What’s Wrong With Women?

What is wrong with women? Women, not prepubescent boys with apricots stitched into the sunken chests. What, beyond misogyny and latent – we hope and pray – pedophilia, is behind the fashion industries hatred of women with curves and actual flesh upon their bones?

Thankfully, more people than me are beginning to ask this question. In the January 2012 issue of PLUS Model Magazine, plus-size model Katya Zharkova very honesty points out the issues.

Comparison Study - Real Woman v. Anorexic Model
Worse, The One Isn’t As Emaciated As Many

One cannot point out too strongly that the fashion and modeling industries have racked up a number of victims similar in form and number to the Nazis’ Holocaust. In case you dispute the number, I’ll point out that, in America alone, conservative estimates show that approximately 4,800,000 (4.8 million) women have suffered from or continue to suffer from anorexia or bulimia.

The Straight Skinny On Skinny Models

Katya Zharkova states several hard truths but I want to focus on one interrelated pair in particular:

  • Twenty years ago the average fashion model weighed 8% less than the average woman. Today, she weighs 23% less.
  • Ten years ago plus-size models averaged between size 12 and 18. Today the need for size diversity within the plus-size modeling industry continues to be questioned. The majority of plus-size models on agency boards are between a size 6 and 14, while the customers continue to express their dissatisfaction.

For the purposes of this particular point, let’s ignore that “plus size” starts at size 14, which is the average dress size of women in the West. Let’s instead think for a moment how pernicious and ridiculous it is to have the majory of plus size models being within a size range that tops out at size 14, the low end of the fashionistas call “plus size!”

That’s well beyond merely being stupid. It willingly enters the range of depraved indifference. As such, it should be considered “actionable” and, if the law will not- or cannot be allowed to act against the filth controlling the fashion industry, people need to step and take care of these filth themselves.

I firmly believe that making messy public examples out of some of the designers and buyers will get the point across to the industry.

~*~

This is not to say that some people haven’t recognized the problem but some have, though not nearly enough of them.

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2 Responses to “What’s Wrong With Women?”

  1. Vivien E. Zazzau Says:

    This is a fantastic post, and I plan to share it, widely. My nickname was once “spider legs.” In the 5th grade, I was about 5’4″ and weighed 80 pounds soaking wet. Four decades later, the nickname’s still applicable — if you’re talking about the South American ‘Goliath Bird Eater tarantula, which can grow to as large as a foot across… Now, weighing in somewhere between the size 6-14 plus-size range, myself, I’m a skinny plus-sizer. You have helped reignite my former passion for this issue, especially because my work most often brings me into contact with young ladies between the ages of 17-25. I remember thinking “just screw’em” many years ago as I grew more comfortable in my own skin. Now I see that while things have changed, it wasn’t for the better, and I can’t continue to remain complacent when I see other young women [still] suffering in this way, today.

  2. jonolan Says:

    I’m glad you liked the post, Vivien, and even more glad that it got you fired up a bit.

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