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What definitely not to do to tackle the influence of fashion media on triggering eating disorders

What is the solution to countering the influence of imagery such as the following?

supermodels; Stephanie Seymour, Cindy crawford, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz, Naomi Campbell

Herb Ritts photo (1989): Stephanie Seymour, Cindy crawford, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz, Naomi Campbell.

Definitely not the following imagery.

Obese models; Leonard Nemoy photography

If one were to show these two pictures to girls and women indulging in anorexic behaviors, one can expect these individuals to doubly resolve to do whatever it takes to avoid excess body fat.  Few examples would serve as better thinspirations for such individuals.

The picture of the obese women is taken from Leonard Nemoy’s new book, Full Body Project: Photographs by Leonard Nimoy.  You can see additional images from this book here.  

The following description of the book has been going around:

“The average American woman,” Nimoy writes in his preface to the book, “weighs 25 percent more than the models selling their clothes. There is a huge industry built around selling women ways to get their bodies closer to the fantasy ideal. The message is: you don´t look right. If you buy our product, you can get there.” Nimoy questions this media message by photographing women who accept the fullness of their figures and who clearly enjoy being together as dancers and working with Nimoy to make these pictures that are often inspired by famous works of art.

Nemoy’s approach is the opposite of the No-l-ita ad, both ineffective.  The proper way to counter fashion media imagery is to come up with comparable imagery depicting feminine beauty -- and I will be eventually coming up with it if no one else will first -- and do other things that this site is doing.

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Comments

It seems to me that Nimoy's goal was not to exactly counter high fashion imagery but to use that imagery to make a point. He isn't trying to sell anything. He is trying to encourage body acceptance. I don't think his goal was to reach out to women with eating disorders either.

You want to use your plain faced, sloppy girls to market products when that won't help anyone's self-esteem. It won't be able to compete with Herb Ritts and the supermodels either.

* yawn *

Same ole, same ole ...

The Fat is Political :

Artist Statement

The Full Body Project
Leonard Nimoy

[...]

These women are interested in "fat liberation". They hold jobs in the theater, the film industry and in business—and together they perform in a burlesque presentation called "Fat Bottom Revue." The nature and degree of costuming and nudity in their performances is determined by the venue and the audience, which can range from children’s birthday parties, to stag parties. I wanted these pictures to be more about them. These women are projecting an image that is their own. And one that also stems from their own story rather than mine. Their self-esteem is strong. One of them has a degree in anthropology and will tell you that ideas of beauty and sexuality are "culture bound"—that these ideas are not universal or fixed, and that they vary and fluctuate depending on place and time. They will tell you that too many people suffer because the body they live in is not the body you find in the fashion magazines.

* yawn *

So these are the "points" :

1 - The ladies have to be "liberated"
2 - Only ladies who look like crap "own" themselves. The rest are slaves to the White Hetero-patriarchy.
3 - Beauty "fluctuates" -> Therefore -> Anybody/Nobody is beautiful

I thought that Claude Lévi-Strauss was already dead !
This crap is getting old.

yay fat power!!! 8D

What is wrong with the photograph of the five nude supermodels?

The five nude supermodels look healthy, lean and fit, not underweight, to the extent that their bodies are visible in this photograph in which they cluster together.

This photograph will not trigger an eating disorder in anyone who is not already mentally disturbed. This photograph may trigger the resolve to eat healthier and exercise more, and that is a good thing.
:)

Erik, you are really starting to suck, I thought you were above the anti 'skinny' woman bandwagon. I can see how it would be unhealthy for naturally more endomorphic women to attempt to look model like, but please, it is obvious to anyone with a brain that the women shown in the first picture are not 'underweight' - whatever their weight may be. This rubbish has gone far enough, and woman who is not at least a bit chubby is branded 'underweight' these days.

Danielle: I am not sure of Leonard’s purpose, but I am not saying that Leonard is going about it in the wrong manner. I am saying that should someone have the idea of using pictures of overweight/obese women to counter the impact of thin fashion models, then this would be a bad idea. We shall see whether feminine beauties will be able to compete with the supermodels.

Whipped honey: I didn’t say that there is something wrong with the picture, but the picture is a famous one and Leonard has aped it. The issue is not about the use of the specific pictures shown but using models with excess body fat as models to counter fashion media imagery.

Twisty: I didn’t rail against the thinness of the fashion models. The supermodels’ thinness is more appealing to me than the corpulence of the obese women.

I do not see the point in promoting fatness. Being too fat is no better for your health than being too thin. This is just the same thing as promoting thinness; it's the other extreme. It makes no sense.

I mean I agree. I think healthy is attractive and that fat is not healthy and therefore not attractive. I don't think too thin or too fat is attractive. I think a healthy weight is the ideal attractive weight.

gee. i wonder what they're promoting with these photos? hmmm, i wonder.....

here now this is a picture thats more like what it nice.

supposedly plus size models

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