There has been a moment in all our lives where we have skimmed through magazines and looked at a model and said…“Oh my god! She is too thin”.Over the years the figure of a model has gone from athletic and curvy, to thin, skinny and scrawny. Although we all noticed this dramatic change very little was being done about it.
The naked truth, no matter where we looked, was that the image of the perfect figure was (and still is) getting smaller and smaller, from a well figured six to a skinny and unhealthy zero. Now, this does not pose a serious issue with women who are pretty confident and secured about their body image, but it does affect many others who do have issues with the way they look. What is worse, is that this mainly affects the younger generation who strive to look more like the models in the magazines. Despite series of campaigns and awareness programs out there, a majority of girls in their early teens till their late twenties,suffer from some sort of eating disorder.
Media please do not brainwash our kids. We call tell apart Models and Patients.
Governments across the globe today are recognizing this as a serious problem and are making attempts to resolve the issue. While countries like Brazil and Italy,have in the past,strongly opposed the image of skinny looking models, Israel is the first to introduce a law banning the use of ultra-skinny models. According to the new law, a models can only be signed once a doctor certifies that she is of a BMI higher than 18.5.
“Beautiful is not underweight, beautiful is not anorexic” – says the Rachel Adato, a member of the parliament in Israel who is pushing for the ban on underweight models in her country.
Although governments and legal bodies are getting into the matter, putting it into practice is left up to the fashion industry itself (and we all know how that works).
But what took the fashion world by storm was when earlier this year, 19 international editors of Vogue, pledged never to use photographs of models who are below the age of 16 and who they believe have eating disorders. The move, called a ‘Health Initiative’, is believed to help inculcate a healthier body image in the industry. Models and several designers have backed the movement, but only time can tell if the fashion world can hold up to this change.
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I have three young children, I am very selective as to where I shop due to the photographing branding emblazened over stores. I never let my girls look at a certain catalogue (N**T) as the models in there look like they are anorexic or have some eating disorder.
If the avaerage woman in the UK is a size 16, why would we want to see the dress we might be interested in buying, being worn by a size 6 model that bears no resemblance to our own figure, nor does it mirror how it would hang/fit on our own body.
It would be best to see what a garment looks like on a natural figure, for us and the next generation.
I have to say that old-school Supermodels like Elle MacPherson and Cindy crawford, while they were gorgeous and slim, were far from waif like. I still have my Cindy Crawford DVD and she looks strong, toned and athletic…a much better thing to aspire to than skeletal and thin in my opinion…most of today’s models don’t look like they could manage a Next Challenge workout (mind you, I hurt like hell afterwards too, and let’s not go there with the jumping jacks…)