Gabrielle Nolan
Professor Cava
WGS 2500
October 1, 2017
1. What will your final paper’s title be? (Note: The title must follow this format: “Catchy Title: Explanatory Subtitle.”) Fashion Forward: Changing the Perceptions of Fashion and Body Image Throughout History
2. What will your final paper’s research question be? (Note: The research question must be a single question that is debatable, narrow enough to be successfully answered in your final paper, and more complex than yes-or-no.) How has the fashion industry altered the perceptions and expectations of body images for women?
3. What will your final paper’s thesis statement be? (Note: The thesis statement must be a single sentence that is nothing more or less than the answer
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What are two course readings that your final paper will draw from to support the thesis? (Note: These readings must be among those that are eligible for reports: Johnson; Combahee River Collective; Freedman; Smith; Schippers; Fausto-Sterling; Martin; Wolf; Caputi; Schulman; Heise; Gilligan; Sudbury; Kaalund; Ross; West; Bassichis, Lee, and Spade; Cava, “Activism, Politics, and Organizing.”)
Beauty Myth
Revisiting the Beauty Myth
5. What is one outside reading that your final paper will draw from to support the thesis? (Note: This reading must be a peer-reviewed article.)
French Fashion Industry Agrees to Promote Healthy Body Images
6. How will your final paper draw from the three sources in #4–5 above to support the thesis? (Note: Please specify each source and its relevance to the thesis. Example: “In the first source, the author writes that ______. I will use that claim to support my thesis by ______. In the second source
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I will use this claim to support my thesis on how it has affected the fashion industry in a negative way. In the second source, the author talks about showing awareness on self-image and beauty, I will use this claim to support my thesis in how we need to stop comparing ourselves to others with all these false images because that puts out a negative influence. In my third source, the author talks about how the French Fashion Industry agrees to an agreement that they will promote healthy body images after the deaths of top models and taking a stand to anorexia. I will use this claim to help support my thesis as a positive influence on young girls.
7. How will your final paper directly relate to women, gender, or sexuality?
My paper will reflect how the fashion industry is trying to change how women perceive fashion figures.
8. How will your final paper demonstrate comprehension of a social issue?
I will demonstrate how the fashion industry is evolving from a very unnatural, unattainable body image, to a healthy, positive image for
Fashion is a constantly changing industry; what is trendy one day is outdated the next. The 21st century has been a catalyst for a large movement in fashion. Paris, New York, and London are some of the main contributors to the fashion industry (“Fashion Capitals”). Along with being the main influences in fashion, they have significantly connected the world on a global level. Even on a local level, students and young adults indulge in fashion as a way to express themselves. Some people may argue that fashion helps express one’s imagination; however, fashion has become one of the major influences that promotes an unrealistic image of women that is detrimental to their bodies. This unrealistic image can lead to health problems, a negative body image, and a society based on appearances which is disadvantageous to our culture as a whole.
In every magazine and on every page there is another source of depression, another reason to skip a meal or two or a reason to be self-conscious. In present society people are overly focused and determined on the perfect body that both the fashion and advertising industry portray and promote. Through diction, pictures and celebrities presented they are trying to convey a message to their viewers that is “suppose” to be used as a source of motivation and determination. The message they are truly conveying is self-conscious thoughts, depression, and the promotion of eating disorders. It is estimated that millions of people struggle with depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem; concentrated on dissatisfaction with their body image (Ballaro). The advertisement and fashion industry are conveying a message that creates an internal battle for their viewers, though they should be creating a fire in their viewers that provides motivation to be healthier, take better care of themselves and a source of inspiration for style.
Baby Thesis (Repeat your first reason, but try not to use the exact same words.):
Hoover, Shelby. “Pop Culture’s Effect on Body Image| Popular Culture.” Popular Culture. N.p., 21 Feb. 2011. Web. 17 Jan. 2014.
Paragraph 1- Girls can become victims of eating disorders because of society's promotion of an ideal thin female body. Models and stars shown in the fashion industry, magazines, movies, and other forms of media often appear very thin. These models are not a true reflection of the average female. Many are unnaturally thin, unhealthy or airbrushed. One former Victoria Secret model was shocked by the waiflike models that were shown on the runway during designer shows. A study referenced in the the article “Do Thin Models Warp Girls Body Image” describes how studies of girls as young as first grade think the culture is telling them to model themselves after celebrities who are svelte and beautiful. The same studies showed girls exposed to fashion magazines were most likely to suffer from poor body images. Psychologist and eating disorder experts agree the fashion industry has gone too far in showing dangerously thin images that women and young girls may try to emulate. The use of super slim models and stars, is sending the wrong message to young impressionable girls. These harsh influences lead us to think that thin is ideal body size. Seeing super thin models in the media plays a role in anorexia. Society’s promotion of a thin female body contributes to eating disorders for females striving to achieve this ideal bod...
