The topic of the “ideal” female body is really important to me because not only does it affect me and could potentially affect me as a model, it affects all women, and has been affecting women for thousands of years. Opinions on what the female body should look like have existed since men and women were first created thousands of years ago. People’s opinions on the “perfect” female body have evolved and changed more in the last few hundred years than in the thousands of years humanity has existed.
Lesley Hornby, or more commonly known as Twiggy, was the first underweight woman to be a representation of the “ideal” female body (Meredith).
Although the “ideal” female body size has gradually become skinnier, especially over the past thousand years, Twiggy’s famous era was the first time in history where the “ideal” female body size was/was near the Body Mass Index physical criteria for anorexia (Abraham).
Today, the average fashion model is 5’ 10” and weighs 110 pounds (Hesse-Biber).
According to “The 50 Best Female Bodies in Sports”, “the ideal body is both sexy and muscular, and appealing and chiseled” (Rapp).
The Term Paper on Body Image Media Ideal Women
... exposure to media ideal body images and the awareness and internalization of those ideals on males and females. The results ... For a number years evidence surrounding the insecurities that women have towards their own bodies has been widely ... ideal endorsement. Botta goes on further to suggest that body image processing is the key to understanding how television images affect adolescent girl's body ...
It’s also commonly known that the “hourglass” shape is the “perfect” female body type, which requires a 36” bust, a 26” waist, and 36” hips. Obviously, everyone’s idea of the “perfect” female body is definitely not the same. To be a fashion model today, however, as mentioned earlier, you must be a certain height and figure for the area you model for. (For example, most runway models are at least 5’ 8” or 9” and have very strict weight equirements. ) Despite the requirements, many women today no longer feel that they can identify with or relate to models, when twenty years ago, the average fashion model weighed 8% less than the average woman. Today, she weighs 23% less (Abraham).
Some women even feel that many retailers today are catering to smaller sized women and not to women that are larger sizes, when 50% of women are size 14 or larger, but most clothing stores sell clothes that are size 14 or smaller (Abraham).
PLUS Model Magazine’s editor-in-chief, Madeline Figueroa-Jones said that “the fashion and beauty industry continues to endorse a skinny ideal that is not always healthy and alienates a huge percentage of the market. We are bombarded with weight-loss ads [advertisements] every single day, multiple times a day because it’s a multi-billion dollar industry that preys on the fear of being fat. Small sized women cannot be marketed to with pictures of plus-sized women. Why are we [plus-sized women] expected to respond to pictures of small sized women? (Abraham) While some people have praised Madeline’s statements, others believe that positively endorsing a larger sized figure is as dangerous as endorsing a skinny one (Abraham).
One person on the magazine’s website commented “I don’t think the fashion world should support obesity, just as I don’t think it should support anorexia. ” (Abraham) As a response, Vogue magazine, one of the world’s most popular fashion magazines, agreed to “not knowingly work with models under the age of 16 or who appear to have an eating disorder”.
Vogue also said that they will be asking casting directors to check IDs at fashion shows and photo shoots (Critchell).
“The move is an important one for the fashion world,” said Sara Ziff, a former model and the founder of The Model Alliance, which is dedicated to improving the working conditions of models and persuading the industry to take better care of their younger models. She also said, “Most editors of Vogue regularly hire models who are minors, so for Vogue to commit to no longer using models under the age of 16 marks an evolution in the industry.
The Essay on Coco Chanel: Most Influential Women’s Fashion Designer
The designs created by Coco Chanel have had the greatest impact on women’s fashion. Her designs are classic, timeless, and still very popular today. All of her accomplishments were because of her hard work, dedication, and being her own person. Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was born on August 19, 1883 in Saumur, France. (A+E Television Networks, LLC “Coco Chanel Biography”) When Chanel was twelve years ...
We hope other magazines and fashion brands will follow Vogue’s impressive lead. ” (Critchell) After conducting all this research, I’ve definitely learned a lot about not only the “ideal” female body, but modeling and the modeling industry as well. I’ve specifically learned a lot about the history of the “perfect” female body. The research I’ve done has definitely convinced me not to be so concerned with my height and weight. At the end of the day, I’d much rather just be healthy and happy to eat what I want, “perfect” or not.
