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Title: Dying to Be Thin
Specific Purpose: To convince by proposition of policy that the fashion industry must be regulated to prevent negative body image and eating disorders in both fashion models and the public at large.
Thesis Statement: The number of men and women suffering from potentially fatal eating disorders in America has dramatically increased as the exposure to unhealthy body images portrayed by the fashion industry has also increased.
Preview Statement: It is important to know the problems associated with the negative body images portrayed by the fashion industry, the causes related to the problems with negative body images, and the solutions available to prevent these problems.
Organization Design: Problem-Cause-Solution
Introduction
I. “They’re not people, they’re hangers,” stated a leading fashion designer.
A. He considered fashion models like Kleenex—easily disposable and infinitely replaceable—there is always another pretty 17-year old girl just dying to be a model (Hooper).
B. After this response, in less than two months, four young models died of anorexia, causing a national debate about body image and eating disorders (Richter).
II. They were alarmingly thin—models in demand for New York’s fashion week appeared “so gaunt and thin that their knees and elbows were larger than their concave thighs and pipe cleaner arms, and their baby doll heads looked as if a slight breeze could detach them from their frail bodies” (Wilson).
A. Linda Wells, the editor of the beauty magazine Allure, said there were moments during the fashion shows when gasps in the audience could be heard, not at the couture gowns, but at the models’ cadaverous appearances (Wilson).
B. Yet there remains an ideal among designers who seem to prize an even thinner frame to display their clothes.
1. Many who attended the New York fashion shows question whether acceptable boundaries have been crossed, such as when fashion glamorized images of heroin abuse, coining it “heroin-chic” in the early 1990s through models such as Kate Moss, who was ironically charged with heroin possession last year (Wilson).
2. Despite perennial complaints that models are too thin, there is a new sense of concern that the fashion industry is contributing to unhealthy and potentially life-threatening behavior among models and the public at large.
III. Today, we will take a walk down the catwalk of negative body images to discover the problems associated with the images portrayed by the fashion industry, discuss the causes related to the problems, and reveal the solutions available to prevent these problems.
Body
I. The two main problems associated with the negative body images portrayed by the fashion industry are the degradation of healthy and appropriate body sizes and the emotional and physical effects of eating disorders.
A. The first problem associated with the emaciated body images celebrated by the fashion industry is the degradation of healthy and appropriate body sizes.
1. Curiously, the evidence of model shrinkage was there all along—in 1986, the standard size was 4 to 6, then it was a solid 4, then to 2, then to zero (Trebay).
a. It’s like the frog in the water: if you turn up the heat, it does not know its being boiled to death—after a while a size 0 starts to seem normal, not cadaverous.
2. As early as kindergarten, children become aware of their appearance—how much they’re eating, how they look in clothes, and unfortunately, the social disadvantages of being overweight (Etcoff).
a. The so-called fashion bible, Vogue, determined that it is a “fact” that clothes look better on a thin person; models, therefore, by definition, are thinner than the average person (Johnson 382).
b. 62 percent of you felt you were influenced by the images portrayed by the media as to how you should dress, act, or physically look (Questionnaire).
c. Few of us measure our intelligence against Albert Einstein or our tennis ability by Venus Williams’ trophy case, so why do we compare our bodies to the physical anomaly that is supermodel Gisele Bűndchen?
3. In the United States, plumpness once signaled that a woman was well fed and affluent, but by the early 1900s, women wanted to look like the “Gibson Girl” with an incredibly tiny, unrealistic waist.
a. The 1920s ushered in pencil-thin “Flappers”, the 40s and 50s idealized full figure women again like Marilyn Monroe and Ava Gardner, the 1960s eliminated full figure models when a 5’7, 91-pound British model known as Twiggy hit the runway.
b. Before Twiggy, the average fashion model weighed just 8 percent less than the average woman; today models are thinner than 90 percent of all American women (Prah).
a. If Barbie were a real person, she would stand 5’9, a mere 110 pounds, with the unrealistic body measurements of 39-18-33.
b. The current media ideal of thinness is healthily achievable by less than 5% of the American population (Fox).
B. The second problem associated with the starved body images broadcasted by the fashion industry is the emotional and physical effects of eating disorders.
1. Anorexia is diagnosed when a person weighs less than 15 percent of his/her height’s average body weight, fears gaining weight, and sees himself or herself as overweight, but is actually dangerously thin; bulimia is diagnosed when a person binges and purges at least twice a week for three months while maintaining a distorted self-image (Prah).
a. In a recent study, only two percent of women claimed to be “beautiful” and less than one percent thought they were “gorgeous” (Etcoff).
b. Another study reports most people who are losing weight want to lose at least 32 percent of their body mass—an amount probably appropriate only for the minority of people who are severely overweight or obese (Etcoff).
c. It’s hard with obesity being such an urgent health issue in America not to encourage thinness, but with it comes the vulnerability to develop an eating disorder with one of the highest mortality rates of any psychiatric disorder.
