Individualism In The Fashion Industry

The fashion industry claims to promote individualism and positive body image, but it seems to do just the opposite. Clothing advertisements display tall, thin, flawless women and promise that customers, too, can be beautiful by wearing certain clothes or makeup products. Research has proven that this propaganda style causes women to express "...more negative feelings about their sexual attractiveness, weight and physical condition after seeing thin models than before" (Neff). Most designers do not make clothing lines for plus-sized body types, leaving the majority of women without the means to acquire the unrealistic idea of beauty the industry presents. Many girls are bullied for their appearances, and extreme measures such as plastic surgery …show more content…
Scores of pages on Pinterest and Tumbler have been devoted to "pro-ana" and "pro-mia" blogs that glorify anorexia and bulimia. Many of them are used to keep track of "progress" and share tips with others girls that have eating disorders. Yahoo has been petitioned to take down such websites, but to no avail. Tumblr cannot stop posts encouraging eating disorders from being made; they can only place warning labels on them to warn viewers of potentially harmful content. Unfortunately for these girls, the models they are aspiring to look like are usually photo-shopped. This causes the models to appear thin and to have flawless skin; in reality, even the models do not possess an ideal body shape. Very few are naturally thin, a factor which the girls striving to be like them cannot change about themselves. Girlguiding UK has petitioned the government to label photos that have been photo-shopped, as two-thirds of girls have eating disorders because of the images of females they see in the media (Girls). In fact, eighty percent of all 10-year-old girls have dieted seriously at least once in their life. These statistics proves that the eating disorders are not just a result of like-minded people's encouragement; the fashion industry is indirectly responsible by fueling unhealthy behaviors with thin models, small clothing sizes, and modified pictures. However, the average teenager is not the only one affected by the unrealistic ideals of the fashion industry. Even fashion models are susceptible to them. Many models are told they are not thin enough to model and must lose a certain amount of weight to achieve the ideal appearance and be successful in their career. Several models have died from eating disorders. Cases like these have moved the fashion industry to set requirements for