followxthexyellowxbrickxroad

The music industry. Trust.

Rooo sez BISH PLZ

It is important to point out that this relationship with the body is self-reinforcing and amplified by mediated culture's messages, as a viewpoint that considers the body to be a symbol both results from and contributes to eating disorders, body hatred, and depression. A study published in a 2004 issue of the journal Psychology of Women Quarterly by Janna Kim and L. Monique Ward examined the associations between 205 young women's use of women's magazines, both adult- and teen-focused, and sexual attitudes. One of the sexual scripts commonly presented by women's magazines and analyzed in the study is that girls are encouraged to be independent, but also to devote significant time and effort to upholding their appeal as sexual objects. The study found that women's motivations for reading magazines determined the media's effect on the women's sexual attitudes: reading magazines for sex, beauty, and/or body advice was associated with a stronger endorsement of objectifying one's body. So, in a social climate where our bodies serve as a currency for which we must attain the highest value, media sources such as the ones that the Jezebelles lampoon in Mag Hag add fuel to the fire, providing reinforcement and strategies for increasing our bodies' worth as trophies. No matter the quality of one's relationship with her body or the industry in which one operates, the tendency to treat the body as an object is not purely a personal choice based on vanity or careerism, but rather the result of a social climate that promotes and rewards this perspective.

Mordant_Yogi

@ andromache: I guess that's one reason why I might envy those girls. But I just get my worn jeans patched. And I've learned to say NO to Levi's.

@ unpopular: Hear, hear. I walk everywhere. That's what legs are for, right?

Tarah_Sweeney

denapsu

kami2000

dayglo

You are so right. I am constantly telling my sister/mom/girlfriends not to talk about weight because it so quickly becomes a frenzy of judgement, false reassurances and comparisons. My sister is constantly going on about how much weight she's gained when she's probably 15 pounds lighter than me. When I was my skinniest I was also my most boring because I couldn't stop thinking and too often even talking about exercising and, yes, my thigh measurements.

miele

zivah

When I shop in Manhatten, I get the fat girl treatment. When I bike in the Bronx, it's entirely different: two men actually stopped their truck and told me I needed to eat more and exercise less.

snatchtastic

I work in music, but my office is smack in the middle of the garment district; lunch depresses me because all I see is (short) girls my age tottering around in stilettos buying a diet coke and a banana, and frantically chain-smoking all day long, and portfolio-toting FIT students with their still-healthy BMI's eyeing them up voraciously -- and I admit that I'm a diet-coke-drinking chainsmoker too. The assistants to the designers and buyers and journalists probably have the higher rate of "disorder" than the runway mavens genetically blessed (?) with toothpick legs and razor cheekbones.

fin de siecle

objet_trouve

Witchtit

(You mentioned that your castings increased after your book. Right? I don't think I've missed one of your posts, and I don't recall you mentioning any authorship. If there is a book, what's it about?)

zivah

It is delicious, by the way. Mmmm.

tscheese

I never worked in fashion before this, and I was amazed to find that all of our clients turn down girls who are too thin. In fact there are several big names we haven't re-booked this season because they're just too small and it alienates the public. They don't sell clothes, and that is what is comes down to.

While the models we use probably don't make as much as those doing high end advertising, they do make much better money than those who get editorial or do catwalk, and they get employed for several months at a time if the client likes their look.

Don't get me wrong, they're still not large girls, but we simply wouldn't be able to use someone with a worryingly low BMI, and we've never, ever even once turned someone down because their hips are too big.

There is plenty of work out there for girls who have personalities, are warm and approachable and can get that across on camera. You can't diet into the ability to project happiness. In fact, dieting makes it almost impossible, because nothing makes you feel like a misery guts like living on alfalfa sprouts.

gloryindustries

So true. I went down to a 2-4 by obsessively starving and working out in preparation for a beach holiday. I lived in a constant state of panic: how on earth would I be able to maintain my weight over the longer-term? What if -- horrors -- I got hungry? I had never been so obsessed about size and weight and fat and how I looked than when I was twigletty.

