Body esteem -- the politicking of fashion and body imaging

[hyphenate]

We've long been brainwashed into the notion that since every model out there is under a size 4, then the rest of us have to emulate that fiction and become thin as well. Except we can't--our bodies are far different in shape, and it's based on genetics, not on our diet.

Sure--we could all become anorexic and nearly kill ourselves doing so, but will it make anything different? We rely on the lifestyle of the young and pliable to be the basis for our dreams, but weight does not change our inner selves. Happiness is a frame of mind, not body specific.

One model, Crystal Renn, was taken aside when she was 14 by a modeling scout, and told she could be a model, as she was pretty enough, but she'd need to lose several inches of her hips to make it.

As a result of the meeting and the thought of the dream, she lost quite a few pounds, going down to 98 lbs--at a height of 5'9".



When the agency's president met with her and the agent, he said she still needed to lose some additional weight! It was then that she decided that she was already killing herself, and she refused to put the final nail in the coffin. She left the agency she was with, and switched to Ford, where her notion of trying to be at a healthy weight was better accepted.



Now, at a size 12, she is living her dream. She has photographers waiting to use her in their spreads, designers very happy to fit outfits for her, and a life where starvation is not an option anymore.







(BTW, the model with Crystal is Ashley Graham, the girl in the Lane Bryant commercial controversy)

[hyphenate]

1. A small kick for beauty and the eye of the beholder!