Earlier this month, The Counsel of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) held a Health Seminar to discuss “The Beauty of Health: How the Fashion Industry Can Make a Difference.”
The women shown above (Snejana Onopka on the Left, Siri Tollerød in the center, Olga Sherer on the right) are currently three of fashion’s most successful international runway models.
I’m never really sure if anything comes out of these fashion council meetings. It just seems like the models continue to get thinner and thinner despite the endless talks they have about the health of fashion. Sure, we have seen the French Government take a stand recently to ensure that these images don’t end up on thinspiration websites, but all in all, I don’t see much of a difference yet and maybe that’s just how it’s gonna be for a while. Despite the “Plus Size” modeling scene, the most successful runway models continue to look like they need a whole bunch of cheeseburgers!
But quotes like the one below make me believe that one day, things will be different.
I think we have brainwashed ourselves into believing that [Size 0] is beautiful. It’s time to admit that we’ve all been drinking the Kool-Aid”.
-Nian Fish, PR Consultant speaking at the Health Seminar on June 10, 2008.
So what do you all think? Have we been drinking the Kool-Aid? Are we brainwashed into thinking that this type of body is beautiful? Do you really think skeletal models’ reign on the runway is coming to an end?
I’ve long had this theory… maybe it’s out there. I’d be interested to hear what you folks have to say about it.
Marketers seem to have this constant need to make things different to catch people’s attention.
Since “thin” is society’s obsession of the moment, they used more-thin-than usual models… and then as time when on the marketers needed to further differentiate with more and more bizarrely thin looking models.
The irony is that these people were choosing odd looking people just to get product attention… but now society has accepted women starving themselves as an ideal of beauty and health.
Anyway… I think my theory here could potentially be just one piece of a very big puzzle that has created the situation we’re in now with the societal fascination of the uber-thin. But, I wonder if it is a real and valid piece…?
Do I think “thin” will go out of style any time soon?
Who knows.
I am starting to see this very slow trickle of news articles about how being fat might not be so bad and how being obese isn’t necessarily a health issue. I have a hope that society as a whole will slowly start to come around to this kind of thinking. I say this because I have heard many people give the excuse that they could never find a fat person attractive, because that person is unhealthy…. and it’s just instinct to not be attracted to the unhealthy. So, I wonder if we took the fat = unhealthy bit out of the equation if we’d unnarrow our ideas of beauty some.
However… I fear that it is merely my perspective that there is more of this information in the mainstream… and that I am just noticing it more, because I am LOOKING for it, because I’m not longer drowning in the ED mentality that kept me reading dieting articles 24/7….
Does anyone know the stats on this? Has there been an actual increase in mainstream talk about fat not being oh so very evil?
I won’t ever drink Kool-Aid. It would make me fat.
(Please note, sarcasm *on*!)
“I think we have brainwashed ourselves into believing that [Size 0] is beautiful.”
While it is taken out of context, I suppose, this quote really bothered me. My best friend is a natural size-0 (I’m a 26/28), and she faced difficulties when her family was searching for a prospective husband for her because of her size, and still faces ‘teasing’ from others (“anorexia!”)
She’s perfectly beautiful at her own size. Indeed, everyone is.
No, No, No! The photos of the three models above look severe and gaunt, not at all attractive and healthy. I’m going to have to agree with j. I think these models are chosen because they catch your attention and make a statement, but what that statement is may not be ultimately healthy in itself, but the designers get their names out there and that is all they want. There is no such thing as bad publicity.
Vidya,
I would just like to clarify that we are certainly not trying to “thin-bash” (we try to avoid thin/fat bashing at all costs here at EAC). The point of this post is to point out that the fashion industry has normalized Size 0 in a way that many women who are trying to get into modeling are now doing VERY unhealthy things to attain the oh-so coveted size 0.
Although there could be women who are “naturally” that size, many of the models are not, and so they succumb to unhealthy eating, dieting and drug habits to maintain that size. THAT is what we are against here.
You are right when you say that ALL sizes are beautiful as long as they are “natural”. And if thats true, then all women of all shapes and sizes should be represented on the runway. But alas, that isn’t so. Size 0 has become the beacon of beauty on the runway and I think the commenter is merely trying to ask the question why? When did Size 0 become normal and beautiful when most of those women are dying to become that size (as the original article points out, just click on “Image Found Here” to read the whole article)?
Not trying to defend the post, just wanted to clarify.
Thank you for your comment!
