madrid bans too-thin fashion models...

I have to agree with that 100%.

It really doesn't matter how you look, people are going to ridicule you.

I was a fat kid, got made fun of constantly.... I developed anorexia, I got really skinny...but not emaciated, still the same kids who told me I was fat, made fun of me for being so thin.

I was so confused at that point, I was only like 12 years old.

Now I know, that in this world you can't ever win... people are going to say things.

Oh, and to validate your point, when I got thin, the comments hurt just as much as they did when I was fat. No more, no less. I think it's bullshit that anyone feels the need to point out someone's weight, at anytime... I honestly NEVER felt the need to say somethign to someone about their weight, and I don't understand the sorts of minds that think it's their right to do that.

When it's cause of concern because of health, that's one thing... And, I do want to add, that I don't think the right way of giving girls a good message is to have big women talking about how proud they are of their bodies, because the truth is... sometimes [not always] being overweight is JUST as dangerous to your health as being underweight is.

I think the focus on weight though, needs to stop as a whole. I think it's absurd to approach it from the opposite end and exclude skinny women from fashion modeling and such because that just sends the exact same message from the opposite direction: to love or not love yourself based on your weight.

 

i dunno, man. i haven't always been fat. people were WAY nicer to me when i was thin. i'm still a bouncy, bubbly, mostly happy person. but when i was thin i didn't have to listen to half the bullshit i gotta hear now. maybe it's because i didn't have an eating disorder and looked healthy.

 

Sometimes it's only about how you see yourself - if you see yourself fat when you are not, then I don't know if thin models are the cause... If it's only in your own mind...

 

I agree to a certain extent.
I actually just read a book about eating disorders, and this girl who tells her story points out that fat people seem to always get looked down on, treated with less respect, or pitied like...she said how when she had a boyfriend when she was fat, everyone had an attitude like "Oh how nice of him to date a big girl"

And I can see that. I know some of my friends who are thin, the way they tend to think towards fat people...almost like they're less of a person because they are bigger.

But it seems if you're not in a "healthy" weight, then you get ridiculed, even if you're thin..like too thin...like honeyhannah said.

My boyfriend, as I have said a thousand times, is very very skinny. If you didn't know him, you would probably think he doesn't eat a lot, too...but he does. Well, I've heard all the ridicule he gets for it...people tell him he looks sick and his friends always make fun of him for it, and even my dad has made comments like "that skinny dude couldnt wrestle his own way out of a paper bag"

He gets upset about it.

Maybe it depends on who you surround yourself with, or how thin you are...I dont know. But I do know it happens.

 

Agreed.

I have looked at models wishing I looked like that, but at the same token, everyone tells me I already do look that thin. And it doesn't process. I don't see it. It's not the model's fault I see myself bigger than I am...it's a brain issue.

And it's not just the media, its alllll of society, and the general belief that you must be a certain weight to be happy. Even parents and friends tell you this in so many words.

 

yeah, i've always had the ability to see myself fairly accurately going for me. i'm pretty good at being disgustingly honest with myself. when i weighed 120, jeez, i looked like a famine victim. i'm only 5'4", maybe 5'5" on a good, stand tall, day. i'm past that age when i need to be "perfect," especially since it's glaringly apparent that MY idea of perfect and your average fashion victim's concept of perfect are far different standards. one thing that would really make me happy about dsigners not designing for females with the bodies of adolescent boys is that maye just maybe, i can walk into a store and walk out with something nice that fits over my boobs.

 

There is a follow-up at cbc.

I like how the spokeswoman for the Spanish fashion designers association said "The focus should be on designers' collections, not model size". Yeah right, if designers are not focused on model size themselves, how come we don't see the pleasantly plump on the runway HAH.

 

well, it's not like it's impossible to design a dress or shirt that covers the breasts without being shaped like a potato sack. but when prom came around, i had to design and make my own freaking prom dress because NOTHING clung to my figure without leaving my tits bared, and it if covered my tits, you could build a tent out of it. freaking ridiculous. some of us wanna wear funky, fun clothes. not everyone likes lane bryant, which, btw, doesn't have anything to fit me either. their size 14 is way too big. it's exasperating.

 

kc, women at both ends of the spectrum feel like they're ignored by the fashion industry.

