Tuesday, January 4, 2011

When Did This Become Beautiful....?

I first learned of Isabelle Caro on Jessica Simpson's show "The Price of Beauty".

She was made famous by the Italian campaign in which she poses nude to raise awareness about the dangers of anorexia.



While watching the sickly Isabelle describe her current state and her longtime struggles with the disease, I truly couldn't believe that this woman was still being hired by fashion designers. I could barely stand to look at her in that state - how the hell could people look at her in fashion ads and not want to turn away? How was it that this woman was still able to sell products?


Chloe at Feministing wrote an amazing piece on Isabelle Caro's death that was posted today on the site. She mentions that this new year brings the same old new year's resolutions of diet and weight loss.

Just last night Kels and I were discussing our resolutions to get into better shape. We talked about going for speed walks around our neighbourhood, eating healthier, and doing some workout videos in our living room. We had gone to the pool in our apartment building and were checking out our reflections in the windows! After reading Chloe's article, I am annoyed with myself for this. Yes, I would love to have a six pack and a tight ass but I hate the feeling that, as Steven Levenkron (psychotherapist and expert on anorexia) puts it, there is a "competition among women for physical perfection".

Yes, I do think I need to walk more and do more physical exercise. I for sure need to start eating healthier foods. But I should be doing it for health reasons - not just so that I will feel better about myself come summertime when I bust out the shorts and the bikinis.

WHY? Why this pressure to conform to one type of beauty that is so unrealistic and impossible to achieve? Why do we all desire to look the same?

As Chloe said: "no one can ever lose enough weight to satisfy the demands of this culture".

Anguish IS profit. And I don't want those fuckers profiting off of making me feeling shitty about my imperfect body.

No comments:

Post a Comment