lol wut?? Uhh there are people who DO have eating disorders there, especially in the developed cities like Shanghai. And, well, in the undeveloped and impoverished parts there is malnutrition instead which isn't really any better! Wtf Natalia!

It's not better to be skinny than fat, it's better to be healthy. Some people are healthy at a size 2, others at a 12. Her idea of a healthy weight and what a good slim body looks like is no doubt skewed. Sorry, but I don't want a flat pancake assed body like yours, Natalia. That's not what I consider the ideal or a 'healthy fit body'. Kudos if she is indeed healthy and well nourished, but most of us are not that lean if we are so don't expect us to be.

I used to go on a fashion forum and everyone there had a skewed view of beauty so no doubt a lot of those working in the industry like models do too. I stopped going on that forum when I came here. Half of the photos that everyone gushed over their beauty looked like cadavers. Some were gorgeous and had amazing faces, others uhhh nooooo thanks.

[stella blue]

Africa's not a country, dumbass. Being smart is better than being skinny, or anything else.

[Jezi]

Africa's not a country??? What about Europe? That's a country, right???

Unrelated anecdote: Years ago I was at this little shop where they sold these handmade things and artwork from all over the world. I was looking at something and asked what country it was from. Guy behind the counter said " "Africa"... Ok, but what country? "Africa!"