I've thought about hiring my own seamstress to make a dress that fits me well, ditto with bras and bikinies. When I dress up I still look like a little punk kid in her mom's dress. I've learned to wear padded bras (and I mean really padded) to look more like a woman.

 

I did a little bit of modeling in my younger years, but I'm short, and I'm curvy. Not exactly model material. Anyway, my modeling experiences magnified my eating disorders/distorted self image even moreso. Not good.

Anyway, I currently wear a size 8, but I'm only 5'3" so it's not all that small. I wear some junior clothes, but NOT in jeans. I can't get those tiny things over my child bearing hips. No way!

I really think that it's a positive step in the right direction with the decision of banning extremely (unhealthily) thin models from the shows. Promoting an unhealthy and unattainable image is completely wrecking havoc on young and old alike, eating disorders are becoming more and more common, and it's no wonder really.

On the flip side, many of the high fashion models are simply used as "coat hangers" to display the clothing. The designers don't want you to focus on the woman's body, because if she was curvy and actually had a shape, you'd be paying more attention to that, and not the actual clothing being modeled. They want you to notice the clothes, not the woman.

So I can see both sides, but I really do support the banning. Good for them!

 

I noticed something odd and kinda disturbing the other day....
i have been seeing these commercials on TV about this "Julie's Story" where it's advertising medical assisted weight loss.
I asked about this at the doctor the other day, since having Leane, i went from 140 at 5'2 before I was preggers to 170 now and CANNOT get rid of it (I won't get into everythign I've been doing to try), and I actually got snuffed off, like it wasn't important. Yet, when i was in junior high and my mom caught me throwing up in the bathroom, I was treated extremily seriously by the same doctor!
I couldn't believe it!
I know that I need to loose this weight. In November, Cody and I are getting a membership to the lesisue (sp?) center here, and he's going to help me with running and aerobic stuff, since he knows a ton about weight loss and body building and stuff. I can't wait, to say the least.
I have always thought that I looked massive, even when I was 128. Hell, when I saw that on the scale, I refused to eat for over a week and felt a lump in my throat. i wanted to jump out a window. But then I started to believe my friends when they said that i didn't look big at all....and so after I had leane, and I have had friends telling me that Cody has an excuse for flirting with other women cuz they're much hotter than me and that I'm a failure as a wife cuz I don't look good for my husband, it actually shocked me. Now, I'm ready to loose it. Especially after watching a video of me dancing with leane the other day...I wanted to gag at how awful I looked. I still do as I type this.
I have noticed a massive difference in the way that I'm treated, though. People, especially younger people, are so rude to me. I'll smile at someone, and they actually scowl at me. I don't get the door held open for me anymore, even with a baby in my arms.....it's sad.

 

I really think they and everyone else should stop making such snap judgements on people. I've gone everywhere from a size 8 to a size 28 in the past 10 years (and comfortabley at a size 12, who could kick anyone's ass who messed with me, lol). You do get ridiculed, it is horrible. You eventually can't eat in public places without people coming up to you and telling you that you shouldn't be eating, even if it is only a salad with no dressing. I remember once, when I had first started to lose the weight, I was still a size 26 and I went to Wendy's with my friends because that is where they wanted to go because they were cheap and I never ate fast food. So I got the salad bar and only ate salad with no dressing because back then (7 years ago) they didn't have fat free dressing in restaurants. Well, there was a group of teenagers (granted I was only 19 myself at the time) who came in and they were making fun of me, not only being loud and obnoxious but calling me names and telling me that I shouldn't be eating anything, ect. So I waited until my party was finished eating and I proceeded to their table where I threw the rest of my food (which I was too embarassed to eat by that point) all over them. (I also had a closet eating problem at the time so this situation didn't help that). Then I pretty much told them that they have no idea about me or what I'm doing or where I will be in the years to come. Well, and adult proceeded to follow me to the parking lot and continute to taunt me. This was a man in his early 40's with a child who was making fun of a fat girl. I mean maybe the teens didn't know better, but come on a 40 something year old man with a kid, get serious here. He knew better, and he knew what he was doing (which was obviously his psych problemsn not mine). Anyway, the point is discrimination is real.

The irony is all of my good friends have been extremely thin people by nature. I have 2 friends who are a size 2 and one friend who is a size 0. They can't help the way they are any more than I can help being a size 12 (though I could help being a 28 which is why I'm not a 28 anymore). Another irony is now, I'm a personal trainer, and I am more fit than most thin people I know. They can't even walk a block without getting winded and I run at the very least 3 miles a day, plus weight train. So fat or thin doesn't equate to health.

