Life Desk :
If you are stressing over those 2015 resolutions – to hit the gym, sleep earlier and eat right, chill. Not striving to be a perfect 10 is the new trend. Israel has gone a step further and come down hard on poor eating. The country rang in