Curvy or Skeletal? How About Healthy?!

My sincerest apology to anyone who reads this. My local newspaper asked for my blog to appear on their site (gratis, of course), so I've been writing there. I will endeavor to update both sites at the same time. Here is my latest tirade.


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Curvy or Skeletal? How About Healthy!

In the 10/15 issue of The Newark Star-Ledger, the column Vicki's Dish posted a quote from fashion designer, Karl Lagerfeld. Mr. Lagerfeld was "responding to a German magazine's decision to ban ultra-skinny models from its pages, to the German magazine Focus." The quote reads:

"No one wants to see curvy women. You've got fat mothers with their bags of chips sitting in front of the television and saying that thin models are ugly."

Really.

Considering that the average American women is a size 14, obviously SOME PEOPLE want to see curvy women. Curves make women more interesting and desirable, perhaps because men don’t have them. When you think of curves, think Mae West. Think Venus DeMilo. Think Marilyn Monroe. Women were meant to be curvy...and healthy. Not the emaciated stick figures that appear in most magazines. In fact, I think most women would like to see models with a bit more meat on them to accurately reflect what clothes would look like on real women.

And as for "fat mothers with their bags of chips," most stay-at-home moms that I know are far too busy taking care of their children and their house to be sitting around munching chips. That just feeds into the stereotype that all we do is sit around all day eating bon bons. I would challenge Mr. Lagerfeld to take care of my 4-year old and house and find time to squeeze in a bag of Lays. Ain't gonna happen pal.

And yes, many thin models are unhealthily thin. Setting them up as an unhealthy image as “the ideal” results in the many first graders I know who want to go on diets. We set our daughters up for failure and then want to know why their self-esteem is so low. Wouldn’t it be better to, as we’ve started doing, encourage them to eat right and exercise in order to be healthy rather than telling them to be thin so they’ll fit society’s (and this fool’s) image of “pretty”?

In conclusion, I would hope that this fashion designer refrains from, in my opinion, spouting further verbal diarrhea and the media from printing it. Stuff like that serves no purpose except as another media myth I'll have the challenge of teaching my kids to disregard.