photo credit: Art Comments via photopin cc
Vogue magazine, considered the world’s top arbiter of style, has announced that “too young and too thin, is no longer in.” According to a Conde Nast International announcement last week, the 19 editors of Vogue magazines around the world made a pact to project the image of healthy models. (Conde Nast is a division of Advance Publications that produces Vogue and other consumer magazines.)
They have agreed to “not knowingly work with models under the age of 16 or who appear to have an eating disorder” and are asking casting directors to check ID’s at photo shoots and fashion shows and for ad campaigns. They also said their ultimate goal is to make sure the models are healthy above all else.
“Vogue believes that good health is beautiful. Vogue Editors around the world want the magazines to reflect their commitment to the health of the models who appear on the pages and the well-being of their readers,” said Conde Nast International chairman Jonathan Newhouse in a statement.
Conde Nast publishes other magazines like Glamour, Allure, Vanity Fair and Self…..A spokeswoman for Glamour and Allure said “there are no current plans for these guidelines to be adopted across the company.”
My question is: WHY NOT?? If they believe too young and too thin is no longer in, why not adopt that thought for all their fashion magazines?
The primary fashion organizations in Italy and Spain has already banned catwalk models who fall below a certain BMI level (Body Mass Index) and earlier this year, Israel’s government passed an anti-skinny-model law.
- Do you think the United States would ever do that? Or should do that?
Vogue magazines said they would encourage healthy working conditions backstage and encourage designers “to consider the consequences of unrealistically small sample sizes of their clothing, which limits the range of women who can be photographed in their clothes, and encourages the use of extremely thin models.”
To me, it sounds like they are laying some of the blame on the fashion designers….If they simply refused to feature those designs in the magazines, wouldn’t those designers start making larger sample sizes for the models to wear?
Fashion magazines have for years created an unattainable and unhealthy standard for the average woman but we continue to buy those very magazines and if they are making money, why would they stop? And not only are we funding the magazines and designers to basically send out the message we need to be thinner, we also fund a lot of the weight-loss programs so that we can be thinner and thus “look” like the models in the magazines. (There are lots of healthy weight-loss programs out there and I certainly don’t think they are all bad, there’s nothing wrong-in my opinion-with getting help in losing weight because being obese is not healthy either.)
And can we really just point fingers at the magazines and designers without looking at how, as women, we continue to propagate that thinner is better. If you’re a mother, have you ever talked negatively about your weight in front of your young daughters (and sons)? I find that women are way more judgmental about how other women look than men are. When I was a size 14, the comments that came my way were, “you could really be pretty if you just lost a few pounds.” Now I’m a size 0/2 (I don’t diet, my metabolism changed when I hit menopause) and I get comments that I could stand to gain a few pounds or even questions about eating disorders….not from men but from women.
Being too skinny or too heavy can cause health problems…that’s a proven medical fact. But if your doctor says you are healthy, whether you’re a size 0 or size 20, and you feel good….isn’t that’ what’s important? And if we want fashion magazines and clothing designers to feature what real women look like and want, perhaps if we stop buying what they are selling (unrealistic and unattainable looks), we can help change how women are portrayed. I applaud Vogue for taking a step towards that (I still wonder why Conde Nast isn’t doing that for ALL their fashion magazines) and hope that other publications will follow…what do you think?