Feminist Looking Glass

A recommendation from the UK’s Royal College of Psychiatrists could lead to warning labels being attached to photoshopped pictures of models. The college cited research evidence that suggests the media’s role in the existence of eating disorders in girls. The group also called for a ban on underweight models in London’s fashion week.

The argument that fashion advertising leads to obsession with unattainable beauty standards is not a new one. Standards of thinness have been criticized for years, as well as inclusion of racial groups. Magazines like Vogue have an appallingly low rate of women of color on the cover. And even Vanity Fair has gotten heat for depicting the “new faces of Hollywood” as entirely white and thin (particularly ridiculous, considering the fact that many 2009 movies featured rising young women of color in lead roles). But the issue of photoshopping has gotten more prominence since Ralph Lauren’s controversial ad campaign, featuring a cartoonish photoshopped Filippa Hamilton (pictured below, juxtaposed with her natural body shape):

Obviously fashion ads aren’t the only contributing factor to disordered eating in girls and women. But its not a leap to suggest that the absence of ‘normal’ or healthy bodies from the fashion industry contributes to body image problems. And when great liberties are taken with photo manipulation, leading to completely unrealistic waistlines, the standards are shifted even further into the unattainable.

Photoshop and digital enhancement is used in nearly every type of media production, and attaching “warning labels” to each of these wouldn’t be possible. But when such extreme thinness is glorified, its hurting a culture that should be telling girls of all shapes to value themselves. We put warning labels on alcohol and smoking ads, so should we attach them to beauty ads to expose the truth? What do you think? Should advertisements like these feature a label that states: women in photos are, in reality, larger than they appear?

Filed under: Advertising, Health, International, Pop Culture, Race/Ethnicity Tagged: | Advertising, anorexia, beauty, eating disorders, fashion, psychology, sexism