Tiffany Lang Professor Presnell November 25, 2012 Health of Models: How Much is too Much?

I feel like we should promote health as a part of beauty rather than setting rules. This is a statement from Diane von Furstenberg, the president of the designers council explaining the importance of the effect models have on society, but the fact that there is not much they can do. The modeling industry has a lot more that goes on than what most people imagine. Most models have a tough career and a lot of what they go through on a daily basis affects their health, but it has gotten to the point of affecting the health of people all over the world. Since I am and plan to be involved in the business of photography, this topic interested me a lot. My focus is not going to be fashion photography with models, but I do not know what could end up happening in the future, and if I ever did end up doing that kind of photography I would not be happy if I knew all of the negative things that go on in that industry. I wanted to see for myself what truly goes on underneath the beauty and fashion.

Focus on Health When I began the research for this project I had a totally different view on everything. I thought that there were massive amounts of eating disorders and health problems that occur in the modeling industry. Throughout the research I did, yes, I did

find that there are a lot of issues with the health of models, but fortunately, there is not nearly as much as I had thought there was to begin with. Since models are hired based on their body type, they are generally already tall and skinny. Some do develop eating disorders because they want to look perfect for their modeling, but a lot of them do not have to change anything because that is how they have always been. There definitely are issues though and there is a lot of discussion about how to take care of the health problems that do tend to occur within the modeling industry. The British Fashion Council have recommended that models should be screened and tested for eating disorders, but there is no actual way to screen anyone for anorexia. An employer would have to assume that the model had an eating disorder and that would creating an even larger issue because in America an employer cannot fire someone because they have a disease and eating disorders are looked at as diseases. Even though the right thing to do would be to fire the model if she/he had an eating disorder, it would not be legal in America. There are not many deaths from anorexia or other eating disorders, so even though it is not healthy to have that disease, they probably will be okay eventually. Models are more in risk to die from things like driving a car, like other humans, than an eating disorder. It became obvious that stopping very thin models from doing their job will not help the disease at large because it is already gotten to that point. It is suggested that the disorder is genetic, and not environmental so models and the rest of society cannot take all the blame for the problems with teenagers and eating disorders. With these statistics it is hard to convince the modeling industry to change any rules or regulations they have with the weight of their models, especially here in America.

In the fall of 2006, American designers were trying to do something about the dangerously thin models that are setting the standards of global fashion. There was a meeting held for the Council of Fashion Designers of America and there were guidelines that were announced, but the participants were not too happy with what was said. They did have plans to help the models get more sleep and stick to a healthy diet, but most of the participants were hoping that there would be better plans and ideas that required the models to have an objective measure of health, like what show organizers in Milan and Madrid did, in banning overly skinny models. Like I said before, Americans think that it would be too difficult to measure things like that so they tried to do everything except that. A big disagreement that was talked about is that having a standard Body Mass Index (BMI) would not fair because of different heights and ages of models. It truly is hard to determine if someone is too skinny or not and it puts the people in charge in a bad place either way. Even though many European designers are now putting this rule out, the Americans are still disagreeing on it because it would be unrealistic to create rules on the fashion industry as a whole. They say that it is not anything they do not do already. They believe that they manage the health of their models well enough and having a specification would not be any more helpful than what they already do now. David Bonnouvrier, the chief executive of DNA Model Management, believes that the guidelines they did create will be successful (Radford). He knows that it is a serious issue for people to pay attention to, but they do not have the right to force any changes or change the designers choices.

From what I read in the article in The New York Times, I am not very happy with how this issue is being handled. Most of the people that were interviewed do not show as much concern as I believe should be put out there. They think that they have put forth enough effort and that is enough to make them feel okay with what is going on. People in charge of parts of the modeling industry say that they know there are problems with young girls everywhere, and want to do everything to help, but they are more focused on the fact that it would be too difficult to have a set in stone rule. Ms. Bauer, a nutritionist working for Vogue, says, I get this pressure. The reality is that your entire career is somewhat based on being thin. Its a tricky thing (Radford). They are all aware of what is going on, but they do not seem to do enough to try and change it. The article as a whole seems to be moving in a positive direction, but most of it seems fake to me because I can tell from their quotes that they do not look at this as something that is important to their job as a whole.

