Is Fashion Week Bad for Body Image?

With Fashion Week ending this week, I decided to add it into my blog. Fashion Week is the home of rail thin models and non existence food. When girls see how thin the models when they walk down the runway, it makes them change their ideas of "normal." I think that Fashion Week hurts many girls around the country, from normal girls to the models themselves. Media thrives off of Fashion Week and publicity is crazy. One article that stuck out to me was about Fashion Week being bad for body image and I totally agree with the author. The models at Fashion Week have it well. They "attend lavish parties" and all of Hollywood's finest watch the shows. "It is no wonder that supermodels have become role models for many women in our society," says Robert Tornambe, M.D. Seeing the bones poke through most of the models skin is horrible to look at because you know they are in pain whether physically or mentally. "Many are in their teens or early 20's, nearly six feet tall and have a BMI in the minus column,"says Tornambe. Looking at how women are supposed to look you never really know what is the average women and what she really looks like. " The average dress size for women is 12 to 14!," says Tornambe. Tornambe really does understand how much women want to look like a runway model. "Women are unduly influenced into negative opinions about themselves and forced to chase an illusion," Tornambe said. I think that every Fashion Week has problems with the models weight, but women should look more at the fashion rather than supposedly "role models" into today's society.


 Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-tornambe-md/is-fashion-week-a-good-id_b_822569.html

The Psychology of Beauty-Media affects body image (Dove)

When searching the web for videos dealing with body image and the media, I stumbled across this video that shows the negative effects of the media when dealing with body image. Even though most of the footage in the video is half naked women, the video really gets a point across. Seeing the different aspects that media affects the body is astounding. From plastic surgery to diet pill ads, the media controls everyone's vision of their body. Dove intended that the audience be shocked from the raw footage and seeing how much the media is in on the way we view our bodies. Making this video shows how much women really care about their bodies and would do anything from fad diets to plastic surgery to get the way the celebrities look or just have the "normal" body. After reading some of the comments on YouTube following the video, you really understand what those women are saying from being thin is not always beautiful and having the ideal body is never really attainable because no one is perfect. Seeing half naked, skinny, and beautiful women is all over the media these days. From advertisements, commercials, and television shows, the perfect body is getting out of hand. This video has been going around the web since 2009 and even if no one sees it or even if one person does, that one person could change a generation and start to have "normal" be the best thing a girl could be. Overall, Dove did an amazing job with the concept of the video and really captured my attention.

90210 Actresses Show A Lot of Skinny

Television actresses are becoming more and more skinny by every episode they appear on. One of the shows that I watch frequently is 90210 on the CW. Every episode, the actresses appear too skinny and have perfect hair and makeup. Seeing their collarbones pop out and small torsos makes everyone question if they are too skinny for television. According to Entertainment Weekly and Us Weekly, "they are shocked to discover that several female members of the cast of 90210 appear to have last eaten in fifth grade." The main female characters in the show are Shenae Grimes (Annie), and Jessica Stroup(Silver), Annalynne McCord(Naomi), which all appear to have skinny bodies."There is no denying that Stroup and Grimes look more frightening- you have to wonder if the show's producers tried to save money by casting by the pounds,"says Mary McNamara. From covers on tabloids these ladies have been seen as too thin and most importantly perfect for the ideal ladies in show business. I think with many skinny actresses in television today, 90210's wonderful ladies have been the skinniest yet. Having young girls seeing these stars on television only makes their body image worse. With eating disorders becoming more and more of a trend, television actresses seem to have the ideal body and that is what girls are trying to look like. Watching the show recently, you can tell that they have put on much more weight now from 2008, but they are still thin and too perfect for the average girl to be idolizing. 


Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2008/09/actresses-show.html

Sofia Vergara slimmed down for Pepsi Ad: Photoshop Blunder

Seeing skinny celebrities on magazine covers and ads is always common in today's society. Photoshop has become a photographers best friend when it comes to making an ad stand out. From slimming down arms and legs to lightening skin, photoshop has always been the key ingredient for a perfect ad. Basically every magazine cover you see has at least been touched up. In recent photoshop news, a Skinny Pepsi ad with Modern Family actress Sofia Vergara has become controversial. Vergara is mostly known for her curvacious body which stands out among all of the skinny actresses in today's media. Steve Hall of industry blog Ad Rants wrote," Women with big boobs aren't skinny, they are top heavy and top heavy is bad when it comes to our current culture's definition of rail thin beauty." I totally agree with Hall's comment. Most women that are curvy and are not rail thin are not seen as beautiful or accepted in the media today. When looking at all of the different comments about this ad, you see how negatively people have responded to it. Pepsi came out with a statement regarding the ad saying"our slim attractive new can is the perfect complement to today's most stylish looks," says Pepsi Co's Jill Beraud. Obviously Pepsi agrees with being skinny is more accepting and more stylish. Overall I think Vergara should not have been portrayed like that. If they wanted a skinny model on the cover they should have thought about that before taking away a beautiful women's curves.

Source:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1358498/Did-Pepsi-digitally-slim-curvy-Sofia-Vergara-ad-new-skinny-can.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Glamour Magazine: Shocking Body Image News

Everyday a person is thinking to themselves that they look terrible and have something wrong about them. When reading this article from Glamour magazine, I really saw how statistics show me how many people are hurting their bodies and talking down to themselves from looking at all the celebrities in the media. In a recent study, Glamour magazine surveyed more than 300 women of all different sizes. What came out of it was that "on average, women have 13 negative body thoughts daily." Hearing that news was devastating. Once you think about how much women criticize their bodies, I feel like that is horrible to hear. Personally I can see that because not everyone is perfect and you can't help but think about your body daily. According to Kearney-Cooke, "our unattainable cultural beauty ideals, our celebrity worship all play a part." I completely agree with what Cooke is saying. In todays culture the only way to be accepted as beautiful is to be skinny, made up well, and have no flaws. I think many people idolize different celebrities and follow their beauty regimen from the same hairstyle to getting their bodies to look like theirs."There are so many times you can be hit with the message that your body isn't right- whether you see it on TV, hear it from your mom or just feel it," says Nichole Wood-Barcalow, Ph.D, a psychologist at the Laureate Eating Disorders Program in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Reading the rest of the article you really get to see that its not all your fault that you think negatively about your body everyday. Overall, I think this article was interesting and shows how much women think about their bodies.

Source:  www.glamour.com/heath-fitness/2011/02/shocking-body-image-news-97-percent-of-women-will-be-cruel-to-their-bodies-today

Commonplace Blog!

This is the start of a powerful commonplace topic that faces many people throughout today's society. Body Image is changing everyday and seeing how the media warps the perfect body into being the ideal body, many people are struggling with fitting into that category of being normal and skinny. I want to research and show how much the media is controlling peoples views on their bodies. From television to magazines, the issue of looking perfect is becoming more dangerous everyday. Hopefully by the end of this blog I will show how much the media negatively affects people around you. This is the start to a new movement of being perfect just how you are.