2. A study published by the British Journal of Health Psychology in 2004 indicates that the eating disorders anorexia nervosa and bulimia were triggered by and intensified by participating in social situations, such as parties, or watching social situations, such as watching a movie or TV (Brown).
a. According to CQ Press, eating disorders are not only occurring more and more often, they are occurring at a younger age—physicians are finding it is not uncommon for seven to twelve year olds to be suffering from serious eating disorders (Prah).
b. The National Eating Disorder Association estimates up to 10 million females and 1 million males struggle with anorexia, bulimia, or both and 25 million males and females suffer from binge eating; among U.S. women, about 1 percent of the population is anorexic and about 5 percent is bulimic (Prah).
c. Recent experiments have shown that exposure to magazine photographs of super-thin models produces depression, stress, guilt, shame, insecurity, body-dissatisfaction, and increased endorsement of the thin-ideal stereotype; Magazines like Vogue and Elle are banned in many eating-disorder clinics because of their negative effect on patients’ body image (Fox).
d. “It’s the paradox of the model,” notes Natalia Vodianova, a high-fashion model and one of the few outspoken advocates on the issue, “you’re supposed to be projecting this image of fun and health, but your entire career depends on your weight” (Johnson 384).
(Now that we understand the main problems associated with the negative body images portrayed to the public, let’s discover its causes.)
II. The degradation of positive body images within the fashion industry may be caused by or linked to the designers’ and model agencies’ selection of the types of images portrayed and the lack of regulation for model size.
A. The type of images selected by designers and model agencies to represent them is the first main cause that leads to the selection of unhealthy bodies.
1. A Nielsen Company survey of 25,000 people in 45 countries found that 81 percent disapproved of “extreme thinness”, but what defines “extreme thinness” and why are we still allowing it to walk the runways (Trebay)?
2. Designers, such as Donna Karan blame agents for sending them underweight models; agents blame the designers for demanding skinny girls (Trebay).
a. Here is how a model gets from the street to the catwalk:
1. A model must first have a contract with a modeling agency, such as Elite Models or Ford Modeling Agency.
2. The agents then schedule “go-sees” with designers. 3. Designers look at portfolios, watch models walk, and snap Polaroid’s of models.
4. After being booked by designers, models must be fitted into outfits.
5. Finally, models get to walk the catwalk.
b. A model’s job relies on his or her image; if agencies and designers relentlessly demand ultra-skinny, gazelle-like canvases, models are forced to adapt to book jobs.
c. The majority of models are only thirteen to eighteen years old, are from impoverished countries, and lack the means of education or other occupations to fall back on.
d. Models are, in a sense, unfortunately dying for their jobs.
B. The second cause of negative body images is the lack of regulation for the selection of models.
1. Spain banned underweight models—working models must have a body mass index of at least 18 (the World Health Organization considers a BMI of 18.5 to be the standard of a minimum healthy height to weight ratio); Italy decided in the future, models would have to be over the age of 16 and above a body mass index of 18.5 percent to gain employment (Trebay).
a. America lacks any regulation for model weights, body mass indexes, or ages.
b. The Council of Fashion Designers of America decided not to have such regulations for models, but instead has provided a number of tips that it believes would “benefit” models (Campbell).
c. The Council’s lukewarm recommendations include education on the early signs of eating disorders, requiring models with eating disorders to seek professional help, not permitting models with an eating disorder to work without a doctor’s approval, and improving nutritional content of food catered backstage at fashion shows (Campbell).
d. Unfortunately, these are only recommendations and cannot be enforced in any way.
(Now that we understand both the problems and the causes associated with negative body images in the fashion industry, let’s reveal the solutions that are available to help prevent this problem.)
III. Although there are various ways to tackle the battle against negative body images and eating disorders, we will examine three specific solutions at the industry, community, and personal levels.
A. The fashion industry should work in collaboration, according to Nina Garcia, editor of Allure magazine; the agencies should work with the designers, the designers should work with the editors, and they all should address this issue through education (Campbell).
1. If the fashion industry is serious about the image it is portraying, it should be serious about changing the image to healthy being beautiful—it should be a collaborative effort from agencies, designers, models, fashion editors, media, and parents.
a. In order to portray images of health and beauty, the industry must implement a national regulation for the minimum height-to-weight ratio of models.
b. Models, therefore, should maintain a body mass index of at least 18.5 percent, the minimum healthy weight according to the World Health Organization (Hesse-Bibler).
c. By establishing a set minimum weight, agencies and designers alike will be restricted from hiring underweight models; then, models will be encouraged to maintain a healthy weight to book jobs, completely opposite of the current standard.
B. At the community level, greater education and healthy food choices should be implemented.
1. Schools, families, and teachers should teach children healthy eating and exercising skills that, if developed during an early age, will provide a healthy lifestyle throughout their lives.
a. Education is the key to unlocking a culture which is free of ultra-thin stereotypes.
b. Communities can foster positive body images by implementing greater health education in schools for students, and wellness and exercise classes for the community at large, combating both eating disorders and obesity.
C. At a personal level, educate others on eating disorders, encourage and support you friends and family to maintain healthy, positive, body images, and love your own body for the amazing scientific phenomenon that it is.
1. Expand the horizons of your knowledge and the knowledge of others by giving a presentation or even, gasp!, a speech on the effects of eating disorders and negative body image—it might even change the life of someone who suffers from these problems.
2. Support your friends and family to appropriately exercise, maintain healthy eating habits, and discover the “ideal” for their own body types.
3. Finally, discover that beauty is not defined by the size of your jeans.
a. Beauty is not a 97 pound frame; beauty is your own internal happiness and feeling content in your own skin—that’s style.
b. After all, as the eternal Coco Chanel once said, “fashion comes and goes, style—never.”
Conclusion
I. We are now aware of the current problems of the images portrayed by the fashion industry, the real causes of those problems, and the ways that you and I can help solve the problems.
A. During New York Fashion Week, coveted designers, Donna Karan and Dianne Von Furstenburg did something unheard of.