What It All Comes Down To There are many pros and cons that are related to a career in modeling. Some people truly love modeling, so having a job that you love to do everyday is definitely an awesome thing. As a model you will get to meet a lot of interesting people while possibly traveling to different places, sometimes there are some cool benefits with clothing and/or makeup, and some companies do pay models quite a lot. If modeling is something that you feel you have been called to do, I am not trying to tell you in this paper that it would not be a bad thing. If you can can manage the stress and stay away

from the difficult parts of being employed in the modeling industry then you can definitely have a very successful career and life. Where the cons start to come in is when the stress really gets to you. It is hard as a model because you are looked at as having the perfect image. In a way it is almost not fair. There is so much pressure since you are what people are going to inspire to look like. One of the most serious health hazards models deal with is substance abuse. They have so much stress to meet the expectations that they have been given and a lot end up in rehab because of it. Another is anorexia or other eating disorders, which I talked about a lot earlier in the paper, and this is from their dieting, exercises, and use of laxatives. After time they often fall to depression too. Models tend to have irregular work schedules because sleep and diet times change, and all of this can end up affecting their health as a whole. Though it is a hard industry to deal with, it definitely is possible to stay successful depending on how you manage yourself.

Plus-Sized Models: What About Them? When thinking about the modeling industry the first image that pops into my head is a girl that looks like a Barbie-doll walking down a catwalk, and I think that most of you would agree with me. We hype up the models we see in magazines or on billboards, but there is so much more to the whole modeling industry than that. Liris Crosse is a model that hosted Curves Rock Fashion in Baltimore, Maryland. She has been in the modeling industry for 16 years now as a plus-size model and her goal has been to show the disparity of plus-size models in the fashion industry. She has also been known to be in many magazines and featured in multiple campaigns for plus-size

clothing companies. Liris helps prove that even if you are a size 10 or up there could be a place for you in the fashion industry and you should not ever doubt yourself. Clearly not all models deal with all of the stereotypical health hazards. Most plus size models do not have any eating disorders, because if they did then they probably would not be fulfilling the full body type that they would need to have in order to be considered a plus size model. They also probably do not deal with drug abuse because they do not have as much pressure to look perfect, like the skinny models. They are very comfortable with their size and what they look like, which is how they got their place as a plus-sized model. This was just a reminder to me that modeling should not always bring a negative view on health.

But There Are Male Models Too! Clearly models have an affect on girls all over the world, but what about males? Most of my research was done and I had totally forgotten that there were male models. It did not even cross my mind for a while, but then it finally hit me and I wanted to include the aspect of male modeling in my paper. It is not something that you would usually think about, but over the past ten years males have become much more conscious about their weight and physical image. Even men who are not involved with modeling or any celebrity-related career care just as much about their weight and physical appearance. About 25% of eating disorders are males so we have clearly underestimated their health problems in this are. These statistics show that thin has become the cultural mainstream because men used to want to look athletic and huge, but now that is even slowly changing. The muscular man is still ideal, but there are a lot more cases of skinny males

than there ever have been before. Male models have it even worse than the other males because the only thing they are truly concerned about is what others perceive them as. There was not as much information on this topic as I was hoping to find, but the increase of male eating disorders is not a good thing for society as a whole.

Wrap It Up Thankfully, I found out that I had overestimated the health problems in the modeling industry. Most of my predictions and thoughts about all of it were correct, but it was to a much less extreme level than I had believed before I went into the research. There clearly are a lot of issues that go on with models, and the whole industry. It is still a problem that is going on and it is a very difficult one to take care of, but at least I see now that they are trying. Maybe they are not doing as much as I would have expected or hoped for, but I think that the movement in Europe is definitely going to be more effective for us here in America as time goes on. They are all working together to help models be the healthiest that they can be, and that is how it should be. No matter what gender, size, or age, no one deserves to let stress or pressure from their jobs in every day life affect their health.

Works Cited

Curves Rock Fashion Weekend: Features Plus Size Super Model. Chicago Citizen Hyde Park Edition. 29 Aug. 2012: 12.MasterFILE Complete. Web. 7 Nov. 2012. "Health Problems in Models in the Modeling Industry."EasternDrugs.com. N.p., 05 2011. Web. 7 Nov 2012. <http://www.easterndrugs.com/blog/generalhealth/health-issues-in-models>. Polly, Vernon. "Thin Is In: In Search Of The Perfect Male Body." Observer 26 Jun. 2010. Web. 7 Nov. 2012. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jun/27/menshealth-weight>. Radford, Benjamin. LIVESCIENCE. 11 2007. Web. 7 Nov 2012. <http://www.livescience.com/1940-real-problems-hidden-thin-fashionmodels.html>. Wilson, Eric. "Health Guidelines Suggested For Models." New York Times. 06 Jan. 2007, Web. 7 Nov. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/06/business/06thin.html?_r=0>.