Nov 17 2006
What Do You See?
Sometimes I read articles and my heart breaks. This is one of those stories that got me thinking….
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) — The mother of a Brazilian fashion model who died from complications of anorexia has made an emotional appeal for parents to take better care of aspiring young models.
The death of Ana Carolina Reston, 21, follows growing criticism of the use of underweight models in the fashion world, an issue given new significance after the death in August of Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos of heart failure during a fashion show in Montevideo.
Reston died Tuesday in a Sao Paulo hospital from a generalized infection caused by anorexia, an eating disorder in which sufferers obsessively deprive themselves of food in pursuit of an ultra-slim look.
She died of a nasty infection that started out as a simple sore throat. Her body was so malnourished she had no ability to fight off the growing infection. She shouldn’t have died. She wasn’t using drugs. She wasn’t drinking. But she wasn’t eating either.
Reston weighed only 88 pounds and was about 5 feet 8 inches tall. Doctors consider this weight normal for a 12-year-old girl no more than about 5 feet tall.
OK I’m small. I’m five feet tall and weigh 103 lbs. I wear size four clothes. People tell me I’m tiny and little. Yet according to most of the model agencies, I am too FAT. I am too heavy. I weigh too much. My doctor has been pushing me to gain some weight- for a couple years now. These models who are almost a foot taller than I am, weigh less than me.
It’s really hard to picture this as being a requirement to do that work. All the girly magazines covers feature pictures of airbrushed girls who barely weigh 100 lbs- and people DROOL over them! They like the look. Do we realize what these girls do to maintain that look? They survive on a plate of lettuce a day. They barely take in 500 calories.
The editors of the magazines, and agents for these girls see MONEY and nothing else.
They don’t see the hypothermia, peripheral edema, thinning hair, and obvious emaciation-which makeup can hide so well.
They don’t see the abnormal vitals signs such as bradycardia and hypotension
They don’t see the fatigue, anemia, decreased cognitive function, headaches, and nail changes
They don’t feel the pain of peptic ulcers, pancreatitis, and liver hepatitis.
And neither do we.
We see a girl who appears to be healthy, strong and sexy. We see a made up, dressed up and airbrushed version of a real human being who is slowly dying. Starving herself to her death.
What do you see in this picture of Ana? Taken not too long ago.
Do you think she was healthy? Do you think she was dying? She was. She didn’t know it and neither did anyone else, save her Mom.
Do we know any girls who look like Ana??
Is it society’s place to step in and say- “No, this isn’t a good thing?”
Should we be concerned about this?
Should we examine our own attitudes about what is sexy and healthy? I think so.
Until we change our attitudes we can expect our daughters and sisters and nieces to carry on with this quest for perfection- that will always kill them unless we see it for what it is…before it’s too late. Even then, a life full of eating disorders is what these girls can expect to live with for the rest of their lives.
Ana isn’t the first model to die of malnutrition. She is one of many and there will be more. Sadly, this is only catching the attention of media now because it is the models who are dying. Average people, young girls in particular, have been dying of this for years. It’s a mad quest to look perfect. To look sexy and healthy. And I believe many people have accepted this look as being just that. It may look good but it’s deadly.
6 Responses to “What Do You See?”
These stories break my heart too–and more, they ENRAGE me. Like you, I’m small (size 0-1), but I’m WAY meatier than they are. I can’t even imagine weighing 88 pounds, or being 5′8″ at my current weight (+/- 105). My family tells me all the time that I “need to eat.” (Whatever; I eat what I want when I want.) But the fashion industry wants girls/women to be even smaller! When people like us look at these girls and feel BIG in comparison, there’s a serious problem.
They are blatantly ignoring the message they send to women and girls, and the women in the fashion/beauty industries should be ashamed of themselves in particular. They KNOW the effect it has firsthand; even if it doesn’t influence them personally, they know those who are affected by it.
As much as I love a couple of those magazines (Allure, Bazaar) I’m going to let my subscriptions lapse (I’ve already canceled several others) until the industry STOPS promoting death in young girls. I’m a mother of a little girl, and I don’t want her thinking that’s “normal,” much less “ideal.” I don’t want her thinking she has to compete with airbrushed skeletons, or with some twisted fashion editor’s image of “perfection.”
And! The pictures you show are without a doubt airbrushed to hide her looming death.
I think that you make a really good point when you say, “Until we change our attitudes we can expect our daughters and sisters and nieces to carry on with this quest for perfection…” It is ultimately OUR choice as we, the market, can dictate what we like and therefore what is presented to us.
But oddly enough, childhood obesity if very high right now. I’m concerned for the crowd of young girls especially that are medicating themselves with food. Positive female role models are imperative.
I worked with (and was crushing on, almost hooked up with, but I screwed up) a girl who was GORGEOUS!
The nefertiti sculpture kinda beauty, and a body that was perfect in it’s lean aspect.
She was about 5′7, and weighed more than 150lbs.
If anyone told her to go on a diet, I and most of the people who knew this woman, would have gone balistic.
She wasn’t just long and lean and beautiful, she was fit, and healthy.
No kidding, the reason I don’t like large women, as in actually large, bordering on obese, is because I don’t wanna attach myself who is dead set on dying before me.
Same thing with people who think the needle on the scale is the measure of beauty.
This Is So. Dad The Need Too Look At What Is Happeneing To These Models. But They Don’t Care If You Starve Yourself. The y See It Only Their Way Or The Highway. They Should HAve A Decent Weight Requirement. And They Need To End This “Starve The Model” Madness. I Like My Health Over Anything Else! These Money Hungry Agencies Are Immoral