The pressure on women to be beautiful, to be thin and desirable in this day and age, and in fact throughout history, is immense. Our society force-feeds us information and images of what the “perfect” body should look like through the likes of fad diets, tabloid headlines and photoshopped images of women who already looked thin before their enhanced thigh gap. Unsurprisingly, this pressure is inescapable for even the most famous of women. The tabloids contain a myriad of negative commentaries on the weight loss and weight gain of famous models and celebrities. Even the articles we read that appear complementary have subtle (or not so subtle) undertones of body shaming, it is so embedded, so rooted in our society that we often miss it.
(Photo Credit: Bustle.com)
Take Khloe Kardashian as an example, simply typing “Khloe Kardashian weight” in to google brings up this as the first item: “Once known as the ‘fat sister’ Khloe Kardashian’s weight loss has now changed that name. She is hotter than you have ever seen thanks to her record weight loss of 40 pounds.” Yes, on the surface this looks like a complement, Khloe is “hotter than you have ever seen her”, but what was wrong with her body before? Maybe it did not conform to societies ridiculous expectations of the female physique, but the “fat sister” is stepping over the line. Especially as Khloe was nowhere near “fat” in the first place, simply a larger dress size to those she has been compared to.
(Photo Credit: Complex)
This is a major problem with the issue of body shaming, women are constantly being compared to each other. In the media recently we have seen Tommy Hilfiger face a bombardment of criticism for this precise reason. Talking to Yahoo Style about Gigi Hadid’s casting for his 2015 fashion the show, Hilfiger stated: “Our casting director said, ‘She doesn’t really fit because you know she’s not quite as tall as the other girls, she’s not quite as thin.’” Because of this, they put Gigi in a oversized red, blue and white leather poncho, covering the majority of her body (although thanks to Gigi it became a best seller!).
(Photo Credit: People)
Gigi, a professional model, ranking joint fifth with Rosie Huntington-Whitely on Forbe’s the highest paid model list this year, is a role model for hundreds and thousands of young girls worldwide. To essentially describe her as too “fat” compared to the other models is insane and enforces even further the ridiculous bodily expectations for females. After a social media uproar Hilfiger has since personally issued an official statement to clear up the situation: “The casting people put Gigi in the poncho, and I was not happy. I was saying, ‘Don’t hide her body.’ Even though the poncho ended up being the best-selling piece, I was very unhappy. The suggestion that I thought she wasn’t thin enough upsets me to no end. Gigi is the epitome of perfection. I am proud to have her as the face of my brand and proud to have her collaborate with me. There’s no other girl like her in the entire fashion world — not only because of her beauty, but because of her style. We worked with her to design a line — designers don’t usually let models design with them — she had a style we thought was incredible. She would not be the Tommy girl if I didn’t think she was perfection, the It girl of today, not just because of her face, not just because of her body, but because of who she is.” But the problem still stands, in Hilfiger’s own words- he requires “perfection”.
(Photo Credit: Daily Mail)
Whilst a large part of the modelling is based around looks, shaming women based on their bodies is NOT OKAY and it must be recognised as a real issue not only in the fashion industry but society and everyday life. Even more recently The Sun, with their typical tabloid fabrications, published an article claiming that Cara Delevingne did not make the casting cut for the Victoria Secret fashion show due to her being too “bloated”. Big Mistake. Victoria Secret hit back at the allegations writing a personal letter to Delevingne who then shared it on her Instagram, confirming her absence from the show was wholly down to filming commitments, not the size of her stomach. Victoria Secret have extended and invitation to the model/actress with “no casting necessary,” so with any luck we will see her strutting down the catwalk later this year! As Cara states in the photo’s caption, “it’s shameless to discuss women’s bodies just to sell papers,” and she is right. The objectification and judgemental attitudes towards female bodies needs to end. In this instance we are winning the fight against body shamers with The Sun (embarassingly) removing their article- let’s keep it this way, support each other and fight back!