The self-imposed stress just wasn't worth it and I went back to my normal weight. Time to just accept the size twelver that I am and move on. Never want to become that depressed and self-obsessed again.

CatOTO

I have often wondered what it's like to have all that draftiness going on up in my biz. The only time my thighs have ever come close to not touching was when I was about 18 and starving myself. Never again.

tscheese

olivia720

So don't use it.

Isi

Turns out I didn't; I actually picked up some odd kilos. Eeek. I would love to be skinny(ier). Not to fit into a particular size (though that would be great, too), but to be able to run to catch the bus leaving at 8:30am when it's 8:29am and I have to cover a couple of metres and fast!

Alas, I love food, even if just a little bit. What's more, sizing is a problem. I could be a particular size in one store, and yet another size somewhere else. It's frustrating.

So I've decided to adopt a more '50s look: high heels with fuller skirts and dresses. Oh, and it helps if I don't know the garment's actual size. I buy from second hand stores!

Tarah_Sweeney

LaFemme

That said, the size numbers have changed but the ideal measurements have remained tiny: it's called vanity sizing. Perfect seems to have been and remain around a 25" waist. Carole Lombard had a 25" waist. I've seen Marilyn's costumes and they were teeny tiny though labeled a size 12 or 14. She was built like Salma Hayek is now -- tiny but extremely curvy. The size numbers and ideal (athletic, toned) have changed, but the bodies must still be extra small.

StabbyMcStabberson

At the store today, I had to reassure the cashier that I didn't have an eating disorder before she'd let me purchase Slim Fast (it's either that or no lunch some days). I've even had strangers in elevators ask me if I'm anorexic. While I may be thin, I love food and I certainly don't have an eating disorder. I just happen to be thin in the same way that I happen to have brown eyes.

I'm not trying to pull a "poor little rich girl" thing here, but it is difficult to read comments that imply that there is something wrong with me being me. I don't go around asking other people about their eating habits or judging them because of their weight. All I ask is that the favor is returned.

Just had to put my two cents in. :)

Artara

Just goes to show: standards change, so f-ck 'em and do whatever keeps you healthy.

laughingacademy

LaFemme

Keep your priorities in order and your head on your shoulders to take it all in. And at the end of the day, your smarts and personality, along with kindness and compassion will get you farther than a pretty face or a nice body.

I think that attractive is nice. It is for most people. But at the end of the day, it is more of a bonus that should have a rockin' personality and skill set behind it.

LaFemme

Uh, I don't know how much Adult Swim's Metalocalypse appeals to Jezzies, but this is pure awesomeness and great satire on fashion and dieting.

toothsome

...And this ties in with my personal feelings of *very* strong pity for little girls who are considered "beautiful." IMHO little girls should be raised with self images of being strong or smart. That way, after they have gone through the "image wars" of dealing with how other people see them, then can eventually come back to earth and remember that, after all, they are strong and/or smart.

moretoastplease

My bf is constantly telling me how hot and sexy I am but there's that stupid voice in the back of my head that needs a permanent beat down...

SweatsuitHaven

sparklytoesfairydustbutt

And hoodies, ah yes, so comortables. I also like the draw string cotton capris with pockets from Target for keeping my stuff organized. Only $9.99. As I mentioned, the money saved by getting off the fashion merry-go-round is absolutely unreal. Don't get me wrong, I like nice things, and I seriously covet a Birkin bag, but paying $$$ for the seasonal whims of a few, while increasingly the products are of poor to middling quality? $800 for a microfiber Prada bag? C'mon, now...

@sane_in_berzerkeley: Wasn't there post here recently on the body image pressures escalating in China, especially in relation to the Olympics? Alarming.

