I am a touch overwhelmed. My mind is being cluttered over
how I should feel about my body. Let me give you a glimpse as to what I am
referring to. In the last couple weeks, social media has been on the defense
over our bodies and what is the perfect body.
Victoria’s Secret just came out with their new Body by
Victoria’s Secret bra with a campaign entitled, “The Perfect Body” with 10 of
their tiny models lined up gracing the particular bras. As someone who
emphasized in Public Relations in college, I can understand the play on words.
It’s the perfect body (bra is what they are referring to because that is what
that style has been called for quite some time), but with the models lined up
behind the slogan, consumers easily took offense. They jumped to the idea that
Victoria’s Secret is trying to tell us what the perfect body is, but really,
it’s the bra they are talking about. So after a lot of backlash, Victoria’s
Secret changed the ad online, by changing it to “A Body for Every Body.” The
company has yet to comment on the controversy.
Calvin Klein has also received a lot of disapproval on the
Internet with their new campaign, featuring model, Myla Dalbesio, who is a size
10. According to a Times article, Calvin Klein stated, “these images are
intended to communicate that our new line is more inclusive and available in
several silhouettes in an extensive range of sizes.” In the campaign,
“plus-size” is never used and in an interview with Elle, Myla discussed how she was not treated any differently than
the other models. She was happy to be included in the campaign and feels that
she opened doors for other models that find themselves not in the category of
size 2 models, but not big enough to be considered a plus-sized model. But with
social media, people didn’t take the time to read her interview and check into
the campaign, which in turn resulted to people claiming that Calvin Klein
thinks size 10 is considered “plus size.” Not the case.
Now don’t let me fail to mention Kim Kardashian’s new cover
for Paper magazine that will probably
be forever part of culture. I’ve already seen that Dane Cook tweeted a
“non-photoshopped” version as a joke among other spaces on the Internet poking
fun at the image. Some might be outraged because she is a mom. I admit I rolled
my eyes and thought, oh my god, really?,
when I first saw the picture. But I also read an interesting article Cosmopolitan tweeted in defense of her
that was rather interesting. Then the next day, we are now freaking out about
her pictures with full on frontal nudity included in the Paper magazine article. An excerpt from Tina Fey’s book, Bossypants, about body image has been
floating around in response to the whole thing as well.
In the November issue of Glamour,
they conducted a survey over body image that was also conducted 30 years
ago. There were some changes over the course of time, but when it comes down to
it, it seems like we feel worse about
our bodies. And the interesting correlation that is tied to this low
self-esteem is social media. We are no longer as worried about measuring up to
celebrities because we mostly have accepted the idea that they may have better
resources such as a personal chef or a personal trainer. It’s easier for them
to achieve amazing bodies. But what about our Facebook friends? We see our
friend, Sally, looking really gorgeous in an Instragram pic and we start to
wonder, well if she can look that good,
why can’t I? With social media and the rise in pictures that we post, it’s
becoming easier to start to compare ourselves to our peers, friends, old
classmates, ex’s, etc. And I can admit I have felt this feeling before. What
about you?
I am about exhausted just typing about this issue and I
haven’t even touched on the fact that I am about to compete in a pageant in
less than three weeks. One could imagine the prep work, trips to the gym, and
changes in my diet that I have been enduring. My body has been a huge focus
lately. I’ve already been asked if I am still eating. And seeing articles
claiming these size 2 models are unhealthy makes me wonder if people will start
to think I am unhealthy because now I own a couple size 2 pieces of clothing.
My mind also can’t help but think back to an opinion article, my past editor in
chief wrote about her struggles of being labeled, too skinny. Yes, even that's a thing! Read here: Small Fry, Large Fry
And I haven’t mentioned yet how it affects people in my own
social circles. It seems like more and more, friends of mine have been posting
a lot about their own body journeys whether they are changing their diets,
working out, or going on cleanses. One friend of mine that works out at the
same gym as me was told people think he is using steroids because there is no way he could bulk up that fast. Can
we not give him credit that he may actually be working his butt off in the gym
(I’m an eye witness!) and that he has been making proper changes to his diet?
Why are we so quick to be so negative?
I am all about empowerment, loving yourself, and being the
best you can be. But I am almost fed up with the hypersensitive society we have
going on here. Calvin Klein never labeled Myla as a plus-sized model. Society
has been demanding the fashion industry to use realistic models and Calvin
Klein is taking that step, yet the media still jumped down their throats. I am
almost wondering if Victoria’s Secret is starting to get annoyed with the
demands they received and that’s why we still haven’t seen a comment from them. We are being
bombarded with the offensive and defensive. Now I am almost feeling bad for the companies because they seem to never get it right anymore.
I feel like I am standing here with a million messages and pictures swirling around me and I just want to scream: STOP! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?!
What's going on here? People are singing freely to "All About That Bass" and Kim showed hers, but that's not cool. What's the balance here? What's it going to take for people to stop being so body sensitive? I'm tired of the criss-cross messages. I'm tired of being told one way and then the other. I'm tired of feeling self-conscious about my thoughts. My eyes looking back and forth, back and forth, to all these sides. Are you feeling cluttered too?
Sparkle&Shine.
A possibly too
skinny, large chested, no butt, short, but it’s okay with me,
Rachel
@theglitterylife
#TheEveryBODYBattle
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