Body Image Backlash

We’ve all been there—gawking at the Victoria’s Secret advertisements that plaster the walls of malls or flash across the television during commercial breaks. Models with tanned abs, lean legs, striking faces and long, lustrous hair effortlessly bouncing around. It’s an image that has come to captivate not only the consumers it hopes to attract, but almost everyone watching. Men want to date these models; women want to be them.

However, the repercussions of these advertisements include more than merely enthralling their viewers for a few moments, they foster an unrealistic expectation of women - so much so that advertisements such as these have come to seriously damage women’s mental health across the world. It is not just Victoria’s Secret either. Almost every major retailer in the beauty industry capitalizes on women’s insecurities in order to procure consumers. The same can be said for males who are subjected to Calvin Klein advertisements featuring perfectly chiseled, tall, and muscular men.

According to the National Eating Disorder Association, factors that may put an individual at risk for developing an eating disorder are body dissatisfaction, thin-ideal internalization, reading teen fashion magazines and social pressures for thinness.

People often forget that a model’s job is to adhere to the expectations of the modelling industry, and in turn, the fashion industry. Crash diets, hours-long workout routines, and a naturally slimmer body type is what allows them to achieve their “ideal” physique. The average person, typically, cannot even get remotely close to the model standard without subjecting themselves to disordered eating habits.

The fashion industry isn’t clueless about the pressure they put on individuals to adhere to their standards either. Iconic models, such as Cara Delevingne, have claimed to have quit modelling due to the unhealthy pressure of maintaining the ‘perfect’ body. Horrifically, models like Ana Carolina Reston, have even died due to starvation associated with anorexia nervosa. Probably the most well-known fashion model in history, Kate Moss, claimed that “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,” which has become a mantra for those afflicted with an eating disorder.

Usually the conversation stops there -- at the recognition of the fashion and marketing industries’ role in fostering unhealthy cultural viewpoints of beauty, but it shouldn’t. The industries that feed into this mindset also have the power to alter it. Some companies, including Dove and Aerie, have made strides in hiring real women with real bodies to represent the products they sell. More companies and brands need desperately to follow suit, not only for the sake of both the men and women in this country who suffer from body dysmorphia disorder, but also for the simple insecurities that can easily develop into something much more sinister. It’s time we stop the obsession with weight, size, and idealistic goals that can simply never be achieved healthily.