Lindsey Vonn is promoting her new book, Strong is The New Beautiful, wherein she shares her fitness and wellness tips. She’s been talking about body image and how it relates to her career as a professional skiier turned red carpet fixture. (My words.) Unlike we heard recently from Demi Lovato, Lindsey isn’t taking the extreme stance that “thin women aren’t normal,” she’s just advocating for a more athletic body type, which happens to be her own. In recent appearances, on Colbert and Access Hollywood, she talked about beauty and how we need to expand the societal definition of beauty to include athleticism:
Colbert: That is weak shaming the rest of us. What do you mean by strong is the new beautiful?
I just feel like the image in society is changing and strong is beautiful, being athletic and being confident in yourself is what makes someone beautiful, you don’t have to be model thin to be beautiful.This isn’t a diet book or anything?
No I hate the word diet. You can have hot chocolate.Colbert asks about the steamed fish rule
If you feel like you’re hungry, think about ‘could I eat steamed fish right now?’ If the answer is yes, then you’re probably actually hungry.ET: On her nekkid photoshoot for the book
It was kind of my idea. That was me I’m finally confident in who I am. That’s what I do that’s my skiing position and like here I am. I’m strong, and I believe in myself and I’m happy and I’m confident.I used to always care what people think and I really don’t anymore. I’m not the same as everyone else, I’m not skinny and I’m ok with that. I wanted to just share my experiences with everyone and hopefully they can be confident too.
On feeling insecure on the red carpet
I was like “am I too big do I need to lose weight?” It kind of got into my head. I lost sight of my goals, I lost sight of skiing. I have to be strong and big for skiing that’s just what it is.
[From Colbert and Access Hollywood]
I’ve said before that I don’t think she’s “big” by any stretch, it just feels that way to her to because in Hollywood the actresses and models are tiny. I do agree that athletic, strong women are gorgeous, but this seems off somehow like she’s seeking validation. She does care what people think or else she wouldn’t talk about it so much. She also admitted that the naked photoshoot was her idea. (She’s strategically covered and you can see that somewhat NSFW image here.) Maybe I have a hard time taking her seriously after her long association with Tiger Woods.
Here’s Lindsey’s interview with Colbert and you can see her Access Hollywood interview on their site
photos credit: WENN
Am I missing something? She is tiny
I must be missing something too…
I was thinking the exact same thing.
Set her pics aside for a minute, she is arguing for athletic muscular body types. Theres a tendency to deride those bodies as “manly” and she is saying that even though she was a professional athlete she also felt shamed into striving for a softer smaller body. Its a good solid message.
While I think she IS tiny, why are people only advocating their own body type?
Right!?
Exactly this.
Strong is Beautiful. Not the new beautiful, not the only beautiful, just one type of beautiful
She’s listed as five foot 10, and 160 pounds, so no, not really ‘tiny’.
Wow… she’s huge. (sarcasm)
Her overall stature is not “tiny” but she is certainly well within a healthy weight range, especially since most of it looks like lean muscle.
I don’t know but it’s not helping the body positivity movement.
This does somewhat remind me of the Julianne Hough piece (I think it may be in Shape or Fitness mag, something like that). Women in Hollywood are just SO thin –in Hough’s case, the ballet world– that it warps the perception of what is actually considered a healthy size. While it’s somewhat comforting to know that everyone struggles with confidence, it is odd to see these people go on about body acceptance, and NOWHERE else in the world would their bodies be “unacceptable” (for lack of a better term). In fact, they would be enviable.
Besides Demi, I don’t think anyone is saying being thin isn’t normal. More women are pushing different body types because being thin is already glorified. There maybe such things as being thin shamed, but that body type is way more universally accepted than curvy, athletic, etc. It has similarities to the black lives matter/all lives matter argument, in that just because we’re saying more body types need to be acceptable/treated fairly in society, it doesn’t mean that all body types shouldn’t be. It’s just that being skinny doesn’t need that much attention right now.
