Thanks to alert pigeon Kelli for sending this article my way. I thought many of you might appreciate it.
7 Replies to “Interesting Article on Models And Body Image”
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Because you're in the public eye, and God knows you need to look good.
I’m curious about the title: “Meet the BMI criteria for anorexia”. As far as I’m aware, (please educate me if I”m wrong), anorexia is a psychological disorder. One can meet the BMI criteria for being underweight or seriously underweight, but a person can be underweight without being anorexic. A person can also be overweight without being an food addict.
To me, it fogs the issues with this sloppy sort of headline.
Yikes! Since when is size 12 a marker of obesity?
Plus size model are currently between size 6 and 14? Really? Size 6 disqualifies you from being a regular model and makes you a plus size?
Doesn’t this just increase how women’s body image gets distorted? I can only imagine someone looking at the cover of a plus size magazing or catalogue and seeing the size 6 model and thinking – “Yikes, she looks about my size and she’s a plus size! I must be too fat!” And then there’s the whole shame and despair those of us who are considerably larger than size 6 have looking at the skinny ‘plus size’ model.
Seriously, how can a size 6 model show me what something is going to look like on me? For that matter, a size 12 or 14 model won’t give me a good idea if the clothing will fit or flatter me.
I think the photo is fascinating. But one of my facebook friends posted the article with the tag line “One of these women is a REAL woman.” That just gets to me. Both are real women. You can’t tell just by looking at the skinny woman if she has an eating disorder or not. I agree with Elizabeth above. When I got pregnant with both my first and second children, I met the BMI criteria for anorexia, but I was NOT anorexic. But tons of people felt the need to tell me I must be or to gossip behind my back. I wish we didn’t feel the need to disparage small women in order to buy freedom for larger women. That’s just the same old BS turned backwards. (Not saying that’s what you’re doing.)
[I completely agree with you, Indie. That upsets me a lot. We’re all REAL women. What’s NOT real is airbrushing and photoshopping away imperfections, bulges, and curves as happens to even the slimmest of models. We’re all in this together — all women. – PB]
The article was very thought provoking…I shared it on my FB page and am waiting on the comments. I have a friend who has had a lifelong battle with anorexia and I struggle with emotional eating. Both are social and psycho-social issues, but it doesn’t make one healthier than the other.
What I appreciate is the vulnerability of both women to appear nude in a magazine article. And the last pose with the lovely model bend in two with a gorgeous mischievous smile on her face made me smile. It takes courage to do what they did and I’m glad this conversation is happening.
I found this very interesting…And I do get frustrated that here in France anything bigger than a UK Size 12 is labelled “Grand Taille” (Plus size). I went into a shop ( I loved the style of the clothes in the window) and was told, by a rather snooty assistant “Oh no, we don’t sell anything bigger than 40” (size 12)
What I don’t get is that there are an awful lot of stylish French women who are bigger than a 12. I wonder where they shop?!
By the way, PB, I loved your make up tutorials, and I hope to use them to train myself up.
And we’ve been doing this to women for so long. “In” body types actually go in cycles. For example, in the 1920s and 30s, super-thin was in – e.g., Bette Davis, Joan Crawford. When Ingrid Bergman arrived, she was referred to as “that Swedish cow”. By women. And this was not long after they had been liberated from wearing corsets. (Which, women were told, were necessary for their backs, which needed “support”.)