Anywho, again I seriously encourage Tatiana to write a book. Your articulate voice of reason, spoken from inside the eye of the body image storm, would be of immense benefit to so many. And you know we Jezzies will be first in line to buy it. Think of the fun booksigning parties!

StabbyMcStabberson

Also, I only wish I had an ass. Mine, unlike the rest of me, is pretty much concave.

I love this post. Interesting world.

Scoithniamh

And yes, it can get drafty. And embarassing if I'm horny and not sufficiently undergarmented.

larkknot

tell Dolly Parton again

The part about how every client wants a different look reminds me of the different beauty standards around the world. Last year, I got accosted by a random stranger on a Taipei sidewalk, frantically telling me that I could get some serious medical "treatment" for my freckles. She was appalled when I told her that I was perfectly OK with my skin as it was.

I walked away laughing, but it must be so hard to deal with this on an everyday basis in the modeling industry.

sane_in_berzerkeley

HeatherNumber1

unpopular

jesspgh

Thanks for the laugh :)

WantToTouchtheWahine

Halliburton

StabbyMcStabberson

vanessa27

Anyhow. Loved the article.

bourgeoisie

bourgeoisie

Tatiana_Anymodel

Le Kangourou de Kataroo

StabbyMcStabberson

Also, Tatiana, please write a book. I will be your agent.

xo from your bfff -
Roo

Rooo sez BISH PLZ

unpopular

StabbyMcStabberson

bjchilipepper

I recently deleted the last of that insanity from my computer. It was scary!

meaverly (rhymes with "beverly")

It's disturbing how body image insecurity, distortion, and obsession is spreading to men more and more. We should all be accepting of our own and others bodily variations. Stop the madness!

StabbyMcStabberson

Tatiana_Anymodel

Anyway, this article is fantastic, as always, but I am finding it hard to believe that you can't buy porridge and brown sugar in Paris. Don't they have any treeplanters or impoverished prairie youth there? Oh, they don't? My bad.

Lowti

I also want to support what you said about the insane standard of measured thinness being a very old thing, though sizes have been changed. A 24 inch waist was ideal. I was a borderline anorexic teen in the 80's, before Cindy, Naomi, Tyra, and the other "glamazons" so I remember in great detail. Size 6 was considered only acceptable once those supermodel bodies came into fashion in the 90's. In the 70's and 80's thighs could not touch, had to be angular, and there was no curve allowed in the hips and butt of designer jeans. Angles, not curves. Emaciated and malnourished was IN. There really is nothing new under the sun.

I also counted out calories of oatmeal, but thought the brown sugar too calorie-laden, so ate it with only water or skim milk. *sigh*

StabbyMcStabberson

The other thing that makes me really deeply sad (to be honest) is that so many of us respond commenting about our own bodies and comparing them here -- for all our forward-thinking and our desire to dismiss it all, we can't help comparing. BAH.

fin de siecle

Tatiana_Anymodel

I don't think rejecting a model for having 39" hips makes you an asshole per se -- but making models do a presentation under burning hot film lights is culpably negligent.

[jezebel.com]

Tatiana_Anymodel

serialnick

marin79

dumbwater

Oh, and my thighs don't touch when I stand up with my feet together, and I weigh 250 pounds. I'm an apple with great stems, as my grandpa used to say - so the "shoulds" don't work. Fuck 'em - my legs can walk all over town and kick me down the pool, so that's all I care about.

unpopular

DanishPastry

Archetype

And whatever, everyone's thighs touch each other when they're on the toilet. I mean, I hope so.

midoriland

*disclaimer: the last time I took a trig class was 9 years ago, and I never really got it, so this probably makes no sense.

OrianaVox

Was this cross-posted?

Archetype

P.S. I'm a guy and I'm not gay and I have a fiance. But I live to be thin.