Thin may be glorified on fashion runways but it isnt in real life. My best friend is a model thin girl and let me tell you, her teens were torture. She was suicidal for much of it. Even now, people still say crap to her. People, especially larger women, feel entitled to comment on her body because she is outside the median. I bet you those same larger women comment on the bodies of people who are fatter than the median too. This isnt analogous with BLM. BLM isnt trying to take attention from another persecuted minority.
I agree, @AlleyCat. Thin is universally-desired in glamorous professions, and, from a PR perspective, held up as the ideal. Really muscular women, on the other hand, are often seen as being unfeminine, due to the stereotype that women should be soft and pleasing and that having well-defined muscles is the provenance of men. Look at Serena Williams. Derogatory cartoons about Michelle Obama always over exaggerate her muscles as something grotesque.
I really hope that, as a culture, we are moving toward embracing a multitude of body types as beautiful. Admittedly, I am a little uncomfortable with how “strong is the new beautiful/sex/skinny” elevates (fetishizes?) one body type alone, but perhaps that’s how it works? We’ve got booty acceptance from the K clan, and athletic acceptance from Lindsey and others, and the circle of acceptance expands over time until we’ve got broad inclusion?
As an athletic body type myself I can empathize with Lindsey’s struggles. Even when I have dieted down to an unnaturally small size for me, I am “bigger” than most women. Fortunately, I value my body for what it does and value myself for more than my body and so it doesn’t take over my self-esteem, but I’ve done a lot of work to get here. I hope that the circle of inclusion expands such that my daughter’s daughters (if she has them) won’t worry about it, because my six year old was told by a classmate that she has chubby cheeks the other day, and that comment spiraled her into questioning the size of her effing thighs and I want to hurt everyone as a result.
She is beautiful.
gawd she is annoying. go away Lindsey. In another year she probably will be stick thin (and look terrible because all her muscle will be gone)
it just feels that way to her to because in Hollywood the actresses and models are tiny.
But Tinseltown isn’t her daily environment, is she contractually obliged to attend bling events?
As a professional skier, I’d have thought she’d regularly mix with her peers, whether during training, competitions or on podiums. And these women, Kostelic, Shiffrin or Maze are built like her. So her everyday life should have prepared for the facts that those models were exceptions and no the unique way to be beautiful.
I guess I underestimate the pressure here.
That coy glance over the shoulder thing needs to stop.
+1000
Uggghhh…Sorry, but my patience has worn thin. Why do these women need so much validation. I don’t even beleive her. She seems to just be seeking praise but she’s already gotten it for years. Who ever said she was “big”? She’s been doing photo shoots for a decade and considered a hot athlete since she came on the scene. Again, I just see this (like Demi L.) as her looking for people to bash thin and tell her how great she is….and using the body acceptance topic for relevancy. this girl has never been shy about her body. She must like her back side, ’cause every single shot is from behind with that coy glance over the shoulder thing….how old is she?
No love for any woman flaky enough to hook up with Tiger Woods knowing what they know.
Right? It seems like she’s the one who’s always saying that she’s big, but it’s okay because she’s strong. Whatever. I suppose that because she’s nearing the end of her career, she’s trying to queue up the next thing? She’s definitely got the try-hard look now that she didn’t have when she was concentrating only on skiing.
@jennifer I feel like anyone should be able to be vocal about their love for their body type. It shouldn’t just be “thin is beautiful.” People that advocate for more than thin aren’t bashing it. Don’t be so offended every time someone praises other body types just because you’re thin. It’s hypocritical.
She’s claiming she’s not been accepted. That’s not true. She’s been in calendars, modeled sportswear and gear, and been a sponsor of multiple products & programs. She was accepted a long time ago. She’s riding the coattails of women who really have been shamed. And she’s not even ‘big’. You can stop trolling me and accusing me of hypocrisy like I only think thin is pretty. I don’t. Personally, I think the most beautiful bodies are the voluptuous ones….booty. And I would never rate myself a 10 just because I’m thin.
She’s worked all her life for the body that she’s got in the physique that she has why in God’s name would you not want to show that off especially when you’re as beautiful as this woman is be proud of those wide shoulders the guns you got on you check out those legs oh my God this is a big beautiful woman