A Tale of Two Bodies

              “I like looking nice, but I always put comfort over fashion. I don't find thin girls attractive; be happy and healthy. I've never had a problem with the way I look. I'd rather have lunch with my friends than go to a gym.                                                    ~ Adele

We’re not 100% with Adele here, as the gym is certainly important. But we are with her in that balance, and being happy and healthy is way more important than striving to be thin! And comfort over fashion is way cool, too. If more people had a mind of their own on this topic, the skinny bitch fashion industry would have less and less of a negative influence on our fragile self images.

A Tale of Two Fashion Marketing Campaigns

Let’s get real with expectations for a moment. Do we endorse the wafer thin models that may represent less than 1% of our countries demographic, despite age, and unfortunately lead us to unneeded anxiety and self doubt in our own body images? Hell no. But we also don’t want to give out kitchen passes for being overweight and enable the excuse factory for obesity, either. For us, as stated before, health is more important than appearance, and athletically fit, strong and healthy as a ‘look’ is the new thin (as in the desirable new look) and the new sexy.

First, let’s tell the status quo ad story from a leading offender in the clueless, arrogant fashion industry, Victoria’s Secret. You’ve all seen the TV ads, so here’s the skinny (pun intended). Their latest Ad Campaign,

The Perfect “Body”, from a company not especially known for embracing diverse body types, seems to have hit a nerve this time. 

With the lingerie brand’s #IAmPerfect movement, accusations abound of body shaming and promotion of an unrealistic standard of beauty. It appears women have grown accustomed to the half-naked freaks of nature parading around on runways, TV shows and in print campaigns, but the words, The Perfect ”Body”, along with the waif images, was apparently too much this time.

U.K. residents Frances Black, Gabriella Kountourides, and Laura Ferris launched a change.org petition demanding that Victoria’s Secret change the wording on their campaign so it doesn’t glorify unrealistic beauty standards. The three co-filers also want a promise from the company to ‘pledge to not use such harmful marketing in the future.’    
            
Good luck with that petition, ladies. Maybe better to boycott Victoria’s Secret merchandise and hit them where they live, ie: in their pocketbooks? Just a thought...And just in time to restore some modicum of faith in the fashion industry, we have the story of 27 year old Myla Dalbesio, a plus size (read, sadly, as the size of a normal woman, only because anything over a size 8 is considered by, you guessed it, the fashion industry as PLUS sized) model featured by Calvin Klein in the brand’s latest "Perfectly Fit" underwear campaign.  

                                      

                                                                                                                                            

So what’s the significance here? To Myla, who spent years abusing Adderall, flirting with bulimia and crash dieting in attempting to whittle herself to a conforming ‘model’ size, it represents progress. And Calvin Klein didn’t use her inclusion as some publicity stunt for ‘inclusion’, as other fashion iconic companies have done in the past, simply for PR reasons. She was treated exactly as the other models were and expected only to produce some outstanding photos, a universal goal of all models anyway.


“It’s not like [Calvin Klein] released this campaign and were like ‘Whoa, look, there’s this plus size girl in our campaign.’ They released me in this campaign with everyone else; there’s no distinction. It’s not a separate section for plus size girls,” Dalbesio was quoted as saying. Some fashion companies, as evidenced here by Calvin Klein’s actions, do get us after all!

Look Better, Feel Better, Live Better

One of my favorite sayings is, “money votes”. Be careful, therefore, where you decide to spend and invest your hard earned cash. Refraining from doing business with those companies that promote ideals counter to ours gives us at least a small voice at a time when we may feel we have no say. Most companies that seem not to have a consumer conscience are also likely fully invested in the ‘corporate profit at all costs game’. Hit them, and hit them hard, where it hurts most!

         “I've got two daughters who will have to make their way in this skinny-obsessed world, and it worries me, because I don't want them to be empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones; I'd rather they were independent, interesting, idealistic, kind, opinionated, original, funny – a thousand things, before 'thin'. And frankly, I'd rather they didn't give a gust of stinking chihuahua flatulence whether the woman standing next to them has fleshier knees than they do. Let my girls be Hermiones, rather than Pansy Parkinsons. Let them never be Stupid Girls.”

                                                                      ― J.K. Rowling

PS: And this just in... A new, real looking Barbie doll now comes in a normally proportioned body size! Among other add-ons, she even has customizable cellulite stickers if your kids want to make Lammily even more real. We might suggest instead that you incorporate UP Beauty Anti-Cellulite Cream to get rid of or reduce cellulite, so our kids don’t need to use those stickers for their reality!