At last – the body image war has taken on a serious side and actually has an opponent!! It’s been a one-way war for ages.
We talk about it, blog about it, make all the right noises, and even follow plus size models on social media. Enough noise now, let’s do something, and that’s exactly what Caroline Nokes MP has done.
She’s challenging the government to take on board the negative images of super skinny models and how these images affect the minds of young girls in a negative way. See an image enough times and you’ll start to believe that image and attempt to become it – especially when you’re young and impressionable.
The Rosie Nelson story is an interesting one; a svelte size 8 wanna be model who was advised when registering at a well known agency that she had to lose more weight, when asked how much, she was advised to go down to the bone! Not healthy. She also mentions that at a photo shoot lasting approximately 10 hours she was given nothing to eat – again not healthy!
On the flip side there’s the very curvy and gorgeous Hayley Hasselhoff (“The Hasselhoffs” and “Huge”). Very different to her sister, Taylor (“The Rich Kids of Beverley Hills”). Hayley signed to Ford Modelling Agency at aged 14, is the face of The Curve Fashion Festival and is carving out a career as a plus size model.
The health aspect of body image is now being pushed to the media forefront, emotionally and physically. The nutritional side of weight management is the factor that has been ignored and aspiring models will aim to lose weight by any means necessary in an attempt to be featured on a glossy magazine or billboard.
Wanting to be a model is fine, go for it, but there are different types of modelling. The universal image of the size 8 isn’t truly universal. Girls and grown women are different shapes and sizes for a reason and it needs to hit home that the “perfection” seen on a finished article is a result of airbrushing and photo shopping.
As a mother of 2 teenage girls who both have very different body shapes, I’m so behind Caroline Nokes MP and her mission to highlight the negative emotional messages behind super skinny models, and to promote different body shapes being the norm together with a healthy nutritional food intake. I’m hoping she’ll also highlight the need for images of models aged 40/50 plus.
I’ve recently started taking note of the message behind Healthy is the New Skinny it’s right on point!
Read more here about Rosie Nelson and Hayley Hasselhoff and check out these “healthy” beauties.
