Coco Rocha is the latest model to come out against the fashion industry's stubborn adherence to a super-skinny aesthetic on the runway. Rocha has recently gone on the record saying that she has lost jobs because her body is too big now that she's reached the ripe old age of 21.We remember when Rocha was a featured speaker at a CFDA Health Initiative forum back in 2008, where she confessed that a day in the life of a typical model involved hearing sensitive comments like, "We don't want you to be anorexic--we just want you to look like you are." She also admitted that an agent had once advised her to throw up after meals and that she had used diuretics to control her weight. Today, Rocha has a healthier outlook: “You know what, I’ve stopped caring. If I want a hamburger, I’m going to have one. No 21-year-old should be worrying about whether she fits a sample size.” The same cannot be said for many industry insiders, who, despite their attendance at the CFDA forums, are still upholding the unhealthy standard of hiring pre-pubescent girls and then routinely rejecting them when they start showing the first signs of curves.
“A lot of people are accountable, and nobody’s saying anything about it,” says James Scully a well-known fashion industry casting agent. “What happens when these girls develop and turn into women?” Well, it looks like they get the axe.
"A Model's Prospects: Slim and None" [NY Times]
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4 comments:
Great article. I have daughters and I am trying to teach them not to look at these girls as an example of what they should be. They need to feel happy with who they are- their uniqueness. I don't want them to fall in the same trap that these models do- not eating to feel accepted. Somehow we need to teach girls self worth and to take a stand against these false messages of beauty.
When did we as a society declare that we wanted to see super skinny models in magazines and on the runway? Who are they selling too, because no 'normal' person can actually fit into the clothes they are designing. I mean if Coco Rocha is too big for their clothing, then what chance do we all have? It's insane and only adding more fuel to the increase in eating disorders and body image issues.
There is something so disturbing about clothes for women being marketed through images of bodies that aren't allowed to look fully developed.
I keep noticing that often "plus size" models are just real size women. Then how must women who are heavier feel? Yikes. It's scary.
Hooray for being able to eat a burger! I do that a lot, and get a lot of enjoyment out of it :)
This is so distressing. Girls and women deserve much healthier media images than what we get - it hurts all of us to have such a restricted standard of "beauty" and "ideal." UGH.
The Healthy Media for Youth Act is a Girl Scouts-supported bill that seeks to address this. It would do three things: encourage media literacy programs for youth; facilitate research on the health effects of media; and call for the adoption voluntary standards for more girl-positive media.
To support this bill, you can visit girlscouts4girls.org and send a letter of support to your Representative! Let's make sure that the future of girls doesn't involve the same experiences of Coco Rocha and countless other women!
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