John Kenneth Galbraith once wrote, “There is certainly
no absolute standard of beauty. That precisely is what makes its pursuit
so interesting.” Beauty
is indeed an ephemeral ideal impossible to qualify. Nevertheless, people
try pretty darn hard to sell a certain look as the model of
attractiveness. In the 80s it was the glamazons blessed with athletic,
warrior princess bodies plastered all over glossy magazine covers. Then
the emaciated heroin chic fad followed, epitomized by the haunting image
of a starved Kate Moss in a pair of size 0 Calvin Klein jeans. Popular
culture continues to exalt the waif; however, today, she flaunts
an ostentatiously glitzy image as opposed to the grungy, ragged fashions
of the 90s.
After featuring Nichole Richie in our wildly popular “Hollywood
Glamour” piece, we at Fashionlines were bombarded with emails demanding
to know the secrets of the starlet’s impressive weight loss. However,
since the release of the aforementioned article, Ms. Richie has gone
from an attractively slender young lady to a gaunt, exhausted media monkey.
Accompanied by her equally withered and ghastly friend, Lindsay Lohan,
she ‘graces’ the pages of every single gossip magazine in
circulation. You can run, but you can’t hide from this skeletal
pair.
The
reasons behind the public’s sickening enthusiasm to witness
these girls’ disintegration into nothingness are lost to me. Are
people completely unable to detect the sad tragedy surrounding glamorous
yet hungry teens? Isn’t it obvious that the media spotlight on
withered celebrities is grooming young and impressionable women to idolize
sunken eyes, hollow cheeks, and protruding bones? Just recently a family
friend’s model-gorgeous daughter told me that she had to loose
15 pounds immediately to save her social life. Needless to say, I was
completely shell shocked.
Striving to be stick-skinny, when one is not genetically
predisposed for such a figure is unrealistic. The unrelenting quest
to achieve a linear silhouette can have serious consequences or even
prove to be deadly. The dangerous fight for smaller skirt sizes can
compromise a person’s
good looks, health, and psychology. There is an ideal height to weight
ratio for each individual and purposely dipping well below that line
can result in heart failure, bone loss and fertility problems.
It is well documented fact that many teens develop serious eating disorders
because they can not cope with the pressure to become or stay thin. Others
turn to drugs or alcohol to keep the appeal of food at bay. In a majority
of the cases, the substance abuse and malnourishment cause irreparable
damage to tender bodies. Is this suffering really worth it to get into
a tiny designer dress or a miniature pair of slacks that may as well
have been cut for a toddler?
The
ultimate symbol of skinny glamour, Kate Moss, has openly confessed to
the world that she never walked down a runway sober, “not even
at ten in the morning.” Today, the super-model extraordinaire is
a member of both Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous—support groups
that provide life-long support for individuals battling addictive daemons.
Despite her recent claims of sobriety, Ms. Moss continues to smoke upwards
of 80 cigarettes per day, and is currently dating a man who has served
hard time on drug-related charges.
For
most people, it is a long way down to size 0 and there simply is no easy
way of getting there. That’s why it’s important to
recognize and appreciate the bevy of stunning, healthy, voluptuous, stylish,
and elegant women out there. Actresses like Scarlet Johansson, Salma
Hayek, Penelope Cruz, Beyoncé Knowles, Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore,
Charlize Theron, and Angelina Jolie are living proof that beauty need
not conform to twig-like physical dimensions.
Aspiring waifs would do well to remember this
pearl of wisdom from the Goo Goo Dolls, “What you feel is what you are, and what you
are is beautiful.” Instead of dropping dress sizes, why don’t
you work on having the courage to feel good about yourself the way you
are? That, after all, is the best way to look gorgeous.
|