The Need for Diversity in the Fashion Industry

The Fashion Industry is affecting the way many people look at themselves. In today’s society there is always an ad promoting fast food, clothing brands, Cars. Etc. almost all of them have a model to promote their products. These fashion models are usually, extremely thin, tan, tall, and gorgeous. This set a negative standard for many women on what they should look like and can often cause to self-esteem issues. The Media is having a negative effect on body image by choosing to settle toward an unrealistic persona. In Addition, this has created many young girls, to have eating disorders such as bulimia, anorexia, and fasting. However, some businesses have started gravitating toward plus size models to stop the affects it has on society. Plus, also many companies are limiting the amount of photo shopping and airbrushing. The issues are far from being resolved but numerous people are working toward making a change.

When we have a job that we love, we want to keep it no matter what. That’s understandable, but we have to be careful how far we actually go in order to keep it. There are things much more important than any job in the world like our health. Even for those who’s jobs, looks are everything. We all want to look our best at all time, especially if we are in the modeling business. There have been many issues with models and their ways of losing weight. These models have eating disorders that can truly harm them. The way that they do their weight lost can have terrifying consequences. These consequences many times cause them their lives or threats just as delicate. Due

Throughout the years, models have been progressively been getting skinnier. "Size 6 (UK size 10) was a normal size" (Littlejohn). There are many downsides to the super thin models of today. They cause unattainable standards of beauty for people which leads to eating disorders such as bulimia, anorexia, and binge eating. This is affecting models and teenage girls the most, peoples health is being sacrificed for "fashion", and it needs to stop.

Twenty years ago, the average fashion model weighed only eight percent less. Only five percent of all women are born with the ideal fashion model body, which of course leaves the other ninety-five percent inundated with images of only the five- percent ideal type body.

This proposal examines my intentions to being a thorough research into the topic of discrimination and lack of minority representation in the fashion industry. In the context of this proposal minorities is used to describe people of color, members of the Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, and Transgender communities, as well as individuals who are not traditionally represented by the fashion industry due to issues of age, weight, height, and disability. My primary focus will be on how lack of minority representation impacts the mental health and body image satisfaction of minorities. Through the development of this essay I will examine the feasibility to also discuss how this lack of representation can negatively impact the general public’s perception

It is proven that models nowadays weigh 23% less than the average woman.Girls believe that to have the ideal body, you need to be toned and slim, wheres for guys being muscular is the definition of perfection. The problem starts to become much severe , when it ultimately leads to serious habits such as eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia and in most cases, suicidal attempts.

Having a skinny body is very important in the modeling industry. Bigger women always get turned down. This makes them feel unhealthy and not as beautiful as the other women that are modeling. The hard part for models is to keep their weight down to a certain number, otherwise, they are not allowed to model anymore. Today, in America many women are suffering from eating disorders, and other negative behaviors which make women do things to their body that they should not do. Men are attracted to healthy women regardless if the woman is older. Most modeling agencies prefer skinny women because they believe having smaller women as models would attract men there to support them. The media thinks being overweight is ugly which is unfair for bigger women because women of any size should be able to model. The media shows thin women on television

Women are ingrained with the belief that smaller is better and so many people?s health has suffered from this logic. The modeling and beauty industry as well as media advertising set ?standards? of the ideal skinny body and that you need to look like the size 0 models to be happy. The beauty and model industry exploits our emotions and beliefs to help sell their products or gain publicity. It is important not to strive to look like someone else. Having a goal or mindset to look like someone else is impossible and unhealthy.

When Victoria’s Secret is allowed to have models prance around on screen but Lane Bryant Ads (lingerie for plus size women) is banned then there’s a problem. The media is portraying these models who are thin to the point where it is unhealthy. And the media is feeding society lies. A perfect example is of Gerran Tyler. Tyler was a 12 year old supermodel. She walks the run way for clients like Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein, and Betsey Johnson. She’s tall, thin, the perfect model because she hasn’t hit puberty yet. She walked during New York Fashion Week and posed for these designer brands advertisements. This body type is unachievable for almost all adult women (Roberts). Somebody in their twenties or thirties doesn’t have the ability to look like a twelve year old girl, but this is how these designers are telling us to look. Tyler had an amazing career and high expectations but the fame didn’t last long. As she got older and hit puberty she began to develop boobs, hips, and curves. She began getting less and less bookings. Her supermodel career was virtually over. “Eighty percent of 10-year-old American girls say they have been on a diet” and the, “Number one magic wish for young girls 11-17 is to be thinner” (Missrepresentation). This self-esteem problem with young girls is a result of these unobtainable ideas of beauty. Jennifer Siebel, creator of the documentary Missrepresentation, says