Monster Chalk

wigglepuppy

beerme

Just this weekend, a friend said that she had once been told that your legs should form three triangles when standing- one between the thighs above the knees, one at the top of the calves, and another at the ankles. I stood up to figure out if my legs looked the way they "should" look before remembering that it was total bullshit. I'm kind of embarrassed it took me a minute to realize that there is no should. Work in progress.

Scoithniamh

@andromache: i have long legs (35 inch inseam, natch). It's so freakin' hard to find pants that fit, that when you do it's like you can hear angels singing from the heavens above. the grass is always, ALWAYS greener.

Le Kangourou de Kataroo

Bahahhaha! That was the best comment ever. I call my ass a flotation device too!

TheOtherJen

This is applicable to so much more than modeling, and I can't help but think that the world would be a better place if everyone could internalize that. Thank you.

(It took me forever to learn it when I auditioned for roles, but I'm finally getting there. This helped. So, again, thanks.)

boozyj

andromache

I really like this post, Tatiana - it's nice to see that you were pretty quickly able to see through the BS and seem to be very perceptive about the industry.

spryte

The Boyg

So so so well put! I've been there/done that with the ED/DE thing and I'm doing okay now, but just about freaked out last week when I was cleaning out my closets and found my zeros from high school and/or more recent ED months and got pissed at myself for not being able to fit into them anymore. And then I had to remind myself that I haven't been 14 for 10 years. And that 14 year olds are just that... FOURTEEN. And I don't want to be 14 again thank you very much. Anyway... thank you for that sentence. It will be my new mantra.

OhhYeah

dearcoquette

Lizawithazee

OrianaVox

dearcoquette

It's taken me over a year as a professional to distance myself from my designs. It's not that I don't care anymore, but it's just not as embedded in my existence anymore. I like it MUCH better this way. So kudos to you for being so tough as a model. You're clearly experienced and intelligent enough to handle it, and damn it, what an awesome job.

Lipstickiller

Archetype

Sukie in the Graveyard

Archetype

I will have to read this every day to remind myself of what it means to be ME.

I am not too much of anything - I am not less either.

I am only now accepting the fact that this body is the one I get.

You have no idea how incredibly important you are, Tatiana.

Sukie in the Graveyard

andBegorrah

OrianaVox

Honestly, the biggest impact on my body image has been those around me. My boss going on and on about how much weight he's lost, coworkers telling me to enjoy my body "while I still have it," my mother asking me if I've lost weight/how much I weigh, etc.

I've found that the more weight I lose, the more obsessed I become. I think this is true for many women.

So, working in an industry where your body is your product and constantly discussed as if an intangible object...let's just say I can understand how so many girls would have problems.

Archetype

mllej if you're nasty

OrianaVox

JessicaLovejoy: Wanton Trollop

robyns

pureblarney

That's really creepy when you think about it. What if a model really does break her ankle? Or seriously hurts herself? Be perfect or die.

JessaFields

Also -- when do people generally become considered "too old" to model?

In my industry (definitely not modeling) women are ideally 25-35. Any younger than that (me), people ask if we're the intern, and any older than that (as is the case with a friend/coworker), people ask if we're sure we're still in touch with what's next in our industry.

Ttteri

"Self-examination... I do not think it means... what you think it means."

pureblarney

The best I can do is show up. That is a very good approach. However, I do believe it is particularly esteem-crushing in the world of fashion.

Hirondelle

OrianaVox

CherriSpryte

OrianaVox

KimberleeJ

Rummy_McGin

Lymed

Scarion

It's not quite white noise to me yet, because I haven't met with as much success in my field as Tatiana has to have confidence in my own methods.

I love this feature.

distractedbyshinyobjects

brendastarlet

nyobserver

How great would it be if all women said, "we're wearing Dickies and white t-shirts, and not spending a penny, until you all quit fucking with us."

unpopular

OrianaVox

LittleNemo

Needless to say, he's very eager for me to find a therapist.

I can't imagine working in an industry such as yours.

Archetype