EATING DISORDERS AND FASHION

BENJAMIN CARRILLO // EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

There needs to be a CHANGE, and “ “we need to do BETTER...

While body acceptance is all but an unspoken topic, the exclusionist mindset that plagues the modeling and fashion industry is a topic that desperately needs to be addressed more often in the world. There’s an unspoken level of commitment needed to be a significant part of the main fashion world. Just look at the models in any store you’re in. The vast majority, if not all, of the models are the standard for what we as a society deem as beautiful. The bodies aren’t an accurate representation of the figures most have in everyday life, and the plus sized and extremely thin aren’t properly represented. This perpetuates and excludes those body figures, putting a big spotlight on those bodies that shame them and makes those bodies feel like outcasts. This horrid mindset that arises from the blackballing of the “imperfect” bodies normalizes eating disorders. We need to erase the stigma that surrounds the figures of the fashion industry.

When walking into a store, the first thing normally seen is the outfits on display on the mannequins. Now clearly the central focus of the mannequin is the outfits it has on. But the mannequins itself isn’t representative of the majority of familiar bodies in the world.

A third of the population in America is considered

obese. With such a substantive population not fitting the beauty standard, there’s a significant portion of the population with no sort of portrayal on these mannequins. Just while walking past the common Tilly’s, or passing by a Zumiez, there’s absolutely no representation for such a huge amount of people. What’s the point of window shopping when the clothing lines advertised in the windows aren’t representative of the body of who’s shopping?

And sure, the mannequins can only really represent one size. But is the clothing inside any better? Sizes are only getting smaller and smaller. I myself am a 5’6 teen who is relatively scrawny. And yet I’m considered a “large” in stores like Tillys and Zumiez. Seeing the fact that I’m a large only further pushes my curiosity on how other bodies that are bigger than me would be seen in a store. Where’s their representation? Clearly people are bigger than me and taller than me, what’s their size? Sizing charts themselves aren’t a universal measurement unit, and they vary depending on which store you’re at. Because of the lack of a universal standard, there’s lots of room for more exclusion that makes most figures feel even less valued and more like an outsider.

By the fashion industry only honing in on the “normal” beauty standard, there’s an isolation of the portion of society that doesn’t fit the standard. About 28.8 million people in

the US alone suffer from some sort of eating disorder, and while that’s only 9% of the population, 9% is too much.

Psychiatric health expert Timothy J. Legg credits self esteem as a primary cause of eating disorders in the world. The issue of self esteem is obviously rooted from a variety of different issues and ideas. However the modeling industry’s ties with self esteem is even more rooted together than what initially meets the eye.

Despite models already very clearly being beautiful to the eyes of society, those ideals aren’t always the mindset that’s believed within the eyes of any given model. Dr. Adrienne Key estimates that 20-40% of all models have an eating disorder. The fact that percentage is so high is frankly disgusting. If the people who we look up to for beauty have eating disorders from the societal pressures pushed on them, what does that say for everyone else?

We need to do better. Exclusion and hate throughout society has never been successful or brought anything beneficiary to us. This is only further exemplified by the more niche issues that are rooted around society that aren’t instantly shed light on, like the eating disorders perpetuated by the exclusion of certain bodies in society. There needs to be a change, and we need to do better and stay properly informed on not only body exclusion, but any other similar issue that causes a fundamental problem that leads to our world being even harder to live in. Let’s stop excluding and start including, and work towards the goal of making fashion an inclusive art form that makes everyone feel like their expression is valid and brings important conversation to the frontlines.