Tower and Town, November 2017

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Dying To Be Thin

Since the ‘60s, the ‘ideal woman’ – as reflected in almost all media forms – has been getting slimmer and slimmer. In the last few years, there has been a noticeably rapid acceleration in the rate of change to what are considered 'desirable' body shapes for women. With the use of dangerously thin, size-zero models in the fashion industry, more and more women are comparing themselves to distorted and unrealistic body ideals. Female mannequins used in high street stores appear extremely underweight, putting further pressure on women to be unhealthily slim.

According to former Vogue Australia editor, models are under such pressure to be abnormally thin, they have resorted to eating tissue paper and starving themselves for days on end. Kirstie Clements, who edited Vogue Australia for 13 years, admitted it was not unusual for girls to become so malnourished that they had to be admitted to hospital and placed on a drip. The average runway model’s BMI is typically below the World Health Organisation’s thinness threshold and classed as medically dangerous for an adult - below BMI 16 - putting them at risk of a host of health problems. Every day women are exposed to manufactured and manipulated photos of extremely altered images of models. These pictures lower women’s self-esteem and allow their views of body image to suffer, with the suggestion that media portrayal of images can promote anorexia and bulimia in women.

Consequently, women are constantly trying to cope with the effects of culturally induced body insecurity. During the past decade, eating disorders rose to levels previously never recorded. Anorexia, literally self-imposed starvation, is perhaps the most dramatic outcome of our culture's obsession with regulating body size; bulimia - eating normally (or bingeing) then getting rid of the food by vomiting - allows women to live apparently normal lives whilst in reality, they are unable to cope with the demands of normal everyday eating. An estimated 3.5 million women in Britain suffer from some form of eating disorder and at any one time, half of all British females are on a diet.

2006 saw the death of Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston, who was signed to an elite modelling agency. Weighing just 6st, her death was caused by complications arising from anorexia. Stemming from her first foreign photoshoot, the model was told that at eight stone she was too fat, destroying her confidence and resulting in her downward spiral into anorexia. Sadly, she was not the first model to lose her life as a result of an eating disorder during 2006. In August of the same year, at a fashion show in Uruguay, 22-year-old Luisel Ramos suffered a heart attack, thought to be the result of anorexia. Their deaths shone a spotlight on the way the fashion industry treats models, and more significantly, how destructive our current perception of female beauty can be.

In conclusion, the fashion industry is currently taking baby steps to remedy our perception of this harmful body image to a more realistic and healthy one. In 2015, France passed a law preventing models with a BMI of less than 18 being hired; designers and agencies found to be breaking this law can face a fine or a six-month prison sentence. Furthermore, stores such as Debenhams have begun using size 14 mannequins in their windows and shop displays. Also, the use of plus-sized models such as Ashley Graham in high profile campaigns such as Sports Illustrated, and H&M’s Fall 2016 Studio (an Autumn fashion show) are tentatively moving in the right direction. Graham has also utilised her millions of social media followers to share her message of body acceptance.

These changes are but a small drop in the fashion ocean. Unless women and men make a stand against this disgusting and disturbing trend, some will be forever dying to be thin.

Izzabella Coombes