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Ioana Spangenberg is a Romanian model with a 20-inch waist. According to various accounts on the internet, her body ranges anywhere from “natural” and “healthy” to “scary” to “freakish.” But regardless of what anyone has decided about her (based on one now-famous tabloid interview and some photos), no one can seem to stop staring–and it’s not healthy. Not for her or those who are gawking at her.
Plenty of people have speculated about how Spangenberg can be so thin (some even going as far as to classify her as anorexic), but in interviews, she swears she eats large meals and loads of junk food, and that she’s actively trying to gain weight. But eating mountains of cookies and pizza isn’t exactly the healthy alternative to an eating disorder.
Models and people in the fashion industry do this all time–trot out how much they eat, ensuring that they’re photographed, donut-in-hand, as if to say “No, no! We’re all quite healthy! No need to worry–just look at our very thin bodies with awe and envy, not concern.” Because as long as everyone says they’re eating, there’s no harm done, right?
Except that there is, to both models like Spangenberg, who has admitted to having low self-esteem and poor body image in the past, and to those who may look at her and think “Yup, I could do that.” Those who struggle with body image and eating disorders themselves can still be triggered by the celebration of her body (the fact that she swears by eating junk food doesn’t help; a lot of anorexics make the same defense). And those who would be concerned about her weight are preemptively reassured: She’s just intriguing, not worrisome.
Either way, gawking at her 20-inch waist isn’t body positive for anyone.
And yet, it seems unavoidable. Our freak-show mentality and obsession with “good” and “bad” bodies draws people to stare at the outliers out of curiosity, disgust, or envy–whether they’re very thin or very large. (My 600 Pound Life has a few weeks left of its run and is getting pretty great ratings.) But with Spangenberg, we seem unable to make up our mind–is her body “good,” or is it “bad”?
We’re supposed to believe that she’s “naturally” thin, survives on junk food, and wishes she could gain weight. We’re meant to feel comforted that even women who are impossibly slender, too, have negative self-esteem…Celebrities! They’re just like us! We’re supposed to laud her efforts to “fatten up,” despite the fact that her diet sounds anything but healthy.
As for Spangenberg, putting her body on display is hardly seems like a great way to boost her self-esteem. Even if she does have better self-esteem than she did in the past, surely being called “the hourglass woman” and reading hurtful comments and headlines about her body don’t make her feel better. And it isn’t healthy for anyone else either.
Want to continue the discussion? Take our poll about Ioana Spangenberg right over here.
Image: The UK Sun
It is rare that I agree with social commentary on weight, eating disorders, and body image. Despise and disgust are regularly thrown around by both sides with claims to exclusive beauty while health remains irrelevant. “Real woman have curves” “thin is in” and the like. But I feel this article is insightful. Attention positive or negative is rewarded with focus, circus antics are still what they used to be a century ago but to a more connective audience.
She’s really vile looking. I do not find that attractive and neither does my husband. Go away ugly girl!
She looks unhealthy. There is skinny, and there is utterly-too-skinny. I don’t know about her waist, and whether she used corsets to ‘train it’ to be this way–either way it is not really normal, or attainable, nor should it be–for other women. Personally, I find if off-putting. But that’s a matter of taste. As for her diet–I would believe that she is not anoerxic when I had her here for a week and served her real food (not junk food) in reasonable quantities, and saw her eat them healthily. Till then, anorexic-looking, is potentially anorexic (or otherwise ill). And yes, I’m a naturally slim person myself–I’m on the end of normal weight range, as most in my family are–noodle-arm and slim legs and all–but you would not think me skin-and-bones. I am not sure that she cannot help the way she looks.
My aunt is as small as this women minus the hourglass waist and its natural for her. I lived with her for 6 months and she ate a breakfast that would put a trucker to shame (considering theres many in my family) had abig lunch and dinner and had this huge ass bowl of chocolate ice cream with all the toppings every nite it was actually sickening to watch by the way made me lose weight ( i stopped eating my nightly bowl) but my point is that its possible to look this thin and making mean comments about peoples weight is innappropriate.
It looks like she’s done a bit of corset training to get her waist like that.
For her height, she does look dangerously thin. I am naturally thin and I can sympathise with women out there who have to justify why they’re thin and they do actually eat. When I was a teen I’d get people calling me skinny and twig legs, and I always felt like I needed to prove myself to them, prove to them that I don’t have an eating disorder and that I’m naturally like this, which is the truth. It’s a shame people have to question others without knowing the truth. Her thin waist is probably natural, it’s all down to body structure (bones) rather than weight. For example, I’m very skinny but have a athletic boyish figure, whereas she is thin but has an hourglass figure still. Each to their own!
