ENG 150

18 October 2012

The Negative Effects of the Fashion Industry on Eating Disorders

While it’s fashion week in London, the size “zero” models start to prepare for the big show by purging to be as thin as possible. Most models starve themselves in order to achieve the “waif”, stick-thin figure; it becomes so addictive, almost like second nature that it further leads to serious eating disorders. From recent studies, today’s model weighs about 23% less than the normal woman. Clearly, most models do not depict the average woman. Men and women all over the world follow the influences that the fashion industry provides. They believe that the fashion industry depicts on what society should be acknowledged as, picture-perfect thin. …show more content…

This is a significant and disturbing difference. As Hooke emphasizes, “Sufferers are often presumed to pore over the pages of glossy magazines and starve themselves in their aspirations to become glamorous, thinner-than-thin sex goddesses,” she then concludes how the industry destroyed her life. Women give in and fall into temptation, but why? These “normal” women are beautiful they way they are, but in fashion terms, they are considered morbidly obese in comparison. As Holly Brubach, New York Times Magazine journalist, argues,

Models starve themselves the way football players take steroids, jeopardizing their health and longevity for celebrity and wealth. More surprising, perhaps, and certainly no less alarming, is it the realization that dieting has become so commonplace that the skeletons on the catwalk simply strike us as more expert than the rest of us (1).

As Brucach further describes how the fashion industry and their models compel everyday women to give up meals, she also observes that the Internet provides sufferers starvation tips. Commonly called promote anorexia, or “pro anas”. There are many blogs and forums that pro anas flock to for tips. One teenage girl professed, “Splurged and had 7 grapes, I can’t believe it. I cannot eat tomorrow. Please send skinny thoughts my way!” Another pro ana, calls herself MelancholyMiss states in forum Lard Ass