Recently, the fashion industry has been taking hits due to the well-known and admired Calvin Klein. The company recently released a new clothing line, “Perfectly Fit”, supporting the idea of carrying bra’s and other undergarments that match the shapes of women who don’t fit their typical stereotype: extremely tall, extremely thin, and a cup-size A. This seemed to be a wholly favored idea and campaign, however, with the release, drama arose. The main face of this new line, Myla Dalbesio, is a size 10. To many, this seems like an average size (because it ACTUALLY is), but to Calvin Klein and the rest of the fashion world, Myla is defined and labeled with “Plus-Size”. So, the real question is, if the dimensions of a woman who is average and healthy is considered “plus-size”, how does this affect society’s view on “normal” and “beauty”? Is this idea one of the main reasons why women have such low self-esteem and eating disorders/obsessive exercise has become shockingly more prevalent?
Beauty should not be characterized by looks. However, due to magazines and celebrities, the only “beauty” that is seen and/or favored is that of a size 0 woman. This has created a skewed societal image of what everyone is striving for. People don’t push for healthy and happy; instead, they strive for apparent collar bones, a large “thigh gap”, and a stick-thin stomach. However, If a person isn’t born that way or hasn’t looked that way all of their life, then it isn’t considered “healthy” for their body to undergo such dramatic weight loss. Women have resorted to taking drastic measures, which are discussed later, to fit this “normal” image: this image that less than a quarter of the population actually portrays. Only a little over a decade ago, beauty was characterized through personality and curves- curves on a woman implied that they were favorable for bearing children. Magazines with women from size 0 to size 14 on the covers lined the newspaper stands, and not a sight of “Weight Loss Tricks” or “Sexy Bikini Bodies” was to be found. So, what happened? How did society go from one extreme to another? No one knows for sure, but what we all do know, is that the focus on celebrities such as the Kardashians and Victoria Secret Angels probably hasn’t helped the situation on body image.
As if low self-esteem and skewed body images isn’t enough, eating disorders have become scarily present as well. Studies have linked these disorders to society’s abnormal overall view on “beauty”. Women have resorted to unhealthy measures to achieve their dream body – which actually isn’t their personal dream body, but the body that they think will allow them to be accepted among others, especially men. Eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, are now seen as the only way to drop to a size 0 or lose more than 10 pounds in a time-span of a week. They are nothing to joke about either, because anyone could have an eating disorder: you cannot assume that a super thin girl has a disorder. From personal experience, being “average” sized (as in NOT a size 0) and having an eating disorder, no one ever believed it. How can someone so normal looking develop such a disorder and not look like she actually has one? I can say, the magazines and the fashion industry are the culprit. By characterizing girls, such as myself and many others, as “plus-sized”, it hits home. It makes girls feel like they aren’t good enough, initiating the thoughts on “how can I change my body to match the girls in these magazines and the girls boys fantasize about?” Thus, the disorders arise, including obsessive/excessive exercising (a form of bulimia).