For many years there has been size discrimination amongst the fashion industry. Some companies want to say that women are too big or too skinny. Yet this may be true in some cases, this does not mean that their assumptions should affect who can and cannot model. When fashion industries are picking models, they should consider that not every woman is the same size and their weight, if healthy, should not affect their chances of becoming a model.

If it isn't bad enough that the media only shows fashion models who are much smaller than most of the women in our society anyway, the new trend is for the images of these women to be digitally retouched and airbrushed so as to make them appear even smaller than they are in real life. Not only

We see models so perfect that their existence is almost impossible. They walk the runway looking flawless and most of all skinny. Society expects women to be skinny to be considered pretty, todays models weight around 110-120 pounds with a height of 178-189cm than leaves us with a BMI (Body Mass Index) of around 16. To be considered healthy our BMI must be around 18.5 and 24.5, less than 18.5 is considered underweight, this means that the models we see today are way under the normal and or healthy BMI.

So a negative body image at a young age, not only affects them then, but may also have long term consequences. A child is influenced by his/her family environment, ability or disability, societal expectation, the media and advertising, the fashion industry and cultural background. So what effect does the prevalent size zero advertisements have on the very impressionable teenagers? Most girls grow up playing with Barbie dolls, with the perfect skin, neck, bust, waist, thigh gap, ankles and height, however the contradiction of Barbie size and real female proportions are entirely different. Amongst all possible chronic illnesses, eating disorder has become the third most common disease in females. 45% to 86% of women experience depression due to poor self-esteem, as a result of negative body image. Regardless of the statistics and proven theories, the media refuses to acknowledge their role in this devastating dilemma and the fact that they are taking advantage of inexperienced confused consumers (Sanders E.L 2015). "With Fashion Week, and all of those thin models, and clothing that looks best on a size zero -- what that does is set a standard of what is socially desirable and prestigious that is likely to have a powerful influence on social norms," Dr. Anne E. Becker, a professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School said. "If one day we had a Fashion Week where there were size 16 models, I suspect that would be very influential, too" (Pearson. C 2011). From 1995 till 2005, the occurrence of eating disorder has doubled amongst both genders. This is because of the higher amount of media exposure that the adolescents receive due to the more sophisticated lifestyle of TV's, computers, iPhone and iPad (Eating Disorders Victoria 2015). As of a survey by Glamour magazine, 33,000 American women told researchers that they would rather lose 5 or 7 kg than achieve any other goal. More than

When girls are exposed at a young age to the stereotypes of media, they begins to believe differences and flaws are bad. This exposure causes them to morph into what they are told is “ideal”. According to nationally uses research from the university of Texas “the average american woman is 5 feet 4 inches tall and 166 pounds...most female models are 5 feet 11 inches and usually wear a size double zero to zero at 107 pounds” (2016). That means that the average model is very underweight based off of their BMI (body mass index). Girls see these model and believe that is what they must look like. They will label anyone including themselves who does not have the body of a model fat, ugly, gross and unhealthy. In reality as those girls strive for a “perfect” body they become unhealthy and grotesquely thin. Social media’s stereotypes send a bad message to young

Clothing lines using an unhealthy skinny model is not a rare sight. Some of the bigger names in fashion industry are even crossing the line with disrespectful statements about avarage-weighted models. However, the usage of unrealistic bodies is considered a marketing suicide for some. The reason is very obvious; most women and men do not look like the model when they put the clothing on. İnsomuch as it is classified as wrong advertisement. Making many people believe that they will look as good if they purchase the product. This collective attitude towards many people has numareous effects. The most important one is making many people uncomfortable in their own skin. Even though these marketing method seems like it is helping with the selling