Over the last decade the fashion industry has developed a controversial reputation and for good reason. This industry has placed impossible standards on our young people of today who can’t live up to the appearances of these so called ‘models’. They certainly are not role models for several key reasons. The current advancement of technology has developed highly advanced photo editing software such as Photoshop which fabricates images. Other factors include the impossible dieting that the models undertake as well as the completely unreachable goal of the genetic lottery which these super models have evidently won.
Firstly, every photo shoot you have seen of a beautiful woman or man has be ‘retouched’ in order to improve her features. These alterations include the slimming of the waist and belly, the inflation of the glutious maximus and of course the expansion of the bosom! these features are not impossible for the poor people who aspire to these models it is also physically impossible for any human body! This fantasy beauty is causing a rift to tear between fiction and reality creating a pitfall which many of this generation’s youth have fallen into. This coupled with the expensive and health risking dieting creates even more impossible standards.
Supermodels will go to almost impossible lengths to calculate the exact calories and the exact nutrition they receive. I am a plus sized mother of two and even though my love handles may stick out more then when I was twenty (if only we could turn back the clock! Am I right ladies?) , I still find myself beautiful without resorting to eating celery for two months. Furthermore these models have supremely more resources than your average female teenager who doesn’t possess a personal trainer and a a team of nutritionists either. It is absolutely ridiculous that I am expected to keep my belly flat when I have to feed two other people. I can’t afford to buy blue ring octopus or whatever the newest food fad the fashion industry has invented! This links to the biggest act of cruelty and exclusion by the fashion industry which is the judgement on the impossible standards of your genetics.
Everyone on the planet will either be born beautiful or they won’t. The fashion industry has created an impossible standard for all of us ladies who weren’t born with the lips of Angelina Jolie or the breast of Scarlett Johanson! For the some there is the expensive option of plastic surgery but this is still a pale appearance to those who are lucky enough to be born with the right genetics. It isn’t fair that these ‘idols’ are paraded around in our faces like we are supposed to aspire to them. My daughter asked me last night why she doesn’t look like Miley Cyrus and I had to explain to her that mono-brows have run in our family since Great-Grandfather Clarence married his cousin Great-Grandmother Bernice.
Isn’t true beauty within? Outward appearances can be fraudulent and deceptive; with the use of Photoshop, excessive and expensive dieting and the impossible goal of changing your genetics. All of these are unreachable to the 99% of us, however simply changing your attitude and mindset is achievable. This is the message I wish to give to my one brow daughter and thousands of young people; you don’t need aesthetics to be a beautiful person.
Death to Fanatics 