-Tiffabee
Everybody drank the Kool Aid because the point of the fashion industry is to hustle clothes, not make women look beautiful. Clothes always look better on the hanger than on a real woman, where there are bends and curves. Men never drank the Kool Aid, and many don’t like really bony women, but since they don’t drive the fashion industry, nobody cares what they think.
I don’t like seeing too-thin models on the runway either…but I also try to keep in mind that those women aren’t being presented as the norm, right? They’re objectified as art or as part of anbother person’s idea (the designer) of “beauty”. And just as many (most) people aren’t wearing runway couture walking around in everyday life, I wouldn’t expect to see model-ideal-bodied women walking around all the time, everywhere.
In terms of men…say lots of men in sports take steroids or do other distorted behaviors to get their bodies to meet the requirements of their job (playing football, for instance)…but we don’t expect most men to be built like football players…right..? And we don’t scorn or ostracize them when they aren’t…
On another note: size “0″ still makes me laugh!!! She’s a zero ooooooh……
What else could they have done, I guess…after size 1, roman numerals? Start on the alphabet..1a, 1b, no wait, that’s going back up! Colors? Size Green1! Size Blue1! SizeRed1 = you’re in the hospital getting tube-fed *haha!*
Sick humor, I know.
But seriously: size 0???? size “nothing”?? weird to negate yourself like that.
Oh that is scary. I have known a couple of woman who were naturally skinny (not sure what size) and they had both been commented too about how they were too thin. But they never looked unhealthy. Those models look unhealthy. The spare ribs I had last night had more fat on them. I just feel sorry for them.
I just don’t think things are going to change in the fashion industry. In a way they are too conservative. They have their idea of what is beauty and nothing will change it. I know a few people that are in the fashion industry and if they are anything to go by then they will never want anyone bigger than a size 0. My friend even said to me that it would be nice to have people of all sizes but it would never sell. My other friend who runs a website said that he loves putting political pieces in and other things that make you think but he always gets the most hits when he puts in stuff like who is wearing what and who lost weight this week. Unfortunately, thats what the advertisers pay for…hits.
To some, a six-foot tall, size 0 model is beautiful. What I object to is the cultural meme which specifies that particular body type as an absolute, across-the-board, universal standard of beauty to which all women “should” aspire.
Will it change? Probably not anytime soon. Models represent the rare, the exotic, the ideal – and in our modern age, the ideal is as thin as possible. It’s as if the ultimate aim were to make the body disappear entirely.
I think that we’ve drunk the Kool-Aid in believing that ONLY size 0 (or 2 or 4 or maybe, on a generous day, 6) women are beautiful. But, women can be beautiful in a size 0, or 20, or 40. I wouldn’t want to see very thin women excluded from our ideas about beauty.
The thing I really think is not beautiful about those pictures is how blank the women look. They’re just coathangers for the clothing, not real people. In their actual lives off the runway, I’m sure they are indeed real people, and I’d probably think they were quite beautiful if I saw them on the street. But, the way they look there just seems to strip them of any self, and to me that is absolutely not beautiful.
I guess that’s what I find so frustrating about the whole “beauty is a size 0″ thing. It’s basically saying that our job as women is to have bodies that make clothes look good, according to some external standard. It’s telling us to make ourselves into nice blank canvases that we can make beautiful with the right clothing and accessories. That’s certainly going to make a lot of people money, but it’s not beauty.
I think they’ve hit the thinness limit. If the models get any thinner, they’ll be too sick and weak to walk.
The number of people who are overweight in the world has now surpassed the number who are starving. So glamourizing the plus size may be another can of worms (I’m in that department, and though I see myself as a “big, beautiful woman”, the health problems I have are not joy.
I doubt that any images from fashion have the power to make a person abuse themselves- we all know fashion changes. I believe you are sick already if you decide to starve yourself. The sickness is one of self-denial, of not being a human deserving of nourishment.
I would LOVE to see fashion take on ‘all sizes’- clothes for all people to wear. Some people are thinner, some are average, and some are enormous, and all might like tips to make the most of what they have. If designers want to actually SELL the products, this idea might be revolutionary. Of course, fashion is about fantasy, but fantasy could include the range of averages dressing cool.
I say eat right but not obsessively so, exercise regularly, and wear clothes that make you feel great. Fashion will come and go, but this lifestyle will last on anyone.
The number of people who are overweight in the world has now surpassed the number who are starving.