Thx for posting your article to my post at http://earthreview.eu/2012/02/anorexic-20-inch-waist-model-says-she-eats-junk-food-3-times-day/
She isn’t the only person in the world with a 20 inch waist. I have a 20 inch waist too (I’m also like five feet tall, but still). It’s not that weird and it doesn’t necessarily mean she’s got an eating disorder. I’ve met other women with very small waists. It shouldn’t make her a freak to people and she shouldn’t feel like one.
Sorry, but your post just smacks of ‘pat pat on the back for me!’. Yes, 20 inch waists -are- uncommon. This is why she has made the news. They aren’t going to post an article all over the web saying ‘Perfectly average woman is perfectly average’, are they now? And you only have to look at her to see that she looks very strange and very unhealthy. What worries me most is not her waist but her arms and legs – they look completely skeletal. I was once told that unhealthy ‘gauntness’ shows particularly in the legs and arms, and I’ve heard it repeated by several people who should know, including recovering anorectics – regardless of the build of the person, however slender they are, if their arms and legs look healthy, they’re healthy, if their arms and legs look like twigs, something’s up. This woman is skeletal. Her legs are -awful-. The fact is, most women, including many high earning models, have some fat on their frames – it’s pretty much biological imperative and evolved to be that way. Of course I don’t mean ‘fat fat’ in the way the brain might jump to assume, but – eh, hips, bum, chest, etc. It’s part of those awkward womanly changes during puberty, and I could try to explain better but I’m not much of a biologist and it’s been a while since I got told this stuff. Basically, Ioana doesn’t have hips, because hips are muscle and fat deposits – she has an unusually wide and strangely formed pelvic structure. Jesus, she looks wasted in places – thighs and neck – and I’m sorry, but in that she does look anorectic.
Now, I’m not saying I judge her. Even if she did have an eating disorder, it’s her life, not mine. I am also not implying that she -does- have an eating disorder – I’ve said that she looks extremely unhealthy, and that is true, but I’m not jumping to any conclusions. I have a male friend who physically can’t put on weight and is so skinny most people can lift him off the ground (bearing in mind that he’s 22, that’s pretty impressive) – and he eats junk all the time. He’s in and out of hospital not only because of the future damage his diet will do, but because eating-and-not-putting-on-weight is -not- how the human body should work (I know that there’s people who say that they can eat and not put on weight, but they’re oversimplifying it. It’s a bit like saying you can binge over Christmas and not go up a dress-size – yes, but it doesn’t mean you haven’t put on weight. You just don’t notice it, or you are actually doing things to burn it off.) or how it should metabolize calorific input. Much like doctors are terrified for my friend’s health, if Ioana is telling the truth, she needs to seek urgent medical advice because she might well be very unwell and not just because she’s shoving junk food down her gullet.
I do agree with the cynicism at the end of the article. I just don’t buy it all. I don’t get the ‘I hate being skinny but I want to be a model’ attitude, and I remember that just about every model out there, including the ones who later get stricken off with an eating disorder, churns out the same line about eating loads and feeling awkward when they were younger. Hmm…
But maybe it’s just me not liking ‘I’m a social ideal but I hate myself attitude’. I mean, I’m 5’7 or a little under and the only thing that’s kept me going is the fact that I’m a little ‘chunkier genetics’ than most people, and that I’m actually somehow taller than about 70-80% of the girls I know, but I’m still a British 12/14 and therefore ‘chubby’. I spend my life on a quest to lose weight believing it will make me happier. And really, on self esteem levels, genuinely, the only compliment I’ve ever gotten is ‘At least you have bigger tits’. It kind of grates that in a society where a smaller figure is lauded as an aspiration, there’s a load of people out there going ‘Oh, woe am I’ because they have what society forces down our throat as the perfect figure. I mean, I know that either extreme is unhealthy, and that it all comes down to self esteem, but… really? Really? Either way, I guess, I guess it’s like curly hair and straight hair, if you’re insecure about it, you always want to be what you aren’t.
