Model mayhem: Spain’s stance on teen body image

skinny modelTweens and teens, listen up and weigh in on this, please…

Thin is out in Madrid. Quite literally. Madrid is turning heads in the fashion industry by tossing out models for being too thin. Yep. Spain imposed the world’s first ban on overly thin models, and word has it from the mayor of Milan that the Italians will follow suit next.

“Fashion is a mirror and many teenagers imitate what they see on the catwalk,” said a Madrid official governing the top-level fashion show Pasarela Cibeles.

Of course, this is just the start…A fashion feud is brewing that will make a Project Runway competition look like a day spa. Designers, modeling agencies, reps, orgs, and interest groups will no doubt duke it out amidst requisite air kisses and tsk-tsks about rights, restrictions and responsibilities in this whole body image blitz.

I guarantee tweens and teens will be front and center as their talking points. Sure hope someone gives those kids a mic…

My own preteen said, “Who gets to decide what’s underweight and what’s normal? What are they gonna do, line ‘em up and boot ‘em out?”

Uh…well, yes., they ARE, actually. Frankly, THAT seems like a weird message to send kids too.

When the fashionistas convene September 18-22, they’ll have medics at the ready to “check” models based on body mass index measurements for weight and height before they hit the runway. Now there’s a visual.

My twisted cartoon mind jumps to “human produce” being plopped onto a weight scale like a bunch of radishes. Talk about people being treated as products. Bleh. That seems equally dehumanizing and in poor taste.

I’m all for portraying healthier body images, in fact, we’re working on a film about kids being mired in the media muck at the K-5 level called “Body Blitz: Media, Shaping Youth“…but this puts way too much emphasis on calculating height and weight ratios using the BMI as a finite tool. AND it shifts the focus from one set of ‘musts’ to another. Not healthy.

The concept of wispy women snarfing shakes and fries to make the grade seems an absurd message to be sending to children too.

Reuters said they’d already turned away 30 percent of the women who took part in the previous event. Pop! My thought bubble cartoon? A banished beauty sobbing hysterically at her career derailment, as the ‘checker’ with the tape measure yells, “Clean up on aisle 4”— ugh.

Kids are getting hammered with body images in our celebrity-driven, media-obsessed pop culture…Soaring childhood obesity rates are bumping up against rail thin ideals, and it’s NOT a situation to spoof, I realize.

This ‘project runway’ crusade has the potential to bring awareness to the issue, but let’s get real…will banning models help kids feel at home in their bodies?

I’d argue we need to dial down the focus on appearance altogether. Fat. Thin. Short. Tall. Geez. Enough fergawdsakes!

Eating disorders are the third most chronic condition in adolescent girls. Preteen girls are extremely vulnerable to cultural cues, but boys are getting just as fouled up as girls are, with 26% of males already dissatisfied with their adolescent bodies. (videogame icons of barrel-chested buffed-boys with ripped six-packs didn’t do ‘em any favors either)

Sadly, teen plastic surgery is on the upswing as kids micro-manage their body image ideals, but it’s NOT just about thinness…it’s media and marketing’s excessive focus on body image overall. Kids under 18 had 19,000 nose jobs & 22,000 ear protrusion fixes in one year alone!

Media has always droned on about who’s hot and not, out and in, dressed best or worst and other banal banter, but NOW it’s laser focused on specifics: who lost and gained pounds and inches. Who tucked, sucked, de-flabbed, boosted, enhanced and had work done…and that’s just in Teen People. Egad.

Nope, this body image problem universal, not just about being thin. When the model mayhem broke yesterday, my CNN Int’l homepage refreshed every 20 minutes, yet this story rated consistently in the top ten “most popular” hits all day long.

They even had a QuickVote poll asking, “Do you agree that underweight models should be banned from fashion shows?” Last checked, the tally was about 33,000 saying they should be banned and 8,000 saying they should not, so I’m in the miniscule minority that wonders why 40,000 people would even give a rip…much less log on, vote, and follow the story!

By the end of the day, a childhood obesity popped up on the news radar, so coverage then ran the gamut on body image and kids: “One in five children will be obese” and “Skinny models banned from catwalk” BOTH remained in the CNN “top ten most popular stories.”

