Body Image: Being Proud of Reality

by Melanie Dunn

One of the highest concerns for young people today is body image and how we are expected to conform to a particular shape.

From around the mid 1990s it was fashionable to be super-skinny. However the negative impact of these expectations on youth in particular has initiated a body image war.

Young people were, and still are, developing illnesses such as anorexia and bulimia in an effort to conform to societal expectations and to look like the models in magazines.

As recently as last century, it was considered a good thing to be curvaceous; celebrities such as Marilyn Munroe and Elizabeth Taylor were considered sex symbols and an inspiration for curvier women everywhere.

So what happened to society to make them believe that being excessively skinny is healthy, and that developing an eating disorder is the only way to achieve it?

Supermodels like Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss were large influences in the wafer-thin look and since the introduction of airbrush technology, photographs have been edited to get rid of their ‘wobbly bits’ and to make models appear skeletal.

For example, a recent image for Calvin Klein has sparked outrage. It depicts Megan Fox, who was once envied for her natural curves, in the branded underwear looking skeletal and painfully thin.

The introduction of the 2010 Voluntary Industry Code of Conduct on Body Image has had a positive impact on society’s idea of ‘beautiful’, beginning with disclosing when images have been digitally manipulated.

Ex-Victoria’s Secret Angel Miranda Kerr bucked the trend of being super-skinny by appearing on the catwalk while pregnant, and while the Australia’s Next Top Model 2009 winner, Tahnee Atkinson,  was slammed for her size ten frame, I believe her to be a great role model for young women as she has embraced her body and has not conformed to the expectations of the modelling industry to become a size 6.

I realise that it is not healthy to be overweight or obese, but neither is it healthy to look like a skeleton, so I encourage women (and men) everywhere to be proud of their body as everyone is unique and it is one of the things that make you who you are.