Okay, this is a response not only to this ask, but also the few others I got, any I feel are coming my way, and some comments I’ve seen people adding re: this post. Doing it like this so people Can reblog it if they so choose.
I don’t …what. Well first all of those Victoria’s Secret models LOOK the same height. I’m fairly sure I read somewhere they HAD to all be the same height/exact same measurements etc. But let’s move on to the rest of that message:
I THINK what you are trying to tell me is that I have to have a certain waist-to-hip ratio for men to find me attractive. Which …I don’t even know how to respond to because you’ve missed the point so completely. As an aside, there might be a certain ratio that is attractive NOW but it’s not like it’s something that is hardwired into our DNA. It’s purely societal and different societies even today find different shapes attractive, not to mention during different time periods in history. For example: during the Renaissance plump women were the ideal and during the 20s skinny girls with flat chests were found very attractive, while today we are apparently supposed to be very thin with huge tits and ass. *g*
The whole point of the Dove campaign is that people of all shapes and sizes are attractive and you should be happy in your own body instead of trying to look like some “ideal” form of beauty, which is what the VS models represent since they are all very uniform (and unrealistic for most people) in their measurements.
Now the Dove campaign is obviously not perfect and they are still excluding many people but it is still a step in the right direction. I also would like point out that I’m not saying the Dove women are beautiful and the VS women aren’t. And I don’t care that they probably “put in a lot of work to get those bodies”. That’s not even the point. The point is that most of the population cannot achieve that body type without starving themselves and making some pretty unhealthy life choices. I’m not saying whether or not those models are starving themselves because I don’t know them and maybe they can be that thin and still be healthy; some people can.
But MOST people can’t and I feel like we as a society need to focus more on being HEALTHY than being SKINNY because the two are not the same thing. I know girls that weigh 200 pounds and eat healthy and work out every day, and girls that weigh 120 pounds that eat only junk food and lay around doing nothing all day. Genetics isn’t the only factor that contributes to weight and you can’t just lay around and go “oh I have bad genes”, but it does play a part and some people will just never weigh 120 pounds. Just because one girl is skinnier doesn’t mean she has a healthier lifestyle.
So basically, my problem with Victoria’s Secret is that they promote an unrealistic and, to many people, unhealthy body image that makes millions of girls feel bad about their own bodies. I look forward to more hate mail I suppose.
When I was four my mother enrolled me in ballet as my “girly” activity. That and I loved to move and music so it worked. I danced all the way up until I completely destroyed my ankle and wouldn’t be able to anymore. During that time I had some incredible instructors who didn’t focus on the fact that I’m short and, well at the time, solid. Thick, not fat as my girlfriends like to say now. However I had one instructor when I was 13-14 that would rag on my weight so badly that I developed an eating disorder. Now I was extremely, let me say that again because I cannot stress this enough, extremely lucky in that another instructor realized what was going on and gave me the help and support I needed to get healthy again. She helped me realize that I was beautiful just the way I was and I think it’s very important that every young person be taught this, no matter race, shape, sexuality, creed or gender. Period.