More than 25,000 people will starve to death around the world today. On the other hand, being overweight-but-not-obese is correlated with having lower mortality rates than being normal weight, and even being quite obese is only associated with a moderate increase in mortality.
I just think we need to keep that in mind. Global starvation is a massive, massive problem, and one that is far more pressing and serious than the “obesity epidemic.”
I wish I could wear clothes that make me feel great. The cute stuff always seems to stop at Size 12 and everything bigger is either frumpy-looking or loose-fitting stuff (often resembling maternity clothes) made to conceal a voluptuous figure. When I do find nice clothes that I like, they’re usually out of my price range.
It’s as if the fashion industry has decided that women my size should keep their bodies hidden or pay extra to feel good about what they wear.
That’s just my take based on my own experience, though.
So many interesting comments. First I’ll be blunt and say that, in my opinion, those women look AWFUL. Just awful.
As for whether there is more good information out there about weight and health, I think we who are interested and hoping to see it, are seeing more of it. But “out there”, on the magazine racks and fashion shows, toothpick figures still rule. And, I think men ARE starting to buy in, both in terms of how they look at women and how they look at themselves. I am “a certain age” and when I was much younger, men were more interested in women with curves. Now they have been hammered with the skinny-model image as much as we have, and have been told that beauty=thinness, and are starting to believe it. And they DO, somewhat, drive the fashion industry. I would venture to say that most of the top fashion designers are men, and they are not interested in curvy women, just in showing their clothes off with as little other “substance” (i.e. flesh) getting in the way and detracting from their designs. And, I personally know men who are becoming just a tiny bit obsessed about their weight and restricting their eating.
I do think we enlightened women can have an effect, but it will take time. Don’t diet. Don’t buy fashion magazines- AT ALL, not even “for the articles”. Read the articles on line or in the library or, better yet, skip them- you’ve read the same stuff many times years ago anyway. Don’t buy celebrity magazines. Read stuff that might give you some new knowledge, like Scientific American or Psychology Today or Car and Driver or the New Yorker or Utne Reader or……. Eventually, dollars count.
I see not difference between objectifying women as sex objects and objectifying them as “toothpick figures”. It’s all dehumanizing and counterproductive.
No one looks at concentration camp victims photos and says, “wow, she is sexy!”
No one looks at a starving young woman in Asia or Africa and thinks, “wow, she is sexy.”
Yet we are told to objectify and sexualize these size 0 and even 00 models. We are given the impression they are an ideal to aspire to. Sure, some magazines like Glamour now claim to promote “sexy at any size,” and sure they run specials like “find the right bathing suit for your body type.” I don’t deny this is a step in the right direction, and I do think it is valuable that we learn to dress ourselves in the most flattering way for our body type – because that is part of self love.
But what message do they send when you never, ever see a plus-sized fashion layout in these same magazines pretended to promote body acceptance? The same message they’ve always sent, only possibly more insidious… they tell us we should accept ourselves, but then they showus, quite clearly, that the body type that really is acceptable is the teeny tiny one few of us can hope to acheive, and those who do acheive are rarely able to do so in a healthy way.
While I have known some women who just naturally are tiny, they are few and far between… and they are rarely the Glamazons of the runways, with long, long legs and perfect, tiny waists. They are still very real. I’ve known size 2s with tiny little round bellies, or short legs with – as they called them – cankles.
This idea of perfection is so far from reality… and yet, it’s still there. It never goes away. I’d love to think they will stop drinking the Kool Aid, but my guess is they’ll just switch the the sucralose sort.
…” you never, ever see a plus-sized fashion layout in these same magazines pretended to promote body acceptance?..”
Then sometimes, you do..! What about people like Anna Nicole Smith, Crystal Renn, Velvet Damor, Sophie Dahl, and…the woman who just won ‘America’s Next Top Model’? arg..what is her name…
Whitney!!
Sophie Dahl was all scandalous when she first broke in modeling, because of her size difference….All these women have transcended the ‘fashion barrier’ that you talk of. You been nippin’ at that KOOL-AID…? *hahahaha!*
Seriously though…
You can’t say, “don’t buy fashion magazines at all! ever!” (Anne) and then turn around and say, “There’s never any women of size in fashion” (Juliet) because if you don’t participate, on some level, how can you expect real change to happen? Without the fresh blood of new thoughts about women, fashion might stay the way most people see now see it ~ the wicked, thin-worshipping, exclusive community of your best nightmare!