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"I&amp;#39;ve been grappling with something for a long time now: the word &amp;quot;skinny.&amp;quot; Is it obnoxious? Offensive? Insulting? Triggering? Clearly, it depends on the usage, but in general, I&amp;#39;d love to know what you think: Is skinny a good word or a bad word?\nPinterestFacebookHistorically, I think &amp;quot;skinny&amp;quot; has been a positive word--so to speak. It&amp;#39;s a favorite word of magazines, and frequently appears in coverlines, and let&amp;#39;s not forget the recent books Skinny Bitch and Naturally Thin: Unleash Your Skinny Girl and Free Yourself From a Lifetime of Dieting, which I wrote about a while back. (In fact, Never Say Diet blogger Leslie Goldman questioned whether a book, such as the latter, really promotes healthy eating and good body image practices among women--an interesting topic in itself.)\nTo be honest, I&amp;#39;m not so sure if skinny = a healthy word. First, it means all different things to all different people. To some women, skinny is a compliment. To others, it&amp;#39;s upsetting--a loaded word with all sorts of baggage. And I have serious concerns about how the word makes eating disorder sufferers feel. I mentioned, in a post on Tuesday, a reference to the phrase &amp;quot;rail thin&amp;quot; and it was upsetting to at least one commenter. (Truth be told: I was rail thin at the time, which isn&amp;#39;t to indicate that I was unhealthy--I was just thin. But if I had called my younger self &amp;quot;skinny,&amp;quot; would that have been any better or worse?)\nSome brilliant Glamour staffers came up with a nice substitute last year--svelte--which I like because it indicates a lean body that&amp;#39;s also fit (at least in my mind).\nLet&amp;#39;s discuss: Is the word skinny bothering you?\nMore reading:\n4 secrets of women who love their bodies--at any size\nHave you heard of this &amp;quot;new&amp;quot; eating disorder? \nHealthy skin: The beauty product that&amp;#39;s transformed my complexion ...\nMore Ways to Get Glamour\n*You could win $50,000 just for registering or logging in to Glamour.com! *\nSign up for Glamour.com&amp;#39;s Style Tips of the Week and Beauty Tip of the Day newsletters!\nAdd Glamour to your iGoogle homepage. \nFollow us on Twitter!\nSign Up for Body By Glamour!\nPhoto: iStock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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