But there’s hope for those of us who hyperventilate at the mental image of trying to squeeze our human-sized bodies into the barely-there togs sported by the few models still able to remain upright on a diet of iceberg lettuce and diet Coke. Because the magazines dedicated to nurturing our obsessive appearance insecurities are also offering us solutions to fashion-induced trauma.
In a quick scan of the May magazine covers, Flare promises to tell us “How to break up with bad food” and Cosmo tempts us with the irresistible “Eat chocolate, drink lattes, lose weight” plan. But Elle offers the most compelling promise: “Thinner, Happier, Healthier – The one diet that solves all your problems!”
Because modern women aren’t challenged enough by the twin demands of perpetuating the species and walking in stilettos, we’re apparently up for the game of meddling with our metabolisms in aid of achieving that impossible silhouette. Over the years, various apocryphal studies have found that 95 percent of North American women are disappointed or disgusted with our bodies, and a majority of us would trade five years off our lives to lose 10 pounds.
But new research sheds light on the real villains in this epic battle. A recent University of California study has found that two-thirds of those who diet not only gain the weight back, but also put themselves at increased risk of heart attack, stroke and diabetes in the process. Denying all responsibility for such consequences, the weight loss industry happily feeds on this lamentable success rate, raking in $35 billion a year as we abandon one ineffective fad for another.
Meanwhile, fashion designers everywhere are quick to insist that media images of unusually thin models and actors don’t cause eating disorders on their own. They’re right, of course. If they did, every woman in North America would be suffering -- instead of just 7 million of us. But just as the constant encouragement to substitute French fries and cheeseburgers for broccoli and beans has changed our eating habits over the past few decades, so pervasive images of disappearing starlets and emaciated models are indeed messing with our minds.
A couple of years ago, the Canadian Medical Association found that one in three pre-adolescent girls is trying to lose weight, and one in 10 show symptoms of an eating disorder. Some of these girls are as young as five years old.
The alarm bells raised by such trends became positively cacophonous last
year when Brazilian runway model Ana Carolina Reston died of complications
relating to anorexia.
And yet our modern obsession with scrawny female physiques goes back further
than most of us imagine.
A century ago slim-limbed flapper fashions were ushered in by French designer, Paul Poiret. who famously declared, “The breast will no longer be worn.” (Which, it must be pointed out, was easy for him to say.) The curve-denying styles of the 1920s required women to bind their chests and inspired a spate of weight-loss strategies designed to trim newly exposed arms and legs.
In the 1950s, Marilyn Munro’s more voluptuous contours gave women permission to be women again, but when Twiggy replaced her as the iconic “it” girl in the 1960s, dieting reasserted itself as a necessary female survival strategy.
So what’s to be done?
I speak to thousands of kids and adults every year, encouraging them to apply critical thinking skills to pop culture. We look at ads for anti-cellulite creams and ab crunchers, reminding ourselves that the impossibly perfect models featured already had invisible thighs and a cut six-pack, independent of the products they’re promoting – that’s how they got hired in the first place!
And yet even though the food in my own fridge is financed through the media literacy work I do, and the books I write, my most important advice to consumers of all ages is to break up with the images themselves. Because they’re just not that good for you.
Last month another study found that virtually all women – regardless of size or shape – feel lousier about themselves after spending less time than it takes to pluck an eyebrow looking at exceptionally slim models who’ve been graphically enhanced into the next dimension. The author of the study recommended we put tobacco-style warning labels of women’s magazines as a deterrent.
I’m with her.
Shari Graydon, the award-winning author of In Your Face – The Culture of Beauty and You, will be speaking about the media impact on body image at the Ottawa Hospital on May 23, 2006 at 7 pm.