Body Image and the Fashion World!!
It is the start of the fabulous New Year and of course the gym is rammed packed of females and males all trying to get fit and slim! But do you feel that there is a little too much obsession in becoming skinny? Well fashion is no exception to this rule. With the continuous demand for models to be a certain weight and shape, not only models are pressured, but women especially in North America are pressured to look a certain way. Well in 2006 in September the organizers of the Madrid fashion show issued a ban on models that with a BMI of less than 18, Italy shortly followed suit.
This is a great step in the fashion world, but is it enough? Certain labels make their clothes to fit for a long very slim physique *cough, cough ABERCROMBIE & FITCH cough, cough*. When you look at ads today of models one has to realize the poses are the same, the curves are very much alike, how can women who are different and unique both physically and mentally, look the same? Well in her article “The Fashion Industry should not be allowed to Sell Us Fake Women’s Bodies” James Martinson points out that these perfect images that women are constantly bombarded with are actually not real; they are computer generated mannequins with the heads and skin colour of real models. James Martinson reports that a Swedish newspaper entitled Aftonbladetexposed that H&M was using plastic women to model its clothes online. H&M’s response to the accusations were it was a “commonplace” practice within the fashion industry; relaying to young women especially, a false consciousness on how they should look.
The American research group Anorexia Nervosa & Related Eating Disorder Inc says that one out of every four college-aged women use unhealthy methods of weight control including starving, skipping meals, excessive exercising, laxative abuse, and taking diet pills. This pressure is also affecting young girls to as young as 5 to6 years of age are taking weight control measures which were reported by The Canadian Women’s Health. The media is a huge influence on our generation and society today. These images and ads that have bombard us does not emulate what real woman looks like, creating a false ideal that women become to persistent and obsessed with, which in turn hurts their bodies and putting their health at risk.
TheDove Evolution Campaign exemplified the made up and photo-shopped woman that we all die to become. Images and commercials like this give light to the end of the tunnel that maybe the fashion industry will see that what they are doing to young woman; and modify their clothes to fit a real clientele. As a society especially as women we must come together to change these false images that are being portrayed of us. They are fantasies and not reality which we should not try and live up to. We should try and find peace within ourselves and change our body images because we want to not to look a certain way. After all, why would you not want to be your unique, beautiful self, everyone else is taken?
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