Becoming Fashion Slaves

All women remember since they are young their mothers always telling them to have their hair brushed, to wear clean undergarments, to wear a little lip gloss. The ballet teacher will always complain about your posture or a little love handle here and there. The fashion industry also has its ugly face, sarcastically because of the “perfect” women seen in television and runways worldwide. It is a world where the stress and pressure to remain thin reigns so much that even little girls as young as 5 years old are starting to worry about their bodies and becoming fashion slaves.

Fashion dictates an esthetic very difficult to achieve, especially for the younger generation. Some models are extremely skinny, some in an unhealthy state, and the younger girls believe that this is how they have to look, because these are the women they look up to and the women who sell the clothes that they want to wear. At an early age, every woman learns that to be successful in love or work; makeup, fashion and beauty always play a main role, but limits exist.

Some girls envision that being skinny is the same as being beautiful and this is the greatest misconception in this industry leading to mental and eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. Beauty is skin deep, a beautiful body is not precisely the fit and skinny one, and teenagers for example are always making fun of the “fat” girls at school.

Some advertising campaigns have tried to help this social problem by implementing real women in their ads for the consumer to consider the product even more just by confirming that you don’t have to be as perfect as the models that were associated with it before. Also, some designers and runway producers are implementing weight restrictions for models to appear on their shows, showing that they are healthy, since this has been some of the biggest polemic in the industry for the past years.

These dilemmas not only relate to the runway, it can also translate to a regular shopping day, not all clothing lines count with bigger sizes for regular bodies and this is a great downer for a girls shopping day out when you have skinnier friends who can fit in any mini skirt or tight dress. Clothing should adapt to people, not people to clothes because then, comfort plays a huge part on the depressing and mental problems this person can go through due to mental overweight issues.

It is true that the female image is used to sell everything, but it is important to know that these models selling the clothes are not perfect, it is a profession and their pictures get retouched and manipulated to accomplish the perfect form and figure. Health is not measured in numbers, being a size 14 is a reality in our population, but we can sometimes confuse being skinny with being healthy. You should always be yourself and quit being a fashion slave.