We need to look closely at what’s happening here. If we’re obsessing, they’re obsessing. Media and marketing’s focus on appearance is everpresent. “Turn down the media volume” is a rebel yell on behalf of kids everywhere.

When children build their identities solely around looks and body, and adults are obsessed with body image and appearance more than REAL news…we’ve got much more trouble than a runway romp.

9-16 Update: Here’s a new CNN video clip showing the model ‘weigh in’ process, and some of the behind the scenes controversy we just blogged about.

As predicted, the footage places it back on ‘top stories’ at CNN Int’l, right up there with the Pope’s remarks and the e.coli outbreak…sigh.

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Comments

  1. Steve Richards says

    Hadn’t heard about this one! My daughters (15 and 18) are on the HEALTHY side of the bodyshape continuum, not fat but definitely not skeletal. How refreshing it would be to see models whose shapes more realistically reflect their own! And yes, how nice it would be if we could de-emphasize the importance of looks, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

  2. Barbara Saunders says

    One thing left out of this discussion is sports. Though many athletes, especially those in sports where weight matters (e.g., running) are also at risk for body image problems, athletics encourage people to have entirely different perspectives on their bodies. Specifically, as an athlete, one must focus on how one’s body feels from the inside and what it can do rather than how it looks from the outside.

  3. Excellent point. In fact, http://www.dadsanddaughters.org just sent out a ‘ten tips’ to promote girls’ participation in sports for healthy mind & body, and Jean Zimmerman’s book, “Raising Our Athletic Daughters: How Sports Can Build Self-Esteem And Save Girls’ Lives” addresses this too.

    Having a sporty ‘tween’ volleyball enthusiast of my own, I can attest to the “inside out” self-esteem bump these girls have received VERY quickly. An added bonus, they’ve reversed some preconceived body image notions among themselves (e.g. initially incredulous that some shorter, stalkier girls made the “A” team cuts, I’ve overhead these same girls applauding the ‘wallop’ delivered over the net, and relying on ‘setters’ based on skills and prowess vs. height and svelte/speed assumptions!)

    Thanks for your comment, how’d you find us? (since we’re still in stealth mode/unannounced, curious)

    Keep it comin’–let us know more re: topics you’d like to hear about…

  4. This is the best way to go in the fashion industry. If we want to see our children lead a long healthy life they dont need to be worrying about their weight. Bodies and Beauty come in all shapes and sizes.

  5. Yep, agree, Molly. I keep seeing it echoed in girls we work with time and again…

    Now that we’ve moved on to basketball season, the girls are quickly seeing it’s not about being ‘tall’ and ‘lithe’ to make the team too…many thought they’d ‘have to be.’

    One of our quickest zooming dribblers is a stocky, shorter, heavier gal that weaves in and out of the key like lightening. I can’t tell you how many ‘surprised’ bleacher comments I’ve heard from spectators noting same!

    p.s. another body/beauty book attesting to girls coming in all sizes is On Pointe that my daughter’s reading for book club right now, written by a six foot former ballerina! (We profiled her on our ReaderGirlz post, but I had no idea she was the author!) —Thanks for your comment…

  6. Olivia Barnett says

    hello. im a fourteen year old girl that is doing a report on images in fashion and magazines and other media for a project. i think that this issue is a very important one to try and find a resolution to. i find all this information you provided us readers very helpful and i wanted to thank you for all of it. i will make sure to mention your name when i use some of this information in my persuasive essay. thanks again Amy.

  7. Olivia, good luck in your essay, I’m heartened to know you’re tackling this issue on behalf of all teen girls! I’d like to point you to a couple more sites for your research:

    1.) The Painting Journalist, Ashley Cecil: Her artwork re: body image and girls’ reaction to media/mythology in daytime TV moved me so much I just purchased the painting for Shaping Youth!
    http://www.ashleycecil.com/2007/04/08/keep-your-children-away-from-daytime-television/

    2.) Packaging Girlhood.com (Shaping Youth advisory board members) have tons of research on how all of this shifts back to sales, body image, aspirational marketing, etc. I bought a case of their books for OUR board, for it’s ‘spot on’ in statistics, field studies, interviews and more. It’s sure to be helpful for your essay. Excerpts and chapters are at: http://packaginggirlhood.com with links to their blog too.