My point is that they shouldn't say someone can't participate based on assumptions. They should only disqualify people who actually have an eating disorder or drug problem. There are pretty easy ways to figure that out in the industry, duh. And going by BMI is not accurate. There are olympic athletes who have a BMI under 18. I know a lot of women at my gym who have very little body fat, and a lot of muscle and are most certainly not anorexic or a size 4. People who are lean can't really use those tests because it doesn't ever take into account that you could actually have muscle on your body that is taking up weight instead of fat.

I think that they have good intentions and I applaud them for that, but they need to think about things a little more in depth. The idea could work though if they weed out the people with real problems and kept everyone else. It is a good start at least.

BTW, I'm not sure if most of you know this or not, but wedding dresses are not the same size as regular clothes, the sizes are bigger. I'm not sure which size 8 they are talking about, because a wedding dress size 8 is like size 4 in real life.

 

While I appreciate that there are some people who are just naturally very skinny -- my fiance has a friend who has that problem, to the point that her doctor told her to eat the highest fat diet she can -- the majority of models (and the majority of people) are not in that category.

As was mentioned by someone else, the modeling industry is all about discrimination based on appearance. Please, someone, try to convince me otherwise -- I don't believe you can do it. We are not talking about who will be hired for a job that requires intelligence. We are not talking about who will be hired for a job that requires physical agility or strength.

We are talking about who will be hired to represent a designer's ideal body.

And the modeling industry (catwalk/fashion show modeling, not modeling for department store ads) has shown over and over again that, given free reign, it will discriminate against healthy body shapes in favor of the skinniest bag of bones it can get. They want women who act as hangers for their clothing, not women who will fill them out.

If we were discussing just about any other industry, I would be all for the consideration of discrimination against one body type or another. But seriously, this is ridiculous when discussing the most inherently discriminatory industry there is!!!

So, again, I fully support the ban and wish more countries -- or even just brands, communities, etc. -- would follow suit.

 

and Freedom loses once again.

But yay, this makes some self concious women happy...

 

seriously, those poor self-conscious women STARVING themselves into heart failure will feel better once they have to meet a minimum standard of health in order to work in front of the highly impressionable female children...MY GOD!!! WHAT EVIL IS THIS?!!!

 

highly impressionable female children watch the madrid fashion show? this isn't mtv...

Besides, whats it to you? Should we ban overweight people from tv because they have an increased chance of heart attack/high blood pressure and a billion other medical ailments?

Should we ban smokers from the media?

Perhaps we should ban meat eaters from tv, because of the increased risk of cancer/obesity/etc? Surely we don't want highly impressionable children seeing that...

This is purely social engineering. It is rather sad to see 'hippies' clapping joyfully to legislation telling people how they must be. Seems kinda anti hippie to me...

 

Do you have any idea of the regulations imposed on ads for tobacco products?

And notice how rarely you ever see anyone smoking a cigarette on network television (unless they're a dirty homeless drug adicted prostitute)...

 

i never said i agreed with the regulations on tobacco products....however, there is a disction between advertisement and use in the media. Neither of which i think should be banned by the government. That is not their job.

If Universal studios or whoever doesn't want smokers, that is there choice. A government body should not try and legislate such a thing however. It is a direct threat to freedom.

It is sad to see people freely giving up freedom because it doesn't directly involve them...

 

Why is this about freedom? It's about a job where all the women/men (for the convienience of designing and running a show) need to be the same size. Some arbitrary size must be chosen wiether it's size 1 or size 16. How is that a loss of freedom?

 

Because a government is making the decision. This isn't about finding girls who 'fit' the clothes. It is about taking a horrifically flawed system(BMI) for determining health and discriminating people with it.

Why should people who are 'too thin' not be allowed to participate if the fashion designers want them? If the fashion designers do not care for 'too thin' women, fine. But a government should NOT be the ones making this decision.


How many people would be up in arms here if this article said "overweight models are banned from the catwalk?" People here would be livid. This discrimination is seem as 'valid' beceause so many people are hyper sensitive and need this to validate their self esteem...unfortunately, it comes at the cost of some peoples freedom.