fat beauty?

I was watching TV a few weeks ago, and was appalled to see a broadcast about “fat beauty pageants.” This report discussed how some places are starting to host beauty pageants for plus sized girls. In Beersheba, Israel, the Miss Fat and Beautiful competition is a beauty contest for women weighing 176lbs or more. In my last post I discussed the possibility of society rejecting the ideology that skinny= beautiful. This Fat and Beautiful pageant is the biggest slap in the face to skinniness, and the biggest rejection to thinness. In a society where thinness is power, it is now being challenged and shown that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. Weighing in at 198 pounds, 23-year-old student Tanya Veiman was the night’s winner of the Miss Fat and Beautiful. She was awarded with a diamond ring and a one-year contract with a modeling agency among other prizes. Contests such as these encourage a woman that being overweight is okay. It is hosted in order to boost confidence and force us to question the norms society has imposed on us. But has this gone too far? Are we being too nice? Should fat people be rewarded with such big prizes for being big? According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “during the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States and rates remain high. In 2010, no state had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%. Thirty-six states had a prevalence of 25% or more; 12 of these states (Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia) had a prevalence of 30% or more.” Obesity is a huge issue, especially in America, and is related to many conditions and diseases such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes, as well as linked to certain types of cancer, and in extreme conditions, death. If we are fighting obesity in order to prevent these diseases, why are we simultaneously praising and awarding overweight people? Have we come to just reject the idea of skinniness because people can’t seem to obtain it? Are we just feeling sympathetic for overweight women and trying to make them feel better by hosting beauty pageants? With America making such a strong effort to encourage people to loose weight and be healthy, I cant help but question why these beauty pageants are necessary.

IssueReport#1

With NY Fashion Week having just recently ended, we are talking about the beautiful collections designers have created, the excitement of the shows, and of course how thin the models are. There’s no doubt that celebrities and faces in the media are thin, but are we coming to an age that is rejecting the idea that skinniness equals beauty?

The young adults being raised in today’s generation are extremely tech-savvy and seem to understand that most of the pictures we see today are Photo-shopped, and that girls do not actually look like that in real life.

In a 2007 recent study by AC Nielson, when asked about the weight and appearance of models, “An overwhelming 81 percent of online consumers agree that female fashion models and celebrities are ‘too thin’,” said Mr. Stephen Mitchell, Managing Director, ACNielsen New Zealand.” Particularly, “Norway (94%), New Zealand and Switzerland (92%), and Australia (90%) topped global rankings for the ‘too thin’ debate.” Closer to home here in the USA, “87 percent of respondents said female fashion models are “too thin.”

In a more recent study, The Girls Scouts of America released results of a 2010 survey of 1,002 girls ranging in ages 13-17. From the results, “most teen girls dislike and reject the thin body image often seen in the fashion industry: When girls were asked what they thought about the typical fashion model’s body, 65 percent stated it was “too skinny.” Nearly as many (63 percent) said it was unrealistic, 47 percent said “unhealthy,” and nearly a third (28 percent) said the body shape was “sick.”

These results are a real improvement from the days not even 7 years ago, when models weight and the reflection it leaves on young girls where a huge media frenzy. What is even more impressive is companies such as Dove promoting “Real Beauty” campaigns, which showcases women with an assortment of body types. Iconic designer Karl Lagerfeld even used plus-size model Crystal Renn for his Cruise Collection at Londons Fashion Week Spring 2011.

With a growing number of people rejecting the too-thin appearance of beauties in the media, do we have to worry less about eating disorders and body image complexes in young girls? Will we finally come to a period in time where not one body type is what is beautiful, but an overall acceptance of beauty in all types of frames and figures? I figure that just like the time it took to come to this point, in a few more years we will be seeing more and more realistic body images in the media.

Abduction

Over this weekend, I went to see Abduction starring Taylor Lautner. There were many signs warning me not to waste money on this “film” like the critics review saying “Don’t See it” and then the fire alarm going off in the cinema, but I was determined to stay till the end. I should of listened to the warnings: this was by far one of the worst movies I have seen all year. Aside from the expected terrible acting, I was completely lost in the plot of the movie. There were more close ups of Lautner’s facial structure, that I found myself thinking, “Why didn’t he just become a model instead of an actor? Clearly he loves standing still having people gawk at his beauty.”
I want to write about the plot, but I am still scratching my head. There were a group of “bad guys” chasing after Lautner, trying to kill him because they thought he had some list they wanted. They wanted to use him as a ransom so they could get his “real father ”  yet they were trying to kill him the whole time. In some movies, the “that would never happen” scenarios are what make it interesting, but in this one, I kept laughing to my brother, “what the hell?!”
Which brings me to my main point. Are viewers more likely to see a movie because of whose in it rather than what theme they would prefer? Is the best way to make a movie sell by putting a terrible but attractive and marketable Taylor Lautner (and many more) as the star of a feature film? It’s a shame because there are plenty of other low budget films and upcoming actors that deserve credit and spotlight than the poor excuse for talent that is constantly debuted in the media.