Bethenny Frankel has been critiqued in the press and on social media for the fact that she’s very thin. This criticism hasn’t come out of the blue; Bethenny poses for the paparazzi in her bikini regularly and posts bikini pics on social media. She also tweeted a photo of herself last year wearing her four year-old daughter Bryn’s pajamas. There are plenty of other very thin celebrities but they aren’t courting controversy like Bethenny.
In an appearance on Meredith Vieira’s talkshow, Bethenny sort-of addressed criticism over her tiny frame. She deflected the question and then acted like it was ridiculous.
Later, Frankel took the opportunity to address the rumors surrounding her slim figure.
After photos surfaced of the reality star looking thinner than usual in a bikini, some fans sounded the alarm, calling the Skinnygirl founder “too skinny” and “unhealthy.”
But Frankel wouldn’t have any of that nonsense. “I was sick over the holidays,” she shared with Vieira. “I don’t know, do I look bad? Do I look like I need to eat a burger?”
The star added, “I don’t know. I feel like, ‘Who cares?’ They are always going to say something. I do have a brand called Skinnygirl, so I am going to get beaten up for it. It would be bad if I were overweight and had a brand called Skinnygirl, could you imagine?”
Years ago I read an excellent book by the late Carl Sagan called The Demon Haunted World. To encourage people to critically evaluate information, Sagan outlines common logical fallacies. One rhetorical fallacy is the argument of “excluded middle or false dichotomy.” He describes it as “considering only the two extremes in a continuum of intermediate possibilities.” So, in Bethenny’s mind she’s either the way she is or she’s overweight, never considering that she could gain weight and still be healthy. I’m not knocking her size, I’m just pointing out that she’s making a poor argument. Plus she uses another common fallacy, the “argument from adverse consequences.” If she was overweight, which is her only other option, then her brand would suffer.
This isn’t that important. Bethenny isn’t arguing against climate change, she’s just a reality star defending her right to be tiny and demonstrative. It just struck me that Bethenny never acknowledged that some people see her as underweight and she didn’t really address the issue, she just made a couple of flawed arguments, suggesting no one should even bring it up.
Radar also claims that Bethenny is having problems on the set of Real Housewives of NY, which she returned to following the cancellation of her talkshow. Bethenny isn’t arguing and fighting with the other castmembers as expected, and she refuses to discuss her failed marriage. A source tells Radar “Whenever her marriage is discussed, Bethenny walks off the set.” Bethenny needs to play the game if she’s going to be on the show. Conflict is their bread and butter. Not that Bethenny touches either.
Photo credit: FameFlynet
I don’t like her at all. This woman has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
She’s gross. But then again, I don’t understand any of the housewives having fans.
In that first pic she doesn’t look real. Her head is too big for her body and was stuck on there by accident – it looks like it will pop off
In the last pic you can see her fillers making lumps under her face which appears to be melting on top. Unfortunate but very revealing lighting.
Her poor daughter….look at the example mommy is giving her. 🙁
“Honey, mommy has a brand called skinny girl and you are growing into your girls size 10 a little to fast!!! Here, eat this leaf and drink this skinny girl water. Now let’s do are morning cardio!!!!!”
Seriously tho, what happens when the daughter is in fifth grade and they are the same size?? Just sad!
When you add up all the drama and deceit and lies about her products and her money, she just is not a good person. Her face now reflects how ugly she is on the inside.
Whoever said “you can’t be too rich or too thin” never met Bethenny.
She is careful to release pictures of herself looking like a loving mommy, but the problems with her family (“Bethenny Frankel’s Mother Says Daughter Is A ‘Vicious & Horrible’ Liar, Vows She’ll ‘Never Speak To Her Again”), protracted incredibly toxic divorce, and B’s body image issues are going to screw up that little girl.
Have to agree, not sure why she is a “thing”.
She is way too skinny. Can’t believe she does the paparazzi walk in her bikini. Gross.
“Emaciated fully grown adult schilling GMO poison”- decoded-“skinny girl cocktails”
“What if I was overweight and had a brand called ‘SkinnyGirl’?”–I still wouldn’t use any of it, because it’s SHIT. My little sister bought one of her vitamin fizzy water crap….ewww.
Her cocktails taste like mop water and elitist blathering.
I will say the chocolate salted caramel pseudo candy bars she has are good. I don’t really see her as too skinny. She’s a small woman. I’m the opposite being nearly 6 feet tall and broad like a damn linebacker. I can’t imagine actually spending time with this woman and NOT wanting to jump out of a window to escape.
I do see her as too skinny. It’s written all over her face
Yep, the cocktails taste horrible.
I’ve never tried it and never will but my general impression is it doesn’t have a real ingredient to speak of, just a bottle of chemicals. Yum.
