Larger than life
We’ve got the size zeros everywhere telling us thin is in… They’ve graced every catwalk, magazine, film and tv programme for a few years now, it’s about time we got a healthy looking role model in, right?
Introduce…….
Beth Ditto.
Beth Ditto, lead singer of punk band Gossip and lesbian activist, has caused controversy by appearing stark naked on the covers of magazines such as NME and LOVE.
People now hold her up as a positive image for girls, an image promoting self-love, self-acceptance and definately not complying with the size zero obsession.
But is this a better image?
A lot of the publicity that surrounds this extrovert icon focuses on the idea that she doesn’t give a f*ck.
She’s happy the way she is, she’s happy to appear completely naked for all to see even though her figure isn’t generally considered easy on the eyes by society.
This concept is wonderful, this is what we should be embracing… but ultimately, the person we’ve put on a pedestal to represent this view is over-weight and subsequently probably unhealthy and unfit.
Beth Ditto, according to her BMI, is clinically ‘morbidly obese’. This is not what should be promoted as loving the skin you’re in.
This isn’t positive.
We live in a world of two extremes. We either live by the rule that skinny is glamorous or that being ‘big and beautiful’ is loving yourself.
There’s hardly any emphasis on health, on exercise, on fitness… Love yourself in a way where your body will love you back. – This is the ideal.
What better way to discover if the rise of diets, celebrity culture, health taking a back-seat and the emphasis your weight than asking you! The people.
It’s all well and good to speculate, but what’s the reality surrounding everyday lives with everyday people?
I asked 20 people, 15 women and 5 men how the media, society and peer pressure effected their views of themselves, their figure and their weight.
I focused more on the women because research shows that weight issues, dieting, and serious weight-associated illness effect women more commonly.
1 in 250 women suffer from Anorexia in the UK and 1 in 2000 men do.
Every woman I asked said they felt that the images projected in the media of how people ’should’ look does effect how they view themselves.
One girl, aged 20, said: “It’s hard not to compare yourself when you’re surrounded by images of beauty. Even if I’m aware they’ve been airbrushed or touched up you can’t help looking at yourself and judging how you look.”
Every guy I interviewed said he didn’t care too much about their physique. One man, 34, said: “I think the men that we see on tv and in magazines promote a healthy image, they’re toned and in shape, and probably healthy because of it.”
13 out of the 15 females I interviewed said they’d tried to diet at least once in their lifetime… More revealing, they stated that it wasn’t for health reasons but to simply lose weight.
9 of them revealed the media played a massive part… and 6 of them stated they compare themselved to the people around them too. All 15 females admitted they feel they have to fit in or fulfil an ideal.
So, it appears that everyday women do feel the pressure of the images that bombard us everywhere, to an extent where they compare themselves, they diet and they feel low about themselves.
A sad reality.
Anorexia, (also called Anorexia-nervosa) as featured in a previous blog of mine, is a scary and rapidly increasing mental illness effecting peoples perceptions of themselves physically.
People suffering from anorexia fear being fat and therefore limit and control what they eat to such an extent that they put their life on the line. It can get to a point where they are literally starving themselves everyday.
The word ‘Anorexia’ means ‘loss of apetite’- which actually appears to be a somewhat tame term for what it is.
Although the illness is more commonly found effecting females in developed countries, Anorexia can truly effect ANYONE, ANYWHERE at ANY AGE… And the signs may not initially be evident in the sufferer.
Every mouthful is a struggle
The symptoms are rarely immediately apparent to those close to the sufferer, or even the sufferer themselves.
People who fall victim to Anorexia, once aware of their condition, often try and hide it from their family and friends anyway…
The obvious signs and symptoms of Anorexia include the persons deliberate efforts to lose weight by eating less, desperately controlling and watching their calorie intake, over-exercising and leaving the table immediately after meals either to vomit or dispose of the food they’ve hidden.
There are also symptoms that are seemingly less obvious to the unassuming eye featured on a NHS webpage.
I’ve focused a lot on the media’s effect on society’s perception of what is beautiful and the ‘perfect figure’… and even on the NHS webpage focusing on Anorexia it mentions it as a cause.
Of course there are other causes experts claim can lead to anorexia such as low self-esteem, struggles during puberty, bullying, family issues…etc.etc.
If you think someone you know is suffering from Anorexia or if you yourself feel pressure to lose weight or find yourself stopping yourself from eating please GET HELP.
You, or your friend or your family member suffering from this illness can get better, can be healthy again and can learn to accept that who you are is beautiful.
Curvy Hollywood beauty Marilyn Monroe
Fashion magazines, catwalk models and celebrities are amongst the culprits promoting the idea of Size Zero.
Size 0 is an American term and is the clothing size equivalent in the UK as a size 4! – It is said that the waist size of a size zero is a measly 22 inches.
The size 0 phenomena hasn’t always been around and is seemingly noted to be the doing of Hollywood stars promoting this unhealthy size…
But, not so long ago a curvy, healthy size 10 or 12 was what people were aiming for and happy to be.
