Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Is this a church meeting or is this a blog? Make some noise!

"I am the first one to admit that my body isn't perfect. I love my curves. Starving myself? So not my thing." -Cosmopolitan Summer '06

I love Tyra. Were it not for her, I would never be as interested in fashion and style as I am now. There's a tiny, skinny, grapefruit-eating model inside of me that requires me to open up Vogue and study the editorials inside. However, there is one thing that keeps me from diving nose first into the fashion industry as a whole....

Tyra stands firm on her beliefs of a healthy self-image... as do I. There are a lot of women, and men, who cannot differentiate the sides of reality and fashion.

"As a heterosexual male, I've never been even slightly attracted to the skinny fashion models -- and I've never met any other men who are. The clothing they model isn't generally meant to be worn -- it's art, and so the models are part of this art -- it's certainly not meant to attract heterosexual males.

" -rma2108, Kira Craft article comment

Nail... hammer... yada yada.

What most young women, and men, DON'T understand is that these super-skinny models are not actually supposed to be the "ideal" image we should conform to in order to feel beautiful or accepted as beautiful by society. They are, in essence, clothes hangers. The less curves, the more the clothing is the focus. A pretty or even unusual face added on completes the package. It's art combining flesh and thread to make money. The majority of the clothing you see on the runway isn't the same product they shovel out to retailers.

There IS the other side of the argument, however, that these women are hired to be sexy and sell the entire package as sexy. I've never looked at an emaciated woman and felt my hormones race at the thought of touching her. I always imagined bruising her accidentally by hugging her.

The look on Tyra's face, the image on the right, is probably her reaction to this horribly photoshopped ideal of femininity. (I dare Ralph Lauren to try to sue ME for copyright infringement.... it has their damned name on it! It's THEIR problem.) If designers are photochopping to shit their finished product, what does that say about the already rail-thin model in the photograph? It's probably her skeletal frame keeping her from losing the extra 15 pounds it would take for Ralph Lauren to find her ideal for their campaign with out having to smear tool her torso.

The general public should not look at these images and say to themselves, "They're in a magazine.. so they must be what is considered attractive. I look nothing like this. There is something wrong with me." This is typically followed by failing self-esteem and/or eating-disorders to become comparable to magazine models. Not always, mind you, but it will chip away any healthy self-image a young, impressionable girl may have.

Fact: it's absolutely ludicrous to compare yourself to ANY one else, regardless of their height, weight, proportions or age. Your actual weight says nothing if you don't look overweight and carry no health risks unless designated by a health professional. If you're that concerned, go see your doctor.




Tyra's take on body and self-image? Be who you are and embrace it. Eat what you want, just don't overeat. Exercise to relax and maintain an overall good health, not become the image you think you should be projecting. Project you, not some one else's idea of you. No one can tell you what your body should look like.

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