We are not here to say that the women in the original The
Perfect "Body" advertisement are healthy, unhealthy, unrealistic, or
anything of the sort; after all, we cannot, and should not, judge a person's
health or un-health just by looking at them (ever). Were they airbrushed? Yes,
likely they were. And you know we, and many of you, take issue with that. But
that's not what we take issue with today. What we take issue with today
is that Victoria's Secret's response to several impassioned complaints, was to
edit their advertisement slogan to read, "A body for every
body"...all-the-while this amended slogan accompanied 'models' of similar
height and shape as in the original advertisement. The Founder of +Binge Eating Disorder Association (BEDA), +Chevese Turner,
called the edited
slogan, "Insulting." We agree. However, we also found one good thing
about their insulting response, and that is: they
really missed the boat with any attempt at fooling us with any
uber-subliminal
advertising; because it's actually really blatant. Right? It's not like
they
fooled many people into thinking: "Gee whiz, Victoria's Secret REALLY
cares about promoting a healthy body image for every body. What an
awesome new
slogan and diversity of models!" And yet, the sad fact remains: they
probably did fool a lot of
people in to buying their "Perfect Shape" product. Our hope is that
this response by Victoria’s Secret might serve as a
wake-up call to everyone who spends their money there: you get what you
pay
for, including rather shoddy responses to a call for less perfection and
more body diversity. But if Victoria's Secret is where you choose to
spend your money, we’re not judging you or
telling you to stop. We’re simply calling your attention to, and asking
you to pause and consider, the way this company responded to the voices of many concerned advocates.
The purpose of this blog isn’t only to shine light on
Victoria’s Secret’s most recent ‘no-surprise-there’ advertisement. We
also wanted to bring up something over which eating disorder advocates and
activists have voiced concern more and more lately and goes hand-in-hand with
The Perfect “Body” concerns and complaints: Many companies seem to ‘promote’ a
certain body type via their advertising (and it’s generally the body of a tall,
thin, white woman); and many companies like Victoria’s Secret and La Perla
lingerie use mannequins and models that have ribs showing. Many of us
activists and advocates do not, in the least, like what we see when we see these ads
and mannequins, if for no other reason than because we are all too aware that
the dissemination of unrealistic body standards has been linked to eating
disorders. So we find ourselves wanting to DO SOMETHING about these
mannequins and models, and our gut reaction is often to scream, “OMG! Are you
nuts? Pull that sickly looking mannequin with the ribs showing out of your
store now!”, or “Hello?! Use more models of darker skin tones, because um, gee
guess what: not everyone is “white”!” As leaders in the field
of eating disorder advocacy, we have been giving a lot of thought to what kind
of advocacy action and message we can create (short of calling for Congress to
ban size “000” (triple zero), mannequins with ribs showing and/or celebrities
who “look anorexic” selling products), to constructively address these
issues. What we need to consider is that if we as advocates begin judging
a person’s or mannequin’s health by his/her/its appearance, then we perpetuate
the myth that you can tell if someone is healthy, ill or has an eating
disorder, just by looking at them. If we say one ‘extreme’ size is not ok
because it “promotes eating disorders,” we also suggest that the opposite
extreme is true --which is size discrimination at best, weight-bullying at worst. Our field, including you as EDC advocates, has
worked long and hard to dispel the myths that you can tell the health of
someone by what they look like/what size they wear, and we don’t want to undo
that worthy work.
Therefore, our call to action is this: We will
advocate to encourage the promotion of healthy bodies and healthy body images,
and honor the fact that healthy bodies come in a variety of colors, ages,
genders, shapes and sizes!! We will advocate to urge caution that you
cannot tell by looking at someone if they are healthy or ill, or if they have
an eating disorder. We will advocate to educate that being
judged by
weight or appearance is a long-standing and harmful battle that millions
with (and without) eating disorders and their loved ones have faced,
and that far too many
patients have gone to their doctor to report their behaviors and
symptoms, only
to be told they look “fine,” their doctor “wishes I had more patients as
thin
as you,” or, “you don’t look underweight,” rather than their health
concerns
being taken seriously and looked at objectively. Finally, we will
advocate to encourage all people that we must not make judgment calls about
what a person or mannequin looks like on the outside, or what size clothes they
wear; we must look beyond what we see on the outside, lest our good intentions
serve to perpetuate the myth that you can tell just by looking at someone
whether or not they are ill, healthy, or suffering an eating (or other
‘invisible’) disorder.
As advocates linked by a cause, we have power. Let’s raise our voices together to “Speak Out and Speak Up!”,
each in our own unique way, and let’s do so with a kind and enlightened
approach, including by appreciating all bodies and striving for health for all, regardless
of size.
Lastly,
we just want to say to each of you: please don't
ever let anyone’s marketing influence you to believe anything less than
the
truth that YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL BECAUSE YOU ARE ALIVE!! ...and part of
being alive is being uniquely you, aging, having a body that isn't in
need of airbrushing, and not comparing your body to the body of anyone
else. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL BECAUSE YOU ARE ALIVE!! That's not a slogan designed to sell
you anything.
That's a 'slogan' to simply remind you of the TRUTH :-)
~Thank you for your advocacy. We look forward to seeing you soon at National Lobby Day, Spring 2015 to "Speak Out and Speak Up!" ~
(ps; we'll announce the date for spring Lobby Day just as soon as the Congressional calendar is released)