Mackler, Carolyn. Body Outlaws: Rewriting the Rules of Beauty and Body Image. Ed. Ophira Edut. Emeryville, CA: Seal, 2004. Print.
“My lips and fingers were blue because I was so thin that my heart was struggling to pump blood around my body”, said teen model fashion Georgina (Carroll 1). The new skinny has become excessively scrawny. Is it definitely not normal for today’s society models to walk around with blue fingers starving themselves until their organs start failing! As for the model agencies, they couldn’t care less of the pressure and dangerous practices they put the models through in order for them to stay thin for the runway. Even fashion Designers continue to produce the smallest couture sample sizes and scout for the slimiest bodies to wear the designs not aware of the consequences of the pressure they not only put on models, but on the society girls to look like these starving models. And when the models continue to get offers from the most important fashion industries like Prada, it motivates them to keep doing what they are doing to stay in the shape they are in (Carroll 1). But little did the outside world know what this pressure had on the models and what they were doing to their bodies to peruse their modeling careers.
I will do research into finer details of feminist theory and see if there is a particular branch of feminist theory that best fits the kind of research I want to do. I also want to do more research into the idea of ISAs as described in the text and use the idea of institutionalized ways of thought to contextualize my argument and frame where I’m coming from.
Wolf, Naomi, Ed. The beauty myth: How images of beauty are used against women. Random House, 1991.Web. 28 March. 2014.
Bennett, Jessica. "The Fashion Industry Promotes Eating Disorders." Eating Disorders. Ed. Roman Espejo. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Why Skinny Models Are Making Us Fat." Newsweek (8 Feb. 2007). Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 20 May 2014.
Graydon, Shari. "How the Media Keeps Us Hung Up on Body Image." Herizons 22.1 (2008): n. pag. Web. 5 Mar 2010.
The Fashion Industry can be described as a glamorous world with cameras flashing, beautiful models strutting down the runway, in stunning and grand designs. What really goes on behind fashion’s dolled up doors is only an illusion compared to what reality is. Beautiful people, stylish clothing and timeless sophistication all make up the illusion of the glitz and glam of the fashion industry, but behind the curtains countless of models and designers constantly fall victim to this industry’s ever changing wrath. Fashion can be defined as a popular trend especially in styles of dress, ornaments or behavior. A model is a person who poses or displays for art purposes, fashion or other products and advertising. Fashion models are used mainly to promote products focusing mostly on clothing and accessory. The two main type of modeling in the fashion industry is commercial modeling and high fashion modeling. High Fashion models usually work for campaigns, designer’s collections and magazine editorials for high fashion designers. Runway modeling also known as “catwalk modeling” is displaying fashions and is generally performed by high fashion models. In my research paper, my main focus will be the multiple effects on high fashion models based upon the industry’s unregulated standards.
The first weakness in Graydon’s article is using unusual evidences and manipulating the information to persuade the readers towards blaming the media. Graydon raises the readers’ attention by using evidences of models and celebrities deaths, data from research studies and Television shows. Graydon uses examples of celebrities and models that died from cosmetic surgeries and eating disorders as stories to engage the readers and make them believe that media is harmful. However, there are many problems with the use of such evidences. First the examples of models do not represent ordinary women. Instead the examples are extremes cases of women whose main job which is to be concerned with their appearance. In addition, these models need to have such thin bodies in order to have a successful career. Their deaths may be related to their jobs, but not to the influence of media. Also, the author uses research studi...
Firstly, Sarah Murdoch, the representative of Bonds underwear, is of the opinion that fashion industry encourages “unhealthy body images” (Dunkerley, 2008) that is thought to be unrealistic and unhealthy for most women and girls. Besides, the fact that most designers prefer to choose thin models than bigger size ones (Bolger, 2007) shows us an astonishing phenomena that there are series of clothes from size 0 to size 4 seen not only in the fashion shows but also even on the sale markets because they think that there will be “stigma attached” when doing something for “plus-size people” (Stevens, 2010). Naomi Crafti representing Eating Disorders Victoria thinks that teenagers are becoming obsessed with “the very skinny models on the catwalk” in the fashion shows (Stevens, 2010) which gradually leads to “eating disorders, mental health” and “negative body image on young people” (Stevens, 2010). Fashion industry skinny trend seems to poison young women’s attitude towards their appearance.
Society is now so used to seeing these models who have their beauty and superiority idolized that they feel all women must look this way. However, looking like a model is becoming increasingly unattainable. According to Bennett the difference between the catwalk and reality is so stark that the slightest change in a girls form makes them self-conscious because they are constantly sizing themselves up to models (Bennett). Today models are dramatically thinner and taller than they were a few years a...