Have any of you watched that show called something like the making of the Dallas cowboy cheerleaders (or something like that?) My husband and son were watching it last night (yeah, man show) and these women are tiny, and seem to be very fit. After the first few try-outs they cut them down to 40 women. The trainer actually told one of them he had never seen a cheerleader so big! She was like a size 2 or something! Flat stomach, no flab, she just didn't have her abs as pronounced as the other girls! I had to get up and go into another room. My husband followed me and I told him that they could watch the show, I didn't have a problem with that, but it was starting to make me feel fat again and bad about my own body, so I wasn't going to watch a show that made me feel that way when I am feeling so good about myself! What kind of message are these young girls going to get from that???? It really ticks me off.

Another good reason not to watch TV

I saw a commercial where the girl says, I went from size 8 to a size 2 in ______ weeks!

I remember when commercials used to say, I got back into a size 10!

This is unhealthy, making girls feel fat if they're not size 2! I was 98 pounds but have broad shoulders and I was a size 6, and healthy. Then my metabolism went out the window when my thyroid went wacko.

Anyway, to make girls/women feel like they're fat at size 8 is horrible. The average size woman of normal weight and health is size 14!

C'mon. Not everyone is built for size 2!

It's sickening.
I remember reading an article where they were having a fashion show, I forget which country. BUT, they cut all the really skinny models because the message it would be sending to the young girls. They wouldn't allow a model under a certain size.

In one picture the model's backbone was showing so bad she looked like one of the pictures of starving children you see on the tv comericals.

When has MTV ever had a good message to young girls - in any phase of their lives . . .

What percentage of people ever become professional cheerleaders? The job is one of physical presentation as much as anything else. For them, being in elite athetic condition is part of the job, just as it would be for someone competing in a fitness and figure competition. All this situation that you described tells anyone is: if you want to be an NFL cheerleader, just being in "OK" shape, or having a healthy weight isn't good enough. You have to be the best of the best.

Do you think these girls are "setting a bad example"?

http://performanceready.com/index.php

why? i am bald but whenever i see a commercial for an hair stylist where they show men how good they are looking with a new haircut i just ignore it because that's not for me anymore and go on. there are lots of people who don't like bald men or to be bald but so what? there are others who don't care or even like it. tastes are different.
and so it is the case with sizes. i personally prefer a size 10 over a size 2 anytime, but others might not. you will never be able to please everybody.

Puhleeze. Now I think I've heard it all...While something like these "fitness and figure competitions" may be pleasing for men to watch, it makes most of us women feel badly about ourselves.

Austrian... very well said.

Oh, I think watching beautiful size 2 women prance around may cause some serious envy, but if it causes someone to actually feel badly about themselves, I would be more concerned about their underlying self-esteem issues. There is always gonna be someone who looks better than we do, no matter how good we look or how thin we get. Someone else will always have better, more, etc. Why not work on being the best we can be and stop worrying about other people? My guess is for all the people who are "caused" to feel badly about themselves, there are just as many who are "caused" to feel motivation by seeing someone who is fit and healthy.

In regard to cheerleaders, the weight issue is for more than asthetic purposes. Would you rather hold up/toss a tumbler that was a size 2 or a size 12?

Just my lousy two cents...heehee..

L

Not that it matters but it wasn't on MTV I belive it was on CMT. (Country Music Television) or possibly ESPN.

I do agree that these shows make women feel inadiquate because of how these women look, yet at the same time look how hard they do work to get where they are!

I also get depressed when I watch these shows however, it also motivates me to exercise. (not sure if it's 'good motivation' but it does motivate. Probably because I never did have the chance, when I was younger to be skinny. Always been a chubby. )
So while I'm not condoning these shows, I do understand how hard they do have to work to get the way that they look and yet if it was my "job" to be skinny and hot and I didn't other obligations (real life not saying that these girls don't have other obligations but I'm pretty sure they don't have 3 kids at home and a husband to take care of....) I could probably look like that too. (well one can wish right?)

I've only watched three episodes and on each one they cut girls because of their weight/bodies and critiqued them. There is nothing wrong with their bodies, they're all small! I can't watch it anymore; it's sickening.

bsenka, think about it....you said it yourself above...these girls represent 'the best of the best' even to you. But....who got to decide that you need to be less than a size 2 with abs of steel to be 'the best'?
And...If you aren't 'the best', then what are you? Second best? Third best? Not even in the top 10? How does that affect self esteem?
Frankly, I couldn't give a rats hairy patoot about looking like a cheerleader but sadly, there are far too many young girls who are willing to make themselves seriously ill or die trying to achieve that look.
I don't know about anyone else, but that's not a standard I'd like to see my daughters measure themselves against.

There's nothing wrong with having a goal but those goals should be realistic and achievable without starvation and/or plastic surgery. Holding up girls that tiny as a standard doesn't fit that, IMO.

I'm a TV addict. It's on at home whenever I am home and awake and I also watch at the gym. I have seen that commertial so many times. I keep thinking that she must be short and petite to get into a 2 because I wouldn't be able to get my SKELETON into a size two - it wouldn't fit over my hipbones even with no fat or muscle! I'm 5'7" and can just sqeeze into a size 8 and will never be any smaller.