In fact, I’m sure you all remember Marilyn Monroe? Famous actress, pin up, and a true beauty… She was a curvacious size 16 and considered ideal.
However, now any credited fashion model is no bigger than an American size zero.
Dawn Porter, a lifestyle journalist, took part in a project ‘Super Slim Me’ in which she was on a quest to become a size 0.
She reported that instead of a healthy balanced meal she says she was only allowed ‘a single broccoli floret for lunch’.
Her daily calorie intake allowance was also quartered to a pathetic 500.
A shadow of her former self after she was swallowed by the Size 0 craze
A body image survey revealed – in WeightWatcher’s magazine released last june- that 1 in 5 women between the ages of 18 and 24 desire to be a size zero.
In 2006 catwork model, Luisel Ramos, collapsed on the runway during Uruguay’s fashion week.
She later died from suffering of heart failure.
It’s reported before the show she had desperately tried to lose even more weight to fit with what is considered the correct model size.
Nicole Richie and Kiera Knightly are also amongst the A-listers who are bombarding us with images of their malnurished size zero frames.
And these are the women of the glossy pages within the magazines which girls so desperately cling to and use as gospel?
I couldn’t talk about diet and weight issues in our society without covering Anorexia…
I’m fully aware it is reported on and documented, but as I’ve addressed the selacious sides of the weight issue sweeping the world it’s only right to address the serious side.
Anorexia, as we all know is a mental illness.Unfortunately, it’s also an illness that is terrifyingly on the rise. -BBC reports.
It is every family’s nightmare for a beloved one to feel so low about their self image that they’re willing to jeapordise their health- and even life- to be skinny.
As I’ve already commented on, society is surrounded by images of the “ideal” body- Chanel even employed an anorexic model… Surely this sends out a horrifying message?- People calorie count, cut out carbs, and take up insane exercise regimes.
Being supr skinny is the new black and the key to a happy life. Apparently.
80% of 11 to 14 year olds worry about their body image and 3/4s of 7 year olds want to be slimmer.
Channel 4 aired a shocking documentary about a girl merely 8 years of age who had anorexia.
An 8 year old child felt the pressure of society and the media to starve herself, that’s the reality.
Please read Dana’s story.
A reflection of society's negative body image?
the such like… well it’s like that except it’s a fad- a passing obsession- that controls what you eat.
Foolish fads
You’ve heard the term ‘fad diet’ right?
Remember fads at school? Yo-yos, pogs, pokemon cards and
People have an obsession with losing weight FAST. Similarly with this gastric band phenommena.
An early morning wake up with a healthy, balanced breakfast… A walk to work instead of the bus… Swap the burger for a salad… and an aerobics class in the evening.
…Okay, so it sounds like hard work, but if you’re really serious about losing weight- and more importantly getting fit and healthy- that’s the way you should do it.
Whilst researching for this blog I’ve come across the most insane fad diets.
Beyonce Knowles was infamously reported to hit the ridiculous ‘maple syrup’ diet to lose weight scarily quickly…
Half of these futile fad diets sound like some kind of crazy hocus pocus concoction.
Doctors are constantly revoking any claims that these diets work and constantly declaring them dangerous to our health.
Tomorrow I’m going to eat nothing but cucumber and drink nothing but water blessed by Shaolin monks and see where it gets me…
Fern Britton
When popular This Morning host, Fern Britton, began to lose an impressive amount of weight the public were praising her like mad and she was recieving congratulations and adoration mail by the thousands.
Fat people from all across the country were yearning to know her secret in order to lose weight like she had done. It seemed so effortless, she looked happy, healthy and… slimmer.
Alas, shock horror, it was later revealed that our beloved presenter had done the unthinkable… Her seemingly organic weight loss was due to one of society’s new favourite slimming cheat -the gastric band.
Fern Britton’s mail of ‘well done’s and ‘you’re so inspirational’ turned into hate mail.
Viewers and others who deemed their opinion important made sure Fern was inundated with their views on how what she did was wrong, and misleading.
This begs the question… Would you pay that price to be slimmer?
… The price of humiliation? The price of money?
When I read an article from Times Online it became clear why someone would feel compelled to feel that disgusted about their weight.
The truth is… that’s why people pay the price.
Dieting- with the aim of losing weight instead of improving health- is an ever-evolving phenomena that the western world especially has embraced.
Across society people, particularly women, are increasingly becoming concious of their weight and embarking on all kinds of diets; from the infamous Atkins diet to the seemingly tame Special K diet.
Albeit in it’s informally jesting style US Weekly addresses the worrying influence that super-skinny celebrities have over women across the board who crave to be slim.
Models, actors & actresses, and recording artists are constantly in the public eye and constantly flaunting their slim, toned, ‘perfect’ figures.
It’s become common place for people to compare themselves to celebrities and strive to look like them. No matter what it takes, no matter what risks they’re taking and how it wrecks their body.
Super slim Paris Hilton