I just would never buy something called “SkinnyGirl”.
I wholeheartedly agree.
I know, never, ever, and I can’t stand the word skinny, it makes me think of skinned animals.
Yeah, I’d prefer something called “BootyLicious” or “More To Love”
Other: Methinks she has had filler added to make her nose wider. (It was microscopically surgically small)
…
Brynn is adorable.
She is! She also looks just like a little girl version of her dad to me.
Is it thinshaming if I say her lack of even a little body fat ages her terribly?
I don’t have a strong opinion about her either way but I can’t help but wonder what kind of body image her daughter is going to end up with.
This!! I was just wondering to myself that same thing. I’m not trying to body shame, though I personally do not find this frame attractive, but I do really wonder what will happen with her daughter as she gets older and how she will process and understand her mother’s decisions and choices regarding food, diet, and exercise.
Didn’t someone famous once say “eventually you have to choose between your ass and your face?” Meaning if you wanted to be thin as you got older it was going to reflect badly in your face due to lack of collagen and elasticity.
Yes – it was Zsa Zsa Gabour who said “As a woman, you have to choose between your fanny or your face …”. Frankel looks like a wizened up old raisin. Another 10 lbs would do wonders for her and before I get accused of body-shaming or skin-shaming or whatever else the shaming police will go after me for, numerous medical studies have proven that people who carry a few extra lbs tend to live longer, healthier lives.
I don’t like to comment on people’s bodies whether in real life or online when it comes to celebrities. No good can come of it and if people did it to me, I’d feel awful. Whether it’s a positive or negative comment, I try to keep it zipped.
I do make an exception when the celebrity capitalizes on their body/size like Jessica Simpson or this one here. She has a brand called Skinnygirl for the love of gawd. She looks awful but I guess she’s on message.
I was going to say shes just a naturally thin woman who eats healthy and works out but in that picture holding Bryns hand she looks like she could add a few pounds there. I do get annoyed at the skinny shaming tho. I lost a bunch of weight by eating really healthy and not even working out that much. My boyfriend at the time always called me anorexic in front of our friends. It made me so angry. You can be thin and not anorexic sheesh
The idea of “thin shaming” is predicated on someone being naturally thin, while in show business these women are expected to keep their body a certain size if they want to continue to be hired. They’re intentionally keeping their bodies at a fairly extreme level of thin-ness in order to conform to the standard of beauty that’s been set (usually by a group of middle aged white men). That isn’t to say that women can’t possibly be naturally slender – after all, people come in all shapes amd sizes – but too many women have gone on record saying what it really takes to have those Hollywood bodies for us to believe that the body types that we’re seeing aren’t the result of serious diet and exercise to achieve that level of thin-ness. And as women, it is important that we discuss the fact that the standard of beauty that is being set in front of us is unrealistic for 95% of people.
TESTIFY!!
My sister in law is naturally way thin. Even after having 3 kids with one on the way, she’s still the same size she was when she was 12. I used to be so jealous of her for it but then I realized how often she gets crap for it. Doctors and strangers always grill her for being anorexic even though she eats like crazy. I’m sure she’s self conscious about her weight just like I am with mine. So I see a big difference between skinny shaming someone like her who couldn’t put on weight if she tried her damnedest and doesn’t try to draw attention to herself vs. this brat who gets pictures taken wearing her young daughter’ pajamas to show off. She absolutely knew the backlash that would cause. I don’t know why she’s acting so shocked that people are repelled by her.
Exactly! She could gain just five pounds and be fine. I have a feeling that’s definitely not an option for her and that’s why her logic is all over the place.
Yes. Seems the problem is she thinks anything other than underweight is overweight. I feel sorry for her daughter, not a great role model.
I don’t understand why she’s back on RHONY. She has more than enough money, she clearly doesn’t want to participate, so why bother?
Fame, spotlight, celebrity. Gross.
Yes, she must just hate being out of the spotlight. Sad. If I had that much money, no job would ever see my fat a$$ again. Not that there’s anything wrong with working because you love it, I just never loved it.
Because if people stop paying attention to her then she ceases to exist.
When I weighed about 115 lbs at 5 ft 6, I looked at myself in the mirror and wondered whether people thought I was fat. (I’ve gained a lot of weight since then.) It’s a distortion in the brain. People said I was too thin and I said they were wrong and just jealous. She doesn’t see that she is too thin and in total denial. Very sad.
I used to think I was fat at 5’11 and 1/2 and 128 pounds. In reality I looked ill but I couldn’t see it.
Same boat for me–protruding ribs, hipbones, and I still felt huge.
I truly feel for her if that’s what she’s going through.
I recently looked at pictures of myself when I was 12/13/14/15, and GOD–I thought I was SO fat back then. And I really wasn’t, lol.