Finally, as negative as I’ve been, I’ve tried to be honest and level. Skinny or podgy, everyone has intrinsic worth and shouldn’t be made to feel less because of what the bathroom scales say. And, as alarming as I find Ioana’s physique to be (and especially her dietary claims, which I repeat, should seriously be taken to a medical professional if they’re true), I don’t condone how people treat her. I mean, from poor, gentle Joseph Merrick to Ioana Spangleberg, we seem to have this horrific freak-show mentality which seemingly allows people to gawp at others with no thought for their feeling and well being, and judge others on their outwards appearances, not even on their own merit but some socially constructed and media-enhanced ideal of the perfect beauty, as if that mattered at all, whilst ignoring the person behind the face and body, their hopes, dreams, values, intellect and personality all being shoved aside in the face of yet more analysis of whether someone is fat, too skinny or has cellulite.
You know, I’ve been hypocritical enough, but I’m going to be even more hypocritical in suggesting the fact that Ioana can’t even be left to her own life because she’s physically difficult, points to an ultimate truth that whilst she indeed looks unhealthy, our society must be on its last legs. (Then again, as a model, she did seek out the spotlight, so really, who knows? Still, kiddies, it’s a sick, sad world out there, isn’t it?)
This is to Teresa. I read your comments and I am touched on how sweet of a person you sound to be and I would to try to help you understand a little bit more why people do the things they do.
In general, not all, but in general people “pick” or “make fun” of someone when they are looking and or experiencing un-familiar territory. Most people don’t understand it, nor do they want to. (And again, I am not relating to all, just in general. And this is proven by years of research that I have conducted as a social worker, counselor, therapist, psychologist and psychiatrist.) (And no you don’t have to be any of the above to know this)
Okay, so moving on. This model is in the category of the “not average” human being. (Normal, not normal I will not use, I don’t believe it truly exists) What is normal? So, think about it……if she wasn’t the first person to have a 20 inch waist, rather the 350th person, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. Right? Maybe, maybe not. But room to think…..
I think in general most of society is concern for her health. I know people who are very skinny, for example, my sister and she has to go to Iowa City every year to get her back looked at. Her spine is not growing in a average matter. She used to have to go every 3 months and then has time made things better she went less.
Overall, my sister can’t help the way she looks, how skinny she is. It’s a medical issue. (And this is directed to Annie) SOME PEOPLE CAN’T HELP IT. AND IT WOULD BE NICE FOR US TO NOT BE THE JUDGE OF THAT!
In closing, it would be great if she could see a Dr for treatment if she has not already. That is of course if there is medical attention needed.
And I do also have to mention and agree, she does not look healthy at all, and this is stated only in concern.
Would you rather have a lie that draws a smile, or the truth that draws a tear?
I know they can’t help it, that IS WHY I SAID SHE IS SUFFERING FROM AN ILLNESS! I know that people are naturally thin, this woman, if you look at her pictures, many more are available on line and i looked at them before I made my comment, you will see she is sick. I am sure she has an illness, which is what I said, and I am sure she can’t control it. (by the way, if you knew anything about mental illness or eating disorders you would know that they can’t be controlled either, but I digress) I never said that she could control it, I am saying she, like your sister, is ill. GET IT?!????????? If you read my comment instead of simply judging that I was a being negative, you would see that we are in complete agreement, I am concerned for her health, I can see that she is ill.
I don’t understand why everybody feels the need to pick on her, and call her things like “Anorexic.” This could ultimately lead to her gaining a Binge eating disorder.
Yes, I know. She doesn’t exactly look ‘normal,’ but that is no reason for us t0 make fun of her Just because her body is built in a different way.
I, Myself, am Naturally “Underweight” and I’ve always had issues with being treated differently. Everybody used to bully me because I was scrawny, and I looked like “A pre-teen boy” and this just made the problem even worse.
It is almost impossible, To gain weight if you’re naturally ‘Underweight’ and everybody gawking, and poking fun at you, Just makes you hate yourself even more.
It is not our place to judge her, or anybody else in her position.
God made us all beautiful. Even if we’re small, or large, short, or tall.
We’re all beautiful, and we’re all perfect in his eyes.
There is simply no way that this woman is naturally this thin. She may well eat, but she is not healthy, there is no fat on her body to warm her or cushion her bones. If she eats, which I highly doubt, but let’s just say she does, there is no chance that she is not suffering from a grave illness that is causing this wasting.
I am not a hater, I am highly concerned for the health of this young woman and I actually feel confident in saying that no one would want to look like this unless they themselves are also quite ill.