The Relation Between Fashion And Eathing Disorders

1509 Words4 Pages

Dr. Rachel Adato - Levy declares, “Beautiful is not underweight, beautiful should not be anorexic,” shooting down the fashion industry’s use of anorexic girls to twist the image of what an “average person” looks like. This contorted view of the average person has led to a slew of mental problems, a large part including eating disorders. The mental problems that have occurred have cultivated the need to look a certain way, leading to physical problems, including nerve damage, fractures, pain, and even death. The fashion industry has distorted the image of the “average person, caused mental problems, and caused physical problems.
The fashion industry has skewed the mental image of what the “average person” looks like. In 1991, the average model only weighed approximately eight percent less than the average woman of the same time period. In 2012, this number drastically changes. An average model weighs approximately twenty - three percent less than the average woman (Lovett). The average model has a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 17.1 (Lasseck), meeting the requirements for anorexia. A healthy BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9 (“Ideal Weight”) Beverly Johnson, a model at the height of her career in 1991, was between a size four and a size six. Ms. Johnson is considered a plus - size model by today’s standards (Lovett). The average plus size model is a size six. The average size of a woman today is a fourteen. This disparity between what is expected and what is average is not a new occurrence. Even Coco Chanel, one of the world’s most influential designers, felt uncomfortable in her day’s fashion trends. Her aunt openly said Chanel could not pull off the “extravagance” of the late 1800s and early 1900s (Roehm).
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