Should we really bash skinny models?









Reblogged from www.globalist. it

I thought long and hard about writing this. Being skinny these days is regarded as sinful.  That one can be naturally skinny is inconceivable, apparently, and skinny women are now regarded as monsters.
However, the news that a petition was started a few days ago because Gucci used a very skinny model in a show at Milan Fashion Week, in which her small frame was exaggerated through dramatic makeup, prompted this post. The model in question was size 34 (UK 6).
I do not think Gucci was trying to say that being skinny is or should be the norm. They included a skinny model or two, perhaps for effect or perhaps to show diversity, just like they included older models. Everyone says that this model in particular, is anorexic but these are just allegations.  Starting a petition with Change.org,  as reported, seems to be  a bit over the top.
Many young girls are naturally thin, they fill up later. In this day and age, we are ready to applaud if a model UK size 24  and barely  5'5 tall walks the runway (and no one says she is encouraging women to put on weight). So why are reactions to thinness so extreme and vitriolic?

Barzini for Gucci. Source: Gucci.com

I know that for a long time being skinny was praised as highly desirable. Kate Moss, who used to be very thin, was condemned for saying "nothing tastes better than skinny". Her words, it transpires, were taken out of context, she was referring to a time when she shared a flat with other girls and they were all eating biscuits and crisps, so this was a reminder not to indulge in snacking on unhealthy food.
 With the growth of the body positivity movement over the past fifteen years, we have become more open to diversity and accept that beauty comes in all sizes and shapes, as well as ages and ethnicities. All sizes: this should include a more tolerant attitude to thinness. You can't have your cake and eat it, claim that size 24 is fine but size 6 is unhealthy.
It also begs the question of what we really expect from brands. We know that fashion shows are performances. Clothes do come in different sizes and there is a much greater choice than there once was.

Tess Holliday at NYFW

If I see a very large, fleshy woman,  I do not feel I have to rush and fatten up, no more than I feel I have to go on an extreme diet if I see a very small-framed woman.
What I am trying to say is that the most important thing is to feel confident in one's own skin and we should teach our daughters and granddaughters to have that confidence.
Anorexia is an illness and so is obesity. But not everyone who is very thin is anorexic, just as not everyone who is very fleshy is morbidly obese.
Emma Woolf wrote an article about being disciplined in her eating - disciplined means not giving in to excesses -  back in 2013 and it' worth reading it again, as well as the comments (some by the usual trolls).  It still rings true. Fat-shaming is not OK, she says, so why should skinny-shaming be OK?
"It seems we can't have a rational debate about the reasons for, and the experience of, obesity – fat is still a feminist issue and a fraught one at that. But I'm fed up with being judged for being physically disciplined, for watching what I eat, and for exercising five times a week. Other things a thin woman is not allowed to say: "it takes willpower to stay slim"; "of course it would be easier just to eat anything I wanted but I don't"; "yes, I'm often hungry mid-morning but I wait until lunchtime". Above all, a slim woman must never say: "I prefer being slim.""
And that is the crux of the matter. 
Please let's stop irrational reactions over body size. Let's think instead of how we can promote a healthier relationship to eating and to our body. 

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