Attention is focusing at the moment on female models, and not just on the clothes they are modeling. It has been apparent for years that the skinnier the better. Can't agree.
Fashion models also act as a role model for young girls, and if the impression is made that the aim is to be a matchstick, that is what they will try to emulate. Coupled to that the inherent uncertainty that all young teenagers experience, it is all too easy for them to slip over the edge of what is healthy.
Anorexia and boulimia are two eating disorders, which occur most frequently in teenagers. I learned this evening that there are websites, which actually advocate the anorexic. I find that quite sick. Anorexia kills, and the women shown on television tonight looked as if they were suffering from the terminal stages of starvation. Apparently, some of those sites have been closed down, and I think the rest should follow.
One model, Kate Winslet, has come out against this trend of "thinner than thin", and I hope that more like her will follow. As a male writer, I have to be careful not to sound sexist, but suffice to say that all people have their own beauty - it doesn't need to be accentuated either way.
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Well even from a female point of view, I totally agree with you here. Skinny does not connote beauty. There's so many other factors that people need to wake up and see. Good entry, good entry.
ReplyDeleteMorgan
xx
http://journals.aol.com/Sneezy7125/RandomThoughts
I agree with you. Skinny isn't beauty. Healthy is. A healthy woman has curves and some padding. If the Teen's could just see that...and realize that. But, they are brainwashed. It's so sad. One of the prettiest models was not a small skinny girl. Our Anna Nicole who just recently passed away. She was never a twig. Even when she was dieting for "Trimspa." She was always a woman with curves, as I call it. So was Marilyn Monroe. She wasn't ever skinny. But, the world saw her as a beauty. Also, if you look at old paintings from 100-200 yrs ago, the nudes depicted were not small women. And they were considered beautiful. I hope that idea of beauty returns to society.
ReplyDeleteOk...I've gone on long enough.
Pam
I agree Guido. As you know, I was/am still fighting with anorexia. Being an ex model was not what started it, but is didn't help me at all. It did make the disease worse. I got down to the size 10 in a little girls! I wore a smaller size then my own daughter! And I weighed in the 80's! Yes, I did almost die because of it. It is very dangerous and I fight it everyday and there should be more talk about it.
ReplyDeleteLisa
I've seen the websites you're talking about.... very very disturbing.... :-/
ReplyDelete~Amy
Dear Guido
ReplyDeletegood entry
Yours, nat
I can't agree with you more. I say ban cosmo magazines and fit magazines too. Even the fit magazines show women too thin for the normal fit person. I fell into that one. I started working out thinking I could look that them. NOT! I always was seening myself fat when acutually latter I looked at those pics and saw myself very lean.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it strange how most men wouldn't look twice at a stick thin person? And yet we women think we should slim down to what fashion dictates. Personally, and I have been skinny once in my life only, I much prefer to sit on comfortable padding and not skeletal bones. Once anorexics get beyond a certain point in their weight loss their brains undergo a chemical change which urges them on. These poor folks need help to gain weight back on so that they can think clearly again and take control back in their lives. It is a serious illness. As is bulimia. I have watched one young woman overeat and throw up so often that it took the stomach acid took the enamel off her teeth. She thought nothing of having two large meals and two large puddings and then about a pound of butter to finish with; which helped coat her throat and oesophagus prior to throwing up. Its a sad state of 'out of control life' that's for sure. Jeanie
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more, Guido. Runway models with ribs protruding are ill looking; not sexy. Most models do admit to various forms of anorexia and bulimia to keep their weight stick thin. The US would love to do body fat testing on models to keep them above the starvation level but are meeting huge resistance from designers. My question.....who in the world can possibly wear the stuff they model? Chris
ReplyDelete