Me too. I can remember thinking my thighs were huge, and what I wouldn’t give to have those thighs back now! sigh.
She is constantly courting attention over her size, so she can then play the victim when people respond. Remember the daughter’s shirt photo?
“Considering only the 2 extremes “- I hate when people do that! Plus it’s all cable news is based on these days.
Her boobs don’t seem to match her body. Are they bolt-ons?
Yes.
She has the complexion of an anorexic or a bulimic. Looks terrible. She’s not naturally thin; you just know she’s sticking her finger down her throat. I feel sorry for her daughter because she is going to have a host of body image issues with that lunatic skeleton for a mother.
I can’t tell if she’s anorexic or bulimic but she’s definitely unhealthy looking. She’d look much better with 15 pounds on her frame.
If she was bulimic she’d probably be a few pounds overweight to follow the guidelines of that particular disease. Purging/vomiting to prevent calorie intake is still anorexia. For her to be bulimic she’d need to binge then purge. Too many women in my life have had to battle these two diseases and I know more than I want to .
She’s gross.
So is the RHONYC going to be more of a train wreck then?
She’s one strange looking woman.
I LOVE that you referred to the logical fallacies to “unpack” this woman’s reasoning 😀
I have a coworker like her 100 lbs and claims she has to eat 1000 calories a day to maintain her underweight figure. Her skin is bad (dry makes her look older than her late 20’s)and she looks undernourished. I’ve seen pictures of her where she was 20 lbs heavier and she looked so good and healthy, her face had a sparkling glow about her. She picks at every meal I’ve ever seen her eat. It is the most painful thing to see day in and day out. I think she and Bethenny have body dysmorphic disorder.
When I was in my mid-30s I met a girl about my age (I thought) who was quite thin and later chirped something about being 24 or 25. I was horrified.
In retrospect it was definitely aging (dry, pulled face, thin skin) caused by undereating. Poor girl, she didn’t look good.
…..bread and butter…..not that Bethenel touches either……
Best put down EVAH!!!!
Whoa, sallow.
Never thought i would see a shout out to Carl Sagan on a Frankel post lol! her face shows how thin she is, & tbh she looks old. Women actualy look healthier with a little fat & its been proven to be healthier than women with very little fat. Watched a 60 minutes special that said as we become older, people being 10lbs overweight (not too overweight) had less health problems than being underweight.
If there is one thing that will keep a girl vicious, angry and mean… is being hungry.
I suspect if this girl ate one decent meal a day… a legit meal with protein. A good green salad with some roasted chicken. Chances are she would be a lot nicer person. I have never seen someone whose entire personality, is set to be hateful. 24/7.
For a lot of people, it’s is the two extreme, though. There’s no middle ground – you are either skinny or fat. Most women I know who are in the vast middle are trying to lose weight, regardless of age. Clearly, what she is selling is working, so she does appeal to a lot of people.
When you are a parent of young child, you are always reminded to provide healthy meal and snack choices and model healthy eating habits. That’s because over time, adults override kids’ innate ability to healthily respond to hunger. We force kids to eat just one more bite, finish all the food on their plate, and praise them when they do. As a parent, we forget that our job is to provide nutritious food and it’s the kid’s job to eat however much of it. It’s hard, but we as society have to be better about this.
I never got that forcing your children to finish everything on their plate. Same with forcing your child to eat food they clearly despise. Why do people do that to their children?
In my family it was about waste. Food was too precious, and money too scarce to waste food. Throwing edible food away was unheard of.
I disagree to an extent. Many young children don’t yet have the capacity to know the difference between eating just enough so they’re not famished and truly eating a sufficient amount. It is our job to provide them healthy choices and part of that means an appropriate amount of food for them to eat. Now, there is also a point in time where they learn the lesson for themselves, but the attitudes that we as parents model about food and out bodies are going to have far greater impact.
So what I got out of all of this is…are we going back to the boot cut flare jean? Or staying with skinny jeans for now? Anyone? I’m serious.
I pray that more people will join me in boot cuts or flare jeans. So few people actually look good in skinny jeans (including me, which is why I refuse to wear them). Please let that trend die!
Boot cut all day long.
put me down for boot cut
omg kill it with fire!
So she went crawling back to Real Housewives huh? If she wants to be on a “reality” show she needs to talk about her personal life, that includes her failed marriage and failed talk show.
I have to say I watched a few episodes of her talk show and I knew right away her show wouldn’t last. She was too nervous, she cut off guests while they were speaking, she didn’t know how to cut to commercial….and she barely knew anything about her guests (do your homework Bethenny !).
Every single day, I see Skinnygirl brand sparkling water drinks in the fridge at work and when I visit the grocery store. I have always thought it was a stupid brand name. Had no idea it was her brand, but it makes sense now.