My 14 year old daughter wears a size 0 and still thinks she’s not skinny enough. It’s enough to make me want to pull my hair out. I want to scream when her friends come over and the discussion spirals into what’s wrong with my body. Granted, their focus is on their bodies only, and they’re quick to come to each others’ defense. Also, they don’t attack someone for their weight or their looks, which, I guess, is a step in the right direction.
But… they are ridiculously hard on themselves. If you’d like to know why take a look at this website. Here’s one image.
This is what is bombarding our sons and daughters. And while girls are hard on themselves, the boys are piling on. The number of times I’ve bitten my tongue when a boy – who will never be a future Calvin Klein model, but feels he has the right to comment on a girl’s looks – makes fun of a girls’ weight is in the thousands. Seriously, how can I preach about not attacking someone on their looks and then turn around and decimate the little toad? Answer: I can’t. But if I did I’d have that punk in therapy for the rest of his life – which might be personally satisfying, but wouldn’t accomplish anything.
But someone is trying to accomplish something. (Warning: Naked photos – which now means you’ll click the link)
A magazine dedicated to plus-size fashion and models has sparked controversy with a feature claiming that most runway models meet the Body Mass Index criteria for anorexia.
Accompanied by a bold shoot that sees a nude plus-size model posing alongside a skinny ‘straight-size’ model, PLUS Model Magazine says it aims to encourage plus-size consumers to pressure retailers to better cater to them, and stop promoting a skinny ideal.
Size 12 (U.S.) model Katya Zharkova, 28, stars in the shoot, which has a powerful statistic accompanying each image.
One, printed alongside a photo of the Russian beauty holding a tape measure across her rear, reads: ‘Twenty years ago the average fashion model weighed 8% less than the average woman. Today, she weighs 23% less.’