“BE YOU (tiful)”: spotlighting Erin Matson’s MPR essay
Written by admin2 on October 28th, 2009Filed under: Themes, The Skinny on Fat
Quoting Erin Matson’s truly beautiful editorial for minnesota.publicradio.org:
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“I remember flipping through fashion magazines disinterestedly as a girl, never realizing the extent to which Photoshop could be used as a weapon of mass destruction.
We have all come to expect that photos of models are airbrushed in advertisements and fashion magazines. It’s a fact—one that’s all too easy to swallow and throw back up.
Recently, Ralph Lauren fired size-four model Filippa Hamilton, allegedly for being too large. This story is an outrage in itself. She is, by the standards of the World Health Organization, underweight.
What made me want to burst into tears was far worse: A dramatically Photoshopped Ralph Lauren ad that surfaced in Japan after she had been fired.
I know all too well that the modeling and fashion industries love to portray women who struggle with eating disorders or have been digitally altered to dangerously unrealistic standards, and they do it with dramatic glamour.
While I was dying of anorexia during my late teens, I was recruited by modeling agencies three times. One of the times I was hospitalized, a fellow patient climbed on stage at the Mall of America to win a modeling contest while on a day pass, her hospital bracelet flopping off her wrist as she waved to an applauding crowd.
Recently, Self magazine ran a “total body confidence” issue and digitally slenderized singer Kelly Clarkson before putting her on the cover, even though she has said that she’s comfortable with herself just the way she is.
Women and girls are watching, and the results aren’t pretty. Eighty-one percent of 10-year-old girls are afraid of being fat, and an estimated 10 million … CONTINUE READING THIS WONDERFUL ESSAY
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Join the National Organization for Women’s “Love Your Body” campaign
Then…
Read Irked posts tagged “body image”
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