The Council Of Fashion Designers Of America Should
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The international modeling industry is one of modish trapeze dresses, $1,000 platform ankle boots, $5,000 leather bags and stick thin human clothes hangers. However, the fashion industry also sells women across the world an image of beauty personified by the models who walk the runways, appear in fashion magazines and are plastered across billboards. As of now, the image the fashion world is giving women across the world is not one of healthy bodies and healthy lifestyles, but one that every female must be stick thin in order to be accepted and look powerful in society. Although the Federal Government would not be able to regulate the image that many magazines and TV advertisements give young women, The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), a not-for-profit trade association of 273 of America’s foremost fashion and accessory designers, could put regulations in place for all designers that are a part of their association (Council). The models are hired by the designers, so if the designers only hired models over a certain body mass index (BMI), many of them would be forced to gain weight before getting a job. In order to prevent the eating disorder trend in young girls from continuing, protect the models themselves and promote healthy bodies in females, the Council of Fashion Designers of America needs to regulate the BMI of models in all modeling agencies.
In the modeling industry, if you’re thin you’re in. There is enormous pressure on models to be extremely thin; so thin many of them begin to starve themselves. Although there is no hard evidence as to the number of models who have developed either anorexia nervosa, bulimia or a combination of both, it was shown in a study conducted by Jennifer B. Brenner, Ph.D., and Joseph C. Cunningham, Ph.D, psychologists at Brandeis University, that 73 percent of female models maintained body weights below the lower limits of conservative recommended weight ranges as determined by the CDC body mass index-for-age percentiles chart (Models). When models are accepted to an agency, other aspiring models look at them and feel they have to be as skinny at the accepted model in order to get a job. This gives aspiring models the idea they have to take drastic measures in order to make money. It is unhealthy and unfair to the models themselves to continue this cycle where models are given the impression they have to be as thin as possible. Although it is ultimately the models choice to be in an industry where this pressure is present, the fashion industry can exist and thrive without models who are severely underweight. Not only is it unfair to these models though, but also it is unfair to many young girls who see these models in magazines and on TV and feel those are the women they should look like in order to be accepted in society.
All young kids have role models when growing up. These role models normally come from magazines, TV, sports, or some other form of advertising. As reported in an article in USA Today, approximately 47% of 5th-12th grade girls wanted to lose weight because of magazine pictures and approximately 69% of 5th -12th grade girls said that magazine pictures influenced their idea of the perfect body shape (Fact). Some believe that girls should be able to make a decision for themselves about what the “perfect” body image is no matter what images they see, but as Dr. Harry Brandt, director of the Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt Health System in Towson, Md. said, “Images in fashion and gossip magazines of ultra-thin models and celebrities do have an impact on girls self-image. We see it in our work with patients on a daily basis. Patients describe the intense pressure they feel to be thin, to be considered successful and attractive in our culture” (qtd. in Furor). Therefore, girls should not be bombarded with images of stick thin models with bodies that are physically impossible to achieve. Knowing that young girls look at these models and do everything they can in order to look like them, designers should not allow the models to look emaciated or unhealthily thin.
Not only do young girls use runway models as a template for how they should look, they also look up to their parents. Though this may make this problem sound less important, it make the problem more prevalent because the young girls look up to their mother and a role model and many mothers today look at models as the body they have to achieve to look successful and important in society. In many cases, women do not look at magazines or TV for the purpose of creating an image of what they want their body to look like, but because of the way the media bombards women with thin celebrities and models, women cannot help but think they have to be thin to be acknowledged. In this way, mothers that are obsessed with being thin and dieting to be thin, give their children the image that they have to diet and cannot gain weight either. This can be seen in girls as young as 4 or 5. As reported in a study done by Marita P. McCabe, Professor of Psychology at the School of Psychology, at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia, and her partners, “For younger girls aged 8 to 13, it has been found that the strongest influences are mothers and best female friends” (McCabe). Therefore, not only do parents need to be more conscious of the image they give their children about healthy body weights and correct eating habits, but also the fashion industry needs to be conscious of the image they give adults so the adults can give their children an idea of what a healthy body looks like.
The underlying reason as to why models get so thin is because they feel that in order to get hired by designers and agencies, they have to be thinner than the model standing next to them. Being thin is one thing but killing yourself to be thin is another. Many models are taking drastic measures in order to be as thin as humanly possible. In recent months, more models have begun to die due to complications with anorexia nervosa and bulimia. In Brazil alone, in the past 3 months, 5 aspiring models have died of anorexia related complications, one being 14 year old Maiara Galvao Vieira, who was 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed 84 pounds at her death (Another). Another being Ana Carolina Reston, who died in February after a general infection as a result of anorexia nervosa. At her death, Reston was 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 88 pounds. In the months before her death, she ate only tomatoes and apples in order to stay thin (Brazilian). In August 2006, 21 year-old Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos died of heart failure in a fashion show during Fashion Week in Montevido. Ramos’s father told police she had gone several days without eating before her death (Uruguayan). Models should not feel so pressured that they have to drive