TOPSHOP was earlier forced to remove a particular photograph of one of their models from their website, after backlash from eating disorder groups.
I have to say, after learning this model was a size 8 I was fairly shocked. Either my idea of shapes and clothes sizes is warped, this photograph has been severely photo-shopped or the angle of the camera has captured the model in the wrong lighting. Having been taken by a pro for a widely-visited website, however, I'm of the opinion it has been photo-shopped. But why? What is it that Topshop are trying to promote with that image, exactly?
Before I go any further, I would just like to state that despite being a size 12 with the desire to being a size 10 again, I will not be sitting here slandering the slimmer models. People are quick to slag off campaigns with 'skinny models', and I am not naive to the fact that there are some pretty ill-looking girls on the catwalks, but what about when we're talking about naturally thin girls with a healthy appetite and an interesting look to her? Should she be ostracized for her size and cast aside, for fear of healthy groups going mad? I know some beautiful, slim girls, one of whom is fondly termed as the 'human dustbin' and if she's reading this now I hope she'll smile, who have just as much right to live their lives in piece without being scrutinized and publicly lashed. Eliminating the percentage of people who simply have no empathy or common decency, you wouldn't publicly criticize a plus-size model for shedding her clothes.(Beth Ditto, the voice behind The Gossip, was praised for her decision to pose naked for a magazine for 'shedding her weight-issues and leading the way for all plus-size women'. Go her.) People tend to embrace it, regardless of whether they avert their eyes or push away their forks at the mere sight, they do at least accept it. You wouldn't find it fair or courteous to brand a person fat for all to see, so how can it be any less hurtful for those who are branded 'skinny'?
It's the media's ability to make everybody appear slimmer, thus the public want to BE slimmer, thus sympathy for those who are branded 'too skinny', however untrue or hurtful, is few and far between.
I have a younger sister who is nineteen. She has a beautiful, slender figure. She has a stomach as flat as a pancake, yet she has hips and she has shape. Growing up, as the sister slowest to develop, she was often called (not by me, I should add) names such as 'scrawny' and 'skinny-ring-ting' and so on and so forth. She still harbours insecurities about her slim figure to this day, while I continue to envy her for it. On the other hand, I have a brother who was 'a bit on the chubby side' growing up, yet nobody 'had the heart' to tell him so. It was deemed 'rude' and 'unkind' to state the obvious in this particular case.
The girl from this particular photo is a size 8. That is not too skinny at all. I daresay she sits at the table with her family most Sundays and gorges on a plate of roast potatoes and lamb.
Groups have slammed Topshop further for simply changing the image, and not the model. This is an absolute outrage. How dare they speak out so negatively about a girl whose only 'fault' is that she is slim? How many of our friends do we hang around with the same size that we do not question or interrogate about eating habits?
Topshop's crime was to photoshop this image to within an inch of its life, distorting this model's features and making her appear skeletal. The newer image Topshop released in its place depicts a much fresher-faced, healthier looking girl...regardless of her being slim.
I do understand the importance of taking responsibility for the influence models, advertising, retailers, etc has on young girls and women everywhere, but I fear people are beginning to lose sight of the line and are now querying every naturally-slim woman in the public eye.
There are enough insecure girls in this world, whether they be slim or plus-size, without groups and campaigns sticking their ore in.
