Unfortunately the deal with this messed up industry doesn’t stop with women. Men face the same contradiction: they should either be completely buffed up like Tyson Beckford or slim and elegant like Stas Svetlichnyy. Either way, whatever the media portrays we have to be bigger or smaller than average. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing if the models we admire are clearly healthy and physically fit but if they are skeletal or steroid pumped, is this really something we should be aspiring to emulate?
My concerns don’t just apply to magazines; on the TV, in films and in adverts we are immersed in images of how to be beautiful and are influenced by that. If you watch a film the lead roles are always stunning and in adverts for blemish products a girl who clearly has no blemishes and is covered in makeup anyway is used! So how can the ‘average’ girl compete?
It’s not just looks that concern me though. When models reach the heights of Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell, admired by the entire world for their beauty, they take on a new role. They are no longer people that are merely looked at, their every move is scrutinised and their lifestyle is on display for all. Because of this, I feel that they become role models in terms of behaviour as well as looks.
My concerns don’t just apply to magazines; on the TV, in films and in adverts we are immersed in images of how to be beautiful and are influenced by that. If you watch a film the lead roles are always stunning and in adverts for blemish products a girl who clearly has no blemishes and is covered in makeup anyway is used! So how can the ‘average’ girl compete?
It’s not just looks that concern me though. When models reach the heights of Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell, admired by the entire world for their beauty, they take on a new role. They are no longer people that are merely looked at, their every move is scrutinised and their lifestyle is on display for all. Because of this, I feel that they become role models in terms of behaviour as well as looks.
"It isn't right to ask individuals
to change their lifestyle choice
for the rest of the world...I feel
our society needs to change"
Let me explain: if I see a photo shoot in which Kate Moss is wearing very little and smoking, all I can think is that some vulnerable girl will see this and think this is how I should look, and how I should present myself to the world. Someone else will read about her drug fuelled nights and think this is the cool, beautiful way to behave and act accordingly.
I don’t think its right to ask individuals to change their lifestyle choice for the rest of the world; instead, I feel that something in our society needs to change. We need to move away from our obsession with celebrity lifestyle and just appreciate models for what they are good at and what they became famous for. If we were able to do this, everyone would be able to simply look at images in magazines and see that a talented photographer has taken a picture of a beautiful girl or guy, in a striking pose, wearing fabulous clothes.
So in my ideal world, if I am to look at a magazine and admire the beauty of a model, he or she would be fit and healthy as well as beautiful and I would know nothing and nor would I care about his or her personal life. If this was the case, caution signs would not be necessary!
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I don’t think its right to ask individuals to change their lifestyle choice for the rest of the world; instead, I feel that something in our society needs to change. We need to move away from our obsession with celebrity lifestyle and just appreciate models for what they are good at and what they became famous for. If we were able to do this, everyone would be able to simply look at images in magazines and see that a talented photographer has taken a picture of a beautiful girl or guy, in a striking pose, wearing fabulous clothes.
So in my ideal world, if I am to look at a magazine and admire the beauty of a model, he or she would be fit and healthy as well as beautiful and I would know nothing and nor would I care about his or her personal life. If this was the case, caution signs would not be necessary!
<<< Back