Beauty and The Buzz
Battling Body Image Issues by DDHG Editorial Team
Battling Body Image Issues
'Everyone's a size two these days,' one of our girlfriends, a size 6, said over lunch one day. 'It's hard to keep up sometimes, but you've got to do it,' she said rolling her eyes and chomping on a celery stick. We couldn't argue with her. We think deep down all women feel that way to some degree. We all feel the pressure to be thin. It's everywhere! Cosmopolitan magazine says women should be thin and the editors even go so far as to cram the pages of it with nearly emaciated models strutting their stuff for Target, Nordstrom and whoever else will shell out the dough to advertise. But here's the interesting thing '" if you're a size 2 and you go to Target or Nordstrom looking to snag that sweater in the magazine, it's never there. In fact, at most of these major department stores, the supply of size 2 clothing is scarce at best.
Why? Because the average American woman is ten times the size of the model in the magazine, that's why. So the racks are cluttered with every size under the sun except for the very size used to market the clothing in the first place. Why, then, aren't ads with plus-size models more plentiful? Do you really need a waif to push your product? Apparently so, in today's society. Many people think the media is to blame for the body image issues many women face today, including an unrealistic pressure to be thin and shunning others who are not thin. They've even got a name for this type of discrimination; it's called weightism. At DDHG, we've compiled a great list of links where you can find information about body images issues, anorexic and other eating disorders and how to overcome them!
ABC News '" Help Your Teens Overcome Body Image Issues
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/AmericanFamily/story?id=910386&page=2
Beauty and Body Image in the Media
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/women_beauty.cfm
MySistahs.org
http://www.mysistahs.org/health/bodyimage/index.htm
Battling Body Image Issues
'Everyone's a size two these days,' one of our girlfriends, a size 6, said over lunch one day. 'It's hard to keep up sometimes, but you've got to do it,' she said rolling her eyes and chomping on a celery stick. We couldn't argue with her. We think deep down all women feel that way to some degree. We all feel the pressure to be thin. It's everywhere! Cosmopolitan magazine says women should be thin and the editors even go so far as to cram the pages of it with nearly emaciated models strutting their stuff for Target, Nordstrom and whoever else will shell out the dough to advertise. But here's the interesting thing '" if you're a size 2 and you go to Target or Nordstrom looking to snag that sweater in the magazine, it's never there. In fact, at most of these major department stores, the supply of size 2 clothing is scarce at best.
Why? Because the average American woman is ten times the size of the model in the magazine, that's why. So the racks are cluttered with every size under the sun except for the very size used to market the clothing in the first place. Why, then, aren't ads with plus-size models more plentiful? Do you really need a waif to push your product? Apparently so, in today's society. Many people think the media is to blame for the body image issues many women face today, including an unrealistic pressure to be thin and shunning others who are not thin. They've even got a name for this type of discrimination; it's called weightism. At DDHG, we've compiled a great list of links where you can find information about body images issues, anorexic and other eating disorders and how to overcome them!
ABC News '" Help Your Teens Overcome Body Image Issues
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/AmericanFamily/story?id=910386&page=2
Beauty and Body Image in the Media
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/women_beauty.cfm
MySistahs.org
http://www.mysistahs.org/health/bodyimage/index.htm