The Influence on the World

What kind of example is the ideal ‘size zero’ model setting for adolescent girls or aspiring young models and actresses? The average young girl looks towards these celebrities as role models, people to adore, to want to imitate, to be like. The influence of the media on young girls are encouraging them to look like these skinny celebs, that being a size zero is attainable, acceptable, even ‘beautiful’. Having such an influence is a definitely a main cause in developing eating disorders, because of its obsession with ‘self image’. The fashion and acting industry prove most of the time ‘ignorant’ to what is right, and what is wrong. Young models are asked to be a certain size, to lose weight for an even smaller size, to be encouraged that clothing looks better on their shapeless boy-like bodies. Designers are also partly to blame for the rise in dangerous eating habits among models. The industry has changed!  No longer is the clothing made to fit the models, but now the models must fit into the clothing! It is simply disgusting that after seeing so many deaths of runway models, we still today in 2011, see questionable models on fashion shows, who look as though a feather could push them off the runway. Even the stick-skinny celebrities we see like Victoria Bechkam or Angelina Jolie, remain as ‘role models’, examples, of what every girl wants to be like.

The world has seen the trends of ‘curvy’ and ‘skinny’ come and go through these later generations. Never before has the world however, seen ‘size zero’ become such an addictive trend, than it has been in these recent years. Though the issue of size zero models is still being debated worldwide today, I think we should all take a moment to think about what these sort of industries should be like. Should we not be looking at the clothes on the models, rather than gasping in horror at them, because “...the knee joint is wider than the thigh”*? Should we not be admiring the dresses that float down the red carpet, because we realise how much our curvy hips and skin which no bones seem to poke out of, might change the dress completely?

*Gunn, T. (n.d.) Skinny models a heavy topic in the fashion world. Retrieved April 26, from
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