high fashion models are too thin
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First, if we're going to change anything we need to dispell the myth that thin = healthy. What women do their bodies to stay thin is so damaging and self denigrating that it's almost equivalent (and i know this is an extreme way to describe it) to a sanctioned form of self mutilation. We're pretty much taught to hate ourselves and our body in order to learn to love it . . . and we should only love it when we're thinner. Let's discount the psychological/emotional effects of being told that you're not good enough or as beautiful if you're not thin, because if you're thinner, you're going to feel better about yourself anyway, right? Good message to send to young girls today.
Seriously, we need to quit promoting these perceptions of thinness as automatically equal to good health.
Seriously, we need to quit promoting these perceptions of thinness as automatically equal to good health.
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yes i agree it's mutilation. for example i think kate moss smoking two packets of cigarettes a day as part of a "diet" is a very extreme form of body modification. and yet this sort of thing has somehow been normalised. it's bizarre how easy it is for people to be blind to the bony arms, sallow faces, and weird slack leg muscles.
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Shai Gar
I can't see how anyone can look at a model with their bones protruding and honestly think that that is sexy or desirable.
I think what's worse is the companies that hire young girls, about the age of 10-12, to model adult women's clothing. Especially as they try to make these girls look older then they are, which in turn makes real women think these are what 'adult women' should look like as they don't realise these are kids in adult clothing. These girls haven't developed adult bodies yet, it is unrealistic to project this body type on fully developed women. This practice is appalling.
I think what's worse is the companies that hire young girls, about the age of 10-12, to model adult women's clothing. Especially as they try to make these girls look older then they are, which in turn makes real women think these are what 'adult women' should look like as they don't realise these are kids in adult clothing. These girls haven't developed adult bodies yet, it is unrealistic to project this body type on fully developed women. This practice is appalling.
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Shai Gar
dear fashion, please salvage some dignity and abandon your respect for yourself as an art form.
[edit, WHAT am i talking about]
[edit, WHAT am i talking about]
Fatty McFatFat.
I've seen fashion models whom were thin yet healthy...these women look like they were found in a Nazi concentration camp.
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Shai Gar
i think that the first two are slightly out of the ordinary for actual standards of the fashion world. the first picture is starkly terrifying. the second picture though gives me the extreme creeps because this extremely ill person has obviously been photographed actually working on a show with press and spectators.
and also, maybe even scarier (not sure), i think a fairly significant number of top catwalk models currently working are as thin as the model in the third picture - only it's slightly less noticable, because their bones are larger.
Huh?
And I was hearing some people joke it was the attempt of fashion designers to turn women into all young boys, because thats what they are attracted to. Lol.
btw I don't think the holocaust fashion jokes will fly here, Shai
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Shai Gar
Consider this: part of the reason women develop eating disorders and body dysmorphia is because of society's constant commentary on women's bodies. Yes, very many fashion models are unnaturally thin and forced to maintain (and sometimes force themselves to maintain) unnaturally thin physiques. But that's their choice, isn't it? Their body is their own, to do with as they see fit. The haute couture fashion industry is hugely at fault for creating this unnatural beauty standard, so lets place blame where blame is due - on the fashion industry, not on the women who choose to try and make a living as a runway model. What do we get from offering hateful commentary about women's bodies, aside from asserting our own assumptions about how they "should" look? Lets stop the body snark and respect women enough to understand that we have autonomy over our own bodies and the decisions we make about them.
Drugging yourself thin
This may not be true anymore, and I hope it isn't, but back when I was working my way through college, my boss had a girlfriend who also worked as a fashion model.
I went to lunch with her one day at McDonald's. She ordered just a burger, and took off the bun, eating only the meat. I thought that a strange way to stay thin, and asked her about it. She told me she had severe hypoglcemia, and if she ate any carbs, she would pass out. She said her doctor told her should could not expect to live past age 30. I was using my INFJ B.S. detector, and this was not B.S. It taught me a lesson that day, ie. never to assume anything or be jealous, because you don't know what others are going though. Up until then I'd been envious of her thinness. Though I was normal weight and had a tiny waist, I had to work at it, and normally avoided McDonalds like the plague.
