Amanda McCallum Gessner/ Vance English IV Period 1 29 November 2017 Fight the Fake Body positivity is a rising topic, models are plus sized, bloggers are promoting self-love, sizeism, discrimination of someone based on their size or shape, (“sizeism”) is becoming less acceptable. Now is the time we want our daughters to grow up, we want them to grow up in a society that inspires them to thrive as they are and not one that makes them scrutinize every little detail of their body. Dread, the feeling most girls get when they look in the mirror or have to try on tight clothes, society is the reason girls hate the way they look, it makes them want to starve themselves and take extreme measures to get the body that fits societies standards. Do we …show more content…
“Home.” Celebrities Promoting a Healthy Body Image, www.mirror- mirror.org/celebrity-body-image.htm. Feldman, Jamie. “Finally, A Realistic Look At The Plus-Size.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 30 June 2015, www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/30/plus-size- model-documentary_n_7696740.html. Kriv. “Effects of plus-Size Models on Women's Body Image.” Fox 26, www.fox26houston.com/good-day/morning-news/mary-jo-rapini/effects-of-plus-size- models-on-womens-body-image. Lewis, Anna. “Demi Lovato Shares a Body Positivity Message Everyone Should Read.” Cosmopolitan, Cosmopolitan, 9 Oct. 2017, www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/entertainment/a9270647/demi-lovato-shares-a-body- positivity-message-everyone-should-read/. “Sizeism.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/sizeism. Vino, Lauren. “11 Body-Positive Instagram Accounts .” MTV News, 4 Aug. 2015, www.mtv.com/news/2206844/body-positive-instagrams/ “Whether Fit-Shaming Or Fat-Shaming, It's Still Body Shaming.” Fitness Reloaded, 23 May 2017, fitnessreloaded.com/body-shaming/. Wood, Kate. “14 Female Celebrities That Bash Hollywood's Ideal Body Image.” Lifehack, Lifehack, 19 June 2014, www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/14-female-celebrities-that-
Wykes, Maggie, and Barrie Gunter. The Media and Body Image: If Looks Could Kill. London: SAGE, 2005. Print.
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The media can impact people’s lives in many ways, whether it’s fashion, movies, literature, or hobbies. One of the impacts is how women view their bodies. Movie stars and models feel pressured to catch attention and to look good in order to have a good career in their respective field. People tend to judge how someone looks based on their body composition. The result of this “judgment” is that Hollywood is getting skinny. Since models and actresses serve as role models for people, people tend to want to look like them. The result of this seemingly harmless model of behavior is in an increase in eating disorders.
Schwarz, Fred. "Not our stars but ourselves: Skinny actresses and models do not make girls anorexic." National Review 2009:Academic OneFile. Web. 22 Nov. 2013.
In conclusion, women should be comfortable in their own skin and shouldn’t feel compelled to be as thin as a model. Women need to feel appropriate and content in their own skin, and to not feel inferior to the model on TV or pasted in a magazine advertisement. We are all different and no woman is exactly the same and even the ones that seem to be picture perfect have flaws and love handles, and women need to realize that is the truth. So, by accepting one’s self for who they truly are and what they have accomplished in life is what is going to boost our self-esteem. Once the world understands this, then the media won’t have such a monumental affect on society.
Throughout history when we think about women in society we think of small and thin. Today's current portrayal of women stereotypes the feminine sex as being everything that most women are not. Because of this depiction, the mentality of women today is to be thin and to look a certain way. There are many challenges with women wanting to be a certain size. They go through physical and mental problems to try and overcome what they are not happy with. In the world, there are people who tell us what size we should be and if we are not that size we are not even worth anything. Because of the way women have been stereotyped in the media, there has been some controversial issues raised regarding the way the world views women. These issues are important because they affect the way we see ourselvescontributing in a negative way to how positive or negative our self image is.
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So do plus size models pose the opposite argument? That maybe, promoting women to flaunt thicker bodies in desirable clothing encourages obesity? An article written by Damian Sofsian shares current obesity statistics reporting
“Big is Beautiful” is a campaign started by H&M, a clothing company, which exposes “plus size models” ranging from sizes 16-30 (Rawi). The campaign was started because the designers saw a potential to branch out to younger people by widening their products to larger sizes and better fashion. While the campaign was mainly started to increase sales to more women, people took the name of the campaign and turned it into glorifying obesity rather than embracing being “thick.” The exaggeration of the campaign caught the eye of many women who were overweight and/or obese and they saw it as an opportunity to excuse their unhealthy body size. Having self confidence is a positive quality, being unhealthily obese is not. Obesity can lead to heart disease, heart attack, diabetes, and many other health issues. While being misfitly thin and having eating disorders are also not positive qualities, dieting and exercising 3-5 times per week may help to get to a desirable body
Mackler, Carolyn. Body Outlaws: Rewriting the Rules of Beauty and Body Image. Ed. Ophira Edut. Emeryville, CA: Seal, 2004. Print.
The majority of women are a size 14 or above, so its about time that retailers recognize the need for attractive plus size clothing. Due to consumer demand, there is a greater array of plus size clothing than every before including plus size lingerie, business suits, swimsuits, and formal wear. The reality is that what looks good on a size 4 is not necessarily going to look good in a size 16. So, simply replicating a style in plus size clothing may not work for fuller figures.
“Why we can't stop body-Shaming.” CNN, Cable News Network, 15 Apr. 2016, www.cnn.com/2016/04/15/health/fat-shaming-feat/index.html. The article helps support Demetria’s story because it stresses the fact that women cannot be happy without someone commenting on their appearance. Weingarten spoke up, "As a culture and as a society, it will never go away fully, but ... we should try not to be judgmental." Body shaming seems to be more common towards female celebrities like Amy Schumer, Demi Levato, and Melissa McCarthy. It is important to "Remember, you are ALL beautiful. Please don't ever try and look like the people you see in magazines or posters because it's fake." This is exactly what Demetria spoke about in her video addressing her haters. Demetria, like most of the celebrities in the article, stood up against the body-shaming and took pride in her looks. In other words, best said my Jessica Simpson, Demetria didn’t "have anything to prove... What other people think of me is not my business." Demetria was more than happy to show her natural curly hair and curvy
Graydon, Shari. “How the Media Keeps us Hung Up on Body Image.” Herizons Summer. 2008: