Fashion model fired for being too skinny?!Hallelujah
Posted by Anthony L. Hall
The iPINIONS Journal
Regular readers of this weblog are quite familiar with my biannual rants
against skinny models, which I publish to coincide with the annual
Spring and Fall fashion shows in New York City. But for those of you who
are not, here’s a sample of my plaintive lament in this regard:
…[A]s the madams of modelling in New York are flaunting their obsession
with anorexic girls at their biannual fashion bacchanal, the matrons of
fashion in Spain announced that such sickly-looking mannequins will no
longer be strutting their dry bones at Madrid’s fashion shows….
Unfortunately, Madrid is hardly the fashion trendsetting capital of the
world. And I fear that instead of setting a new tone its fashion
vanguards will suffer a backlash from fashionistas in places like New
York, London and Paris who seem terminally vested, commercially and
psychologically, in anorexic models.
Regrettably, since publishing my first rant (in a different forum) over
a decade ago, there has been no gain in the transformation of (health)
consciousness amongst the trendsetting madams of fashion. And this,
despite the addition of influential voices like that of Harry Potter
author JK Rowling to this weighty cause.
Indeed, nothing demonstrated the daunting challenges we face more than
when self-proclaimed advocate for normal-size models, Tyra Banks, chose
the positively-skeletal Jaslene Gonzalez (pictured left) as the winner
of her top-rated TV competition for America’s Next Top Model. (Alas, no
matter what she says, naturally-chubby Tyra’s still dying to be thin….)
Nevertheless, there’s reason to hope. Because the Daily Mail reported on
Monday that, for the first time in the history of haute couture, a major
London agency, Models 1, fired a fashion model for being “too thin”.
Moreover, the conscientious head of this agency told her to not even
think about coming back until she has gained at least “one stone” (ie,
14 pounds).
But it was not at all surprising to me that instead of pouting with
resentment, this model, Charlotte Carter who is 5’10” but wears a
bulimic “size 0”, expressed relief:
It was like a psychological wall coming down. It helped me to finally
realize that I was too thin.
I was impressed that an agency was addressing my well-being. It feels
like London agencies are cracking down on this super-skinny idea . . .
and the rest of the world is somehow listening.
Now, if only the madams at Ford, Elite, Wilhelmina et al of New York
could get over their obsession with strutting bone-thin mannequins….
Meanwhile, I’m not too focused on how skinny these bitches are to notice
that they are also bone white! In fact, here’s what a typical fashion
runway looks like in NYC this week!
Frankly, one could be forgiven the impression that - since Alek Wek is
busy promoting her extraordinary autobiography in the US, and a
semi-reformed Naomi Campbell is busy raising funds for flood victims in
the UK - no other black models are worthy of showing off the clothes of
the world’s top fashion designers.
Well, let’s see what Rev Al has to say about that! What?! Sharpton went
to Vegas for the VMAs…?!
UPDATE ( September 27) Fashion group Flash & Partners incited
appropriate revulsion against skinny models today by launching an ad
campaign featuring an anorexic model in all of her glory to coincide
with the start of this year’s fashion week in Italy.
The image appeared in Italian newspapers and on billboards in the
fashion capital, Milan. The photographer, Oliviero Toscani - who
attained international fame with his invariably controversial ads for
Benetton – said he wanted the campaign to reflect growing concerns about
“the unhealthy image of beauty” being propagated by the fashion
industry.
After all, reduced to its bare essentials (ie, runway models stripped of
their haute couture), this is the nightmarish image of beauty that the
madams of fashion would have our eyes behold:
The victims of permarexia
Like the low-self-esteemed Bridget Jones, many young women just don't feel comfortable with their weight
On the bus to my home in Willesden last night I spent the whole time wondering what I was going to eat. Would I have pasta? No, because wheat makes you bloat. Soup? No, I'd still be hungry. Atkins-style dinner? No, I don't have the money to eat steak every night. I know it's stupid but I think about food all the time and it drives me crazy.
I sometimes start the day on one diet - the Cornflake Diet where you
replace two of your meals with cornflakes for a fortnight - and end it
on another.
I'm 29 now and have been on a diet constantly since I was 23. Even though I know I'm fairly normal, with the right weight - nearly nine stone - and a healthy life, I spend my whole time feeling fat. I'm a classic permarexic: I only come off one diet to start another.
I read about all the diets out there: the Zone, the South Beach Diet, the Blood-Type Diet, and I plan to go on all of them eventually. Of course some of them are much too complicated, even though I'm tempted - the Kate Winslet Facial Analysis Diet just takes too much planning and shopping. I'd love to find a diet that fitted into my lifestyle as well as Jennifer Aniston's but I can't go home and make up a dish of salmon, prawns and salad every night. I work as a receptionist, so it's too expensive for me to eat like that.
But that doesn't stop me trying. At the moment I'm on WeightWatchers and eating six small meals a day. The last diet I was on was Atkins and I lost about half a stone, but after six weeks I got palpitations and felt like my arteries were going to explode with bacon and sausages.
I tried the Cabbage Soup Diet where you're supposed to lose 10lb in a week, but it tasted awful and after four days I stopped because it makes you flatulent.
At school I ate nothing but popcorn for a week because I heard that Madonna had done it, until my mum found out and stopped me.
I know about all the celebrity diet plans, such as the ones followed by Martine McCutcheon, Jennifer Aniston, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. I even get a magazine called Celebrity Star Diets which features celebs' current diet plans.
There's such a deluge of information out there it's bewildering: one minute apples are healthy and the next you're not supposed to eat them because they contain too much acid. At the moment the big thing is the healthier way of doing Atkins, which just means less fat.
Right now I'd like to lose a stone and a half and be a size 10 - I'm currently a size 12.
About a quarter of women are on a diet, and when I go out to lunch with friends it's a nightmare. One friend, a size-eight management consultant, doesn't eat wheat, another refuses carbs altogether, and a few friends who work in TV are currently going to Weightwatchers with me. We'll look at the menu, then order soup and salad. I don't eat things that are unhealthy, I guess I just eat too much.
I suppose much of the problem is that I don't have the willpower to stay on a healthy eating regime. It's almost as if the strength I need comes from copying what others do. Then I worry about being too insecure and end up ditching the diet for something else.
I think permarexia is more of a psychological syndrome than a physical one - we're conditioned to think we should look like someone else when, in fact, we're fine the way we are. But maybe - just maybe - this new diet will help us get the job and boyfriend we want. I'm single at the moment, but all my past boyfriends have said I have a great figure. It's always difficult for a girl to trust what they say.