Sun + Fun
03.17.2012
= Diets.
I confess. Every semester I try to go to the gym. I’ll last about a month until I start making excuses about being too busy, not enjoying it, etc. This year, I think my commitment will only stick because of stores like Urban Outfitters. I never shopped at the store until last semester, when I ventured in to see what all the hype was about. While I’m normally deterred by their high price tags (most dresses are in the $50-70 range), I do like their style. Example: this shirt.
While I know I’m supposed to be looking at the shirt (which is cute in it’s own right, albeit $40), I can’t help but look at her legs: legs the same size as her arms. Now, I don’t whether the girl has a abnormally high metabolism or if she has an eating disorder (as many as 40% of models have anorexia or bulimia, so I wouldn’t be surprised). My beef is with Urban Outfitters itself, who designs their clothes and markets them with these models.
I’m used to taking 5-10 UO garments into their dressing room, knowing I will only like one or two. The main problems are quality and size. UO is sells many things that are thin/see-though/poorly made with jacked up prices. They also tend to sell things directed at their size 0 models; in other words, these garments look unflattering on “normal” sized girls.
The idea for this post came about when I was venturing on UO’s Facebook page. Under virtually every picture is a steam of comments about how the models are too skinny. Occasionally, there will be comments that criticize people who are overweight, say how everyone can achieve this body, and how it’s not the model’s fault she is thin.
Truth: I know people who look this way and eat whatever they want. I also know people who will never be able to look this way unless they develop an eating disorder. There has to be some happy medium where models can be thin but still appeal to the masses. Right now, it seems that most people are focused on the models instead of the clothing.
Twenty years ago the average fashion model weighed 8 percent less than the average woman. Today she weighs 23 percent less” and “most runway models meet the Body Mass Index physical criteria for Anorexia.” (Read more)
What message are we sending? ★
Thank you SO much for posting this, and especially for including the article link. It drives me crazy that I’m made to feel guilty when I go to Urban Outfitters and because I have curves, I can’t wear 95% of the clothing. I know that there are healthy women who look like those models, but we shouldn’t be celebrating this obsession with being thin and condemning women who are larger than a size 4. I wish stores like UO would stop catering to this ideal, and instead start recognizing and celebrating that we are all different and that we are ALL beautiful.
I completely agree. As much as I love the design of the clothes from Urban, they are very overpriced for the quality of the material, and it is literally depressing to try them on. They are always so freaking small and it’s hard to imagine the large majority of the US population being able to fit in these small sizes! Definitely not an ego boost to say the least! With anorexia and other forms of eating disorders so prevalent and deleterious to our society, there really needs to be a larger push to normalize the weight standards of models!
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