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If Marilyn Monroe is the epitome of beauty
Portraying healthy figures in fashion.
If Marilyn Monroe is the epitome of beauty then why don’t we see women with figures like her in magazines or on TV? What we see in the media affects how we feel about ourselves and about out bodies and sadly most models are size zero waifs who are told that they need to be dangerously slim in order to succeed. Fashion magazines and reality TV shows need to be more aware of the impact that they can have on models and on fashion fans. We are influenced by manipulated images of perfection that are not representative of reality and anorexia is a very real, very dangerous offshoot of unhealthy attitudes to body image in the media. Some magazine editors have admitted that images of underweight editorial models sometimes have to be airbrushed to make them appear larger and healthier. The fashion industry’s expectations of size have become so skewed that some established star models no longer even fit into the clothes made by designers for fashion shoots.
In the years since Marilyn became a style icon the fashion industry has been focusing more on size than on celebrating different kinds of beauty. The majority of fashion magazines promote negative views of our bodies by circling cellulite on pictures of celebrities and calculating how much weight stars have gained after having children but some magazines have been making positive moves against the mainstream by printing special issues featuring ‘real’ women instead of size zero models. Some fashion designers have also been using models that are size 12s and 14s in their runway shows and while these efforts to portray healthier figures in the media may be cynical attempts to garner publicity they are still great ways of promoting diversity and of making people aware of just how narrow a view the fashion industry has of what constitutes beauty.
Fashion reality shows on TV should concentrate on the fact that the most important thing for both established and aspiring models is that they are healthy and that they feel comfortable in their own skin. Models on reality shows should be told that they should maintain the weight that is right for their build and height through eating healthily and exercising, rather than simply being told that they don’t have ‘runway’ or ‘high fashion’ bodies. These impressionable young women should be made aware that there are other modelling career options for them other than being rail-thin catwalk models. Contestants on these shows, and their viewers, are left with the belief that to be a successful model you must be a size zero when in fact there are opportunities for models with ‘fuller’ figures in a variety of areas including lingerie, swimwear and plus-size modelling. Entire advertising campaigns on TV and in magazines featuring women who are not size zero have proved incredibly successful because they are dedicated to the very simple, very important idea that we are all different. The success of these campaigns shows that there are opportunities in fashion for women who are not size zero and suggests that there is a real desire from the public to see ‘ordinary’ sized women being portrayed in the media.
If magazines, TV shows, designers and advertisers in the fashion industry begin to take more positive steps towards portraying healthy figures of all sizes fashion will stop being the ‘one size fits all’ industry where women with healthy figures like Marilyn are not welcome.
By: Lorraine O’Hanlon
