OPINION : Fashion and weight and skinny bashing

Just as I posted a rant on Tumblr about skinny bashing - Diane Von Furstenberg announced today that she is going to make sure that no underage models walk in the next load of fashion weeks - not only that but she would be paying close attention to how many of them were a healthy size.

It seems that fat is not just a feminist issue - its a fashion one too. I am fed up of hearing about how all models have eating disorders and go to extreme lengths to stay thin - some are naturally skinny and eat like horses! However just as there are healthy models - there are unhealthy ones too.

I think its great that someone is trying to change the negative parts of the industry for the better. I think models should be made to carry cards to prove they are over 18 and they should be monitored to see if they are healthy or not.

However, as I complained on Tumblr, I am sick of this skinny bashing trend that magazines and advertisers seem to be going through at the moment. This trend of labelling only curvy women as 'real women' - erm, am I not a real woman just because I am not a size 16?

I am a size 10. I've not always been a size 10 but I am now and I'm happy with that. I am really tall which means I do not carry weight on my stomach or my boobs but I do hate my thighs! (I also hate my feet but that is a separate issue for another day) I am sick of being told that because I'm tall and skinny - I'm not real. That I have to be a size 14+ to qualify for being a woman. I thought having ovaries made me female!?!?!? Still what do I know?

Women come in all shapes and sizes.

Magazines are sick of taking shit about their choice to feature only thin models - here is how this works. Magazines are essentially advertisers. They feature clothing that advertisers have paid to be there. Say D&G take out an advert for their RTW collection, chances are you will see their clothes crop up in the photoshoots because its been paid for.

The magazine has to sell the look and sell the dream - it does this by projecting an image.

The designers are also responsible for calling the shots by sending sample sizes. It costs a designer twice as much to make a size 16 dress then it does a size 8. This is why sample sizes are small and one of the reasons why the models must then be small.
In magazine logic anyway!

The magazine in order to make up for featuring smaller women in their photoshoots - balances this out by talking about real women. By making reference to how they can't refuse sweets, by using as many reader based stories as they can and doing reader make overs. But the meantime the message is that them and us. Them being the tall skinny model types who represent something that is not attainable and the US being the rest of the world.

It's an arguement which is not likely to be settled anytime soon. Weight is just one issue that fashion cannot agree on. It's been the case since the days of Twiggy when thin chic became Vogue and carried on in the 90s when Kate Moss brought in heroin chic.

Again I will stress that women are all shapes and sizes but the industry isn't likely to change anytime soon.