She also proceeded to tell me that she was the only model she knew who did not have to take drugs to stay thin enough to work. I asked what the preferred drugs were, and she said cocaine and heroin, esp. heroin. I guess I was pretty naive at that age, because I was quite shocked.
I always thought it might be nice to move to New Zealand, where the Maori natives think fat is beautiful.
Statistically, only 15% of the population is capable of being that thin. They have a body type called ectomorphic. The vast majority of us had ancestors who went through extreme famine, and we carry genes that make extreme thinness impossible without what I described above, ie. heroin, etc.
It is not just the thinness that is sick. There is the self-mutilation of having surgery to get larger breasts, suck fat out of tummies and thighs, lift your butt, lift your face, and so on. I have a friend who just had perfect eyebrows permanently tattooed on. They are supposed to be brown, but they look purple to me. Even though I was once very pretty, and am now quite the opposite, I would not dream of mutilating myself that way. I have far too much self esteem.
My husband blames the whole thing on the fact that gay men run the fashion industry, and are naturally trying to make women look like the 14 yr. old boys they prefer. He is not anti-gay; he just thinks women should be able to run their own fashion industry and not let men decide how they should look.
I think a woman with enough self-esteem would do as I do and say f*ck the fashion industry. It means zilch to me. So where did our self-esteem go and how do we get it back?
klutzo
This may not be true anymore, and I hope it isn't, but back when I was working my way through college, my boss had a girlfriend who also worked as a fashion model.
I went to lunch with her one day at McDonald's. She ordered just a burger, and took off the bun, eating only the meat. I thought that a strange way to stay thin, and asked her about it. She told me she had severe hypoglcemia, and if she ate any carbs, she would pass out. She said her doctor told her should could not expect to live past age 30. I was using my INFJ B.S. detector, and this was not B.S. It taught me a lesson that day, ie. never to assume anything or be jealous, because you don't know what others are going though. Up until then I'd been envious of her thinness. Though I was normal weight and had a tiny waist, I had to work at it, and normally avoided McDonalds like the plague.
She also proceeded to tell me that she was the only model she knew who did not have to take drugs to stay thin enough to work. I asked what the preferred drugs were, and she said cocaine and heroin, esp. heroin. I guess I was pretty naive at that age, because I was quite shocked.
I always thought it might be nice to move to New Zealand, where the Maori natives think fat is beautiful.
Statistically, only 15% of the population is capable of being that thin. They have a body type called ectomorphic. The vast majority of us had ancestors who went through extreme famine, and we carry genes that make extreme thinness impossible without what I described above, ie. heroin, etc.
It is not just the thinness that is sick. There is the self-mutilation of having surgery to get larger breasts, suck fat out of tummies and thighs, lift your butt, lift your face, and so on. I have a friend who just had perfect eyebrows permanently tattooed on. They are supposed to be brown, but they look purple to me. Even though I was once very pretty, and am now quite the opposite, I would not dream of mutilating myself that way. I have far too much self esteem.
My husband blames the whole thing on the fact that gay men run the fashion industry, and are naturally trying to make women look like the 14 yr. old boys they prefer. He is not anti-gay; he just thinks women should be able to run their own fashion industry and not let men decide how they should look.
I think a woman with enough self-esteem would do as I do and say f*ck the fashion industry. It means zilch to me. So where did our self-esteem go and how do we get it back?
klutzo
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Shai Gar
So respecting their autonomy and choices over their body means not giving them the respect of responsibility with regards to what they do to themselves?
"It's not their fault, they're only women" sounds an awful lot to me like "it's not her fault she pissed on the rug, she's just a puppy"
"It's not their fault, they're only women" sounds an awful lot to me like "it's not her fault she pissed on the rug, she's just a puppy"
But then you have to realise that anorexia, bulimia, BDD etc.etc. are mental conditions that require treatment, not exploitation - and that many of these models have these conditions. Yes, many do choose to be that thin, but not in their 'right mind'.
The fashion industry is totally at fault, but I disagree that many of these women should be able to make decisions about their bodies. They're obviously very mentally and physically unhealthy. People like that need to be made to have treatment if they won't help themselves, or they'll end up dead.
Sooo...the fashion industry is to blame for causing the women to treat their bodies the way they do for society...but they have autonomy over their body? Contradicting.
Both are to "blame." Society for creating a desire for such things, and the women who conform to it.