Ok so I thought it was vital to post about the NYC/Paris/Milan fashion week this past year. First off, I don’t even think I have to say how tragic these women look- because nothings more tragic than seeing a woman who hates her own body, which you’d have to to put it through the torture of starvation. I get it, the fashion industry likes skinny-emaciated girls. Thats fine, BUT WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH YOU OR ME?? First off, these women are getting paid to do this to themselves, and I’m not going to judge them, b/c there are plenty of women doing far worse for far less money. And what does this do to the rest of us who subscribe to model idealism? Last time I checked no one was paying me to starve myself, and truth be told, it just doesn’t look good. So if you find yourself making the modeling industry’s problem your problem, I’m here to tell you it’s time to stop! It’s their problem…pure and simple. Trust me, you will thank me for it later. I think the Friends co-star, Lisa Kudrow, put it best when she discussed the body image issues she felt while working with her mega-thin co-stars:
“Back then I was getting sick a lot, because when you’re thin your immune system suffers. You need fat. It used to be if you were a little rounded you were perceived as looking healthy. But it’s not just Hollywood actors who all work out like crazy, it’s the moms at the school gate. People are training for…nothing. To be a size 2.”
To read the rest of this wonderful article click here.
While these models do make a good living (a lot of them, anyway), I’d rather make seven bucks an hour at a gas station if it means compromising my health and sanity to go the modelling route. I, personally, DO judge them – they know how shallow the mainstream modelling industry is, yet they encourage the industry’s ridiculous ideals by working for thin-obsessed agents and taking part in ‘skinny-only’ shows. They put themselves in an environment in which they get only one message: BE SKINNY.
Do I think these women need help? Yes. Do I ‘play nice’ to them because their behaviour ‘could be worse’? HELL NO!!
There is money to be made elsewhere in modelling/acting/etc. Only sign contracts with fat-friendly agents (instead of starving yourself for them). Model in shows that feature a variety of body types. There are different avenues that models can take, but they keep returning to work with the most shallow people in the business.
They have choices, and they keep making the same stupid ones again and again. I have little sympathy for them.
I wonder sometimes what else is this industry going to put their models through. Let’s be real they have taken food, and maybe not these girls but some don’t stay faithful to one male partner. What’s next?
“..fat friendly…” I’ve never heard that term before.
Sometimes I have to remind myself… Just as being fat does not make me a bad person, being skinny does not make these models bad people, either. They make their choices, just like I do (I mean about what we DO, not what we WEIGH). I think women should try to support each other’s right to choose their paths more, and judge less! (Not that I think you’re judging, but I always have to remind myself of this when I see models)
I agree, hope505, what is not-thin is not automatically fat. All ought to follow that much grammer and language – these words are both extremes, someone find a word for agents who are friendly to all the shades in between 🙂