Image Isn't Everything

In response to Huffington Post's: Toronto Ad Attacks Fashion Industry In Best Way Possible

This has been a major topic in the media and fashion industry for an incredibly long time, but it seems like this generation is even more affected by it.

I'm talking about body image in the media, specifically magazines. 

For me, this is one of those things where I feel like i'm the only one in the world like this, but i can honestly say the models in Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Fashion never distorted my perception of physical beauty, or what i needed to be. 

It seems crazy, like i should be affected in some way. And i was. My first taste of fashion was watching RAW on FashionTv. I never noticed how skinny the girls were, i was so captivated by the way the clothes floated down the runway and how happy the designer looked when it was all over. 

And it was the same when i eventually started reading magazines, I never ever was taken aback or appalled by how thin models are. I vaguely remember a quote from an interview, i have no idea who said it, but it's stuck with me ever since. "Models are just hangers for a designers clothes, they're there to sell a product and a lifestyle." The work that they do is for the fantasy of a brand, obviously they're real people with lives and emotions, maybe they work really hard to have the body that they do or they're naturally thin- it's annoyed me how everyone says that the fashion industry is the reason why girls have eating disorders, they fat shame both genders, they need to put a disclaimer on ads when a photo's been photoshopped, and those same people are the ones who shame thin people for being too thin, automatically assuming they don't eat. 

I don't focus on the external beauty of people, I've only ever focused on the art of tailoring, colour and textile selection that creates a beautiful garment. I can understand how being bombarded with images of one kind of beauty causes some people to have an unhealthy view of the way they should be, but I don't understand why they would want to imitate anthers persons body. 

Throughout elementary school, role models were a reoccurring theme, that really instilled the idea of looking up to someone who has qualities I admire, a situation i can relate to, and has achieved a great deal of meaningful things through their life. Teachers never told us to find the person with the hottest body and be them. I took a lot from that lesson as a child, I still have role models to this day. I want Naomi Campbell's long sleek hair but I want her sense of strength and discipline even more than that. Cara Delevingne has been every teen girls girl crush because she has a personality. It's not the fashion industry's job to find a girl whose thin and has a killer personality so that more girls can look up to models. Girls these days have Miley Cyrus and Kim Kardashian to look up to, i don't even need to explain how that influences young people. 

The racism and sexism i've faced (you need to have curves to be a real women) has affected me more than seeing thin girls in beautiful clothes. Everyone needs a role model and they don't need to be a size 2.