    3.) The award-winning documentaries of Jean Kilbourne on body image and media messaging Killing Us Softly, Slim Hopes, etc.
    http://www.jeankilbourne.com

    4.) http://www.Tbio.org Mind on the Media/Turn Beauty Inside out!

    5.) Audrey Braschich (former model/teen editor & Shaping Youth advisory board member) wrote a book about this very topic, called “All Made Up” and has a blog you might like called “Don’t Believe the Hype” found here: http://www.audreybrashich.blogs.com

    6.) Respect Rx author Courtney Macavinta is teaming up with Audrey (above) on the “Girls Guide to Getting Real” tour coming up this fall: http://www.respectrx.com/archives/body_image_health

    I have a feeling you’ll be getting an A+ with all the research you’re doing. Best of luck! Amy

  8. susan orsini says

    this site was very informational for help on a project
    i needed some good quotes for boy image and this site helped
    i will mention who said each quote i use dont worry

  9. No worries, Susan…although for Boy Body Image, you may want to check out the Adonis Complex book and visit PackagingBoyhood.com which is a book coming soon on the subject of marketing products to boys specifically. The links are embedded in our post about same, called, “Packaging Boyhood: Corporate Pirates Raid Boys’ Souls” which you can find on this link here:
    https://shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=655

    Also, for more research, here’s another site on this subject I’d recommend you peek at:

    http://www.boyhoodstudies.com/bibliofull.htm

  10. Love the advice. Thank you.

  11. Hello,

    My name is Jacqueline Lawrence. I am the Founder and National Director of Plus Teen USA- America’s first pageant and conference exclusively for plus size teens- and In Full Bloom Modeling and Pageantry Academy. A plus size woman, I have a strong passion for teaching modeling and pageantry and for encouraging young ladies to embrace their inner beauty. Plus Teen USA provides an annual pageant and conference for plus size teens which is aimed at instilling, recognizing and embracing inner beauty so that it would permeate outwardly. Our very first pageant and conference was recently held in Arlington, Texas, during the weekend of October 23-25, 2009. Sharon Quinn, known as “The Original Runway Diva” from all three seasons of MoNique’s Fat Chance, was our Featured Speaker and modeling trainer. She graciously shared information about the realities of the Plus Size Modeling Industry. Ruby Gettinger, from the Style Network’s “Ruby” shared her story about her journey from being over 700 pounds to under 350 pounds and how she never stopped living her life to its fullest even though she was obese. She also spoke to the contestants about the need for being healthy and fit, and conducted an inner beauty exercise with them. Empowering panelists discussed issues related to self esteem and body image, and plus size women titleholders from Oklahoma produced a “Uniquely You” fashion show, where information was shared about dressing effectively for one’s individual body type. The entire event was fantabulous, as will be seen on “Ruby” across the nation in the month of February. Lynae Tucker of Rapid City, South Dakota, was crowned America’s first Plus Teen USA.

    I have been teaching modeling over the past 20 years. A graduate of Barbizon School of Modeling in San Francisco, I was hired as their demo model and instructor of their plus size and teen divisions prior to even graduating; being a teacher and a student simultaneously. I enjoy teaching and encouraging girls modeling, pageantry, and self esteem building skills, and was hoping that my services could be used somehow within your organization. Please let me know if anything comes to mind.

    Warmest Regards,

    Jacqueline Lawrence
    plusteenusa@yahoo.com
    http://www.plusteenusa.com
    http://www.ifbacademy.com
    817-317-1992

  12. Actually, Jacqueline, this will be of value to us, as our body image pro, at DrRobynSilverman.com is writing a book right now along these lines and I’m sure she’d like to have a chat! I’ll connect you two pronto…and give her your number.

    Meanwhile, I think it would be a fascinating feature to do an interview with you as well, just as we’ve covered the film America the Beautiful, etc. So yes, let’s connect! I’m reachable via email amy at shaping youth dot org or on Twitter @ShapingYouth and skype/phone ShapingYouth (just ping before you ring, as I have spam locks!)

    Looking forward to more dialog! Best, Amy
    .-= Amy Jussel´s last blog ..Media Morsels for Lil’ Goblins: Next to New BOOks as Treats! =-.

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