The fashion industry demands for underweight women to model their clothes because that would mean they can use one size of clothing for their models and they would need less fabric and they can edit the pictures more easily, AKA less cost overall. The internet is full of confessions from models who shared how they were very underweight on the BMI scale and they were still called 'fat' by modelling agencies.
They Photoshop these bony, veiny, extremely unhealthy skinny models in a way that they look softer and less 'bony' in fashion magazines. This is for the skinny girls who wonder why despite being thin they don't look like models and are being skinny-shamed instead. No amount of starving can get you to look like them.
The fashion industry does shadier stuff. They demand UNDERAGE models. Girls as young as 14, 15 year olds walking on runways and appearing on fashion magazines (or at least parts of them, I am coming to it later). They are made up with layers of makeup, each adding a decade of age to their faces, and then their underage bodies are displayed to grown-ass adult women. This may just be a thing pedophiles do to get to photograph topless pubescent girls without getting in trouble or maybe it is just because it is easier to exploit young naive girls, financially and more.
And quick disclaimer, I think many people shit on the models the wrong way... don't. It is NOT their fault they are just doing what their agencies are telling them to do for the sake of a living. Many of these women come from poor backgrounds with little to no choice.
I mean, even the most beautiful women on earth aren't beautiful enough for fashion magazines! Anyone remembers how they edited the heck out of Priyanka Chopra, who has the title of MISS WORLD, and they especially made her armpits look like some freaking Snapchat filter? And not to mention that they made her skin and eyes look significantly lighter.
Now that there is a lot of craze about body positivity, diversity and plus-size fashion, you would think things are getting better. Nope. Fashion industry demands plus-size models to put on more weight to be the proper plus-size woman. Which is as pathetic as telling regular models to starve and lose weight. If the industry is only portraying either side of the extreme, where do the majority of women go, who are literally just everything in-between?
I mean, most of us have 'moderate' or 'average' bodies. My BMI is in the normal range being a little on heavier side possibly. I am neither skinny nor fat. I am neither flat nor very voluptuous. I am too big for regular modelling, too small for plus size modelling. And that's just every other girl out there.
I was once listening to a TED talk on YouTube, of a prominent woman in the fashion industry. She shared a very sneaky way of editing their model's photos, called 'body double' or 'Frankenstein Photoshop'. Basically if they thought their model didn't have nice enough legs, for example, they would find a model with better legs, take her picture and place her legs on the original photo. They replace a woman's certain body parts with those of another woman, who is possibly much younger. Imagine this being done to older, mature women's pictures. Our mothers and maybe even grandmothers would be seeing women of their age in magazines, but she got so much better-looking legs! And they are gonna be insecure about not having the legs of a 20-year-old at age 65.
And again, editing the heck out of older women like wrinkles aren't natural.
And the new source of ugliness in the beauty industry, the Instagram models.
You know where I am getting here. As much as it's nice that things are changing and now curves are 'in', blah blah blah, but are we really? I feel like most of the craze is only around surgical perfection and no more realistic bodies. People put fake boobs and fake ass on the pedestal while women with actual curves are probably feeling insecure about their natural breasts and butts, and the 'rolls' that just come with such bodies normally. Perfectly healthy women feeling like they need to lose weight or get a reduction or liposuction or something because they don't have that perfect silhouette.
Thanks to the Kardashians and co. promoting surgical perfection, and show that a woman's worth and power and influence comes with showing their fake boobs and ass on Instagram, with each of the Kardashians having millions of followers and Kim and Kylie being millionaire and billionaire, and you wonder why many young girls do not want to look like themselves anymore and think they need to show off their bodies that way to gain attention, fame, admiration, influence and wealth. These are natural desires that we all have, and these young girls just got the easiest way to achieve all of those at once! And rates of plastic surgery is increasing rapidly.
Some people might say "What's wrong with a woman displaying her body? She can do whatever she wants." I doubt that.
Some of you people say it yourselves that people can do whatever they want as long as they aren't HARMING others. Let's look into what these unrealistic images are causing to women.
Depression
Anxiety
Eating disorders
Sexual dysfunction
Body shame
Objectification
And what not
Now let's get to an interesting 'fact':
Women who are born blind have the healthiest eating habits and are the least likely to have an eating disorder.
That fact alone shows how much us women get exposed to unrealistic images of 'perfect' women and no matter how much we are comfortable with our own bodies, these images are bound to affect us even subconsciously.
We want to look like images of women who don't even look like themselves! Many of these Instagram models are just incredibly young girls from wealthy backgrounds dating sugar daddies getting plastic surgery and flaunting all of their sex appeal and luxury to the public, because that's all they have!
I talked about this issue on G@G before and some men stated that 'no no no you're wrong we only follow the fitness ones and the ladies who actually have good bodies from working out because we respect them'.
First of all, any 'respect' that is as conditional as being sexually appealing is NOT respect in the first place, but that's not my main point here. My question is, are you really sure of what you say? You are aware that social media is one big lie and all they do is deceive, right?
I have been into fitness for a long time, and started gym when I was 16. Last year I have been a lot into building muscle, lifting weights and increasing my physical strength. Since then I have come across a good number of fitness models and fitness coaches online, and especially bodybuilding muscular women. Hence I can say it confidently that many of these women indeed go under the knife to some extent. Some are transparent about it, others are not. And this is even keeping steroids aside.
So just when you thought maybe fitness ladies could be the ones you can look up to, you know now they also have surgery. They can have surgery of course, but they aren't always transparent and truthful about it. I see these muscular ladies who share how 'skinny' they were when they started, I was like ok you gained muscles but where do the curves come from, how do you grow boobs from bodyduilding? Turns out many of them get breast or even butt implants. The reason why this is concerning is because many guys are convinced that women can look like these fitness ladies if they just put a little more effort into doing their squats.
These men don't realize that these media or social media women they see don't wake up looking like this. They take weeks of preparation, hours of getting camera-ready before the final shoot, and it's so pathetic to expect your woman to look like that when that's not how she makes a living!
And it is not just as easy as 'putting as much effort as you can' for everyone. Some women have pains and health complications resulting from one or more c-sections. Or other health problems because I have a friend like that. While I strongly believe that people should put effort into being healthier and fitter as much as they are capable of doing so, we need to stop shaming others and being harsh to them because we will never understand what they are going through.
And I am going to end this myTake saying that this isn't for women only, this applies to men as well.
The pressure of losing weight exists among male models too. I found an online comment somewhere, a woman shared about twin brothers who wanted to apply for modelling. They were both very underweight, but only one of them was selected for modelling while the other was called 'fat', but in reality no one would actually be able to tell any difference in how their bodies look.
Did you know that they put makeup on men's bodies to make their muscles look more defined, so they actually look more muscular in actual pictures than what they are in real life? They use a darker powder or cream on the contours of the muscles on their model's abs, chest and arms, and use a lighter shimmery 'highlight' color on top of the muscles to bring them more forward and look like they are bulging out. And then, Photoshop, again. And what you get to see as an audience is a perfectly sculpted, thin-yet-borad-and-muscular V-shape six-pack sexy beast... Like being buff or thin neither way can you be the man on the cover, ugh.
Here is an amazig myTake shared by a man, about his body insecurity. My Struggles With Body Insecurity
There are a lot shadier stuff in the industry that I am just not aware of, but I hope you learned something from this post and have especially learned to be kind to your own bodies and to that of others. Thanks for reading! :)
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