Do models get thinner as women get fatter?
Why the fashion industry presents skinny as the ideal
A model on the catwalk during Paris Fashion Week, 2007 (Corbis)
Fashion is about fantasy, said Robin Givhan in The Washington Post. So fashion models are getting thinner (with the help of Photoshop, in the case of former Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton) as American women get heavier. "The fatter the general population, the thinner the idealized woman." Maybe it's "self-loathing" that makes super-skinny women look so good to the chunkier masses.
There may be "a kernel of truth" to Givhan's theory, said Sadie Stein in Jezebel, but she's missing "something obvious: Modern fashion isn't about beauty," it's about "redefining beauty, and taking out health, which goes against our quite literal instincts." Corsets were bad enough, but we're further from the "natural ideal" than ever in history—"maybe that's why we rebel."
"The backlash isn't always about health or body image, but about wanting a standard of beauty that actually seems semi-attainable," said Sady Doyle in Salon. "At least you could buy a corset (good luck carrying that Photoshop eraser tool around with you at dinner)." It's the fashion industry, not the culture, that's "insisting on emaciated models and greeting larger ones with hostility."
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6 Comments
Posted by EJ Harvey, Thursday, October 22, 2009, 1:35 am This model looks as if she's from a place that has been struck by famine. She looks as if she needs help, looking at this photograph sadness me.
Posted by Mike, Thursday, October 22, 2009, 3:53 am So Cosmo says you're fat? Well I ain't down with that.
Posted by Melissa, Thursday, October 22, 2009, 7:21 am 'Cause your waist is small and your curves are kickin'Mike, you're awesome. You totally made my day.
Posted by Michael, Friday, October 23, 2009, 12:32 pm And I'm thinkin' 'bout stickin'.To the beanpole dames in magazines: you ain't it Miss Thang.
Posted by Jones, Thursday, October 29, 2009, 10:16 am Maybe the models just seem thinner, because we, collectively, got fatter.If fat is normalised, 'normal' becomes 'thin', and what was considered 'thin' becomes 'dangerously thin'.Look at photos of WW2 soldiers. They would be considered 'thin' by today's standards, when in reality, they were of a normal, lean body weight.
Posted by Jhod, Monday, November 16, 2009, 9:45 pm i'm sorry, but are you crazy? these fashion modeals are DYING!!! Malnutrition, starvation, heart attacks.... they don't just look thin because society is getting fatter. When they started dropping off like flies, we started to show concern for good reason!
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