It’s no secret that the media has pushed girls to be self-conscious. Whether you are a size 2 or a size 12, odds are, at some point in your life you have felt too fat, too pale, too plain, or all around too ugly. Photos of supermodels flaunting a size -2 have left us wondering if we should be striving to look like them, or if they have an eating disorder and starve themselves for a week prior to a shoot.
In an attempt to keep females from feeling any of the ways mentioned above, there’s been a petition started to try and remove models with a BMI (body mass index) under 18.5 from the cat walk. Model Katie Green from the UK, was selected as the face of Wonderbra in 2008. Once she met with her modeling management company, they encouraged her to lose weight and drop her size 12 figure. She tried her best and made herself sick, which in turn, pushed her to quit modeling altogether. She was picked up again and appreciated for her healthy weight and size 30F boobs. Katie is now back in modeling, and is determined to change the game for the betterment of all female’s today who struggle with weight and confidence issues.
The Say No to Size Zero campaign is Katie’s attempt to make things right for girls who are not a bag of bones. She plans to present the petition to the Prime Minister, as well high-end fashion stores to encourage the use of more plus-size models and curvier mannequins.
While I think just about every female out there can relate to feeling like you are inadequate, the mission behind the campaign is valid; however, I don’t necessarily think the push for more voluptuous models is the answer to the problem.
Hello Giggles Writer, Laura Sanders, has it right: “Trashing other women for looking a certain way is useless. It really says more about you than it says about them.”
For whatever reason, women have a tendency to compare themselves to every other female out there. Whether it’s our best friends, models, actresses, the chick next to you on the treadmill at the gym. Why do we feel the need to constantly get down on ourselves based on someone else’s appearance?
The unending discussion about size really isn’t helping our cause here, ladies. While I can completely understand the distaste for a girl strutting down the cat walk with her size zero clothes hanging off of her, the fact we are still so number-focused in terms of size just reaffirms the problem. Why can’t it be more about a model’s physical beauty, her natural curves regardless of her BMI, her confidence, and her dedication to being healthy?
Ya know the old saying, “age ain’t nothing but a number?” Well, why can’t we have the same mentality about the size of our waistlines?
Instead of focusing all attention on a petition to eliminate size zero models, why can’t we focus on making sure our models are healthy? Or making sure boutiques offer more plus-size clothing in general? Or even encouraging more “everyday, run of the mill” ladies to participate in modeling?
In closing, Sanders and I are certainly in agreement. She says, “Rather than saying ‘No to Size Zero,’ I’m just going to say ‘Yes To Body Confidence’ and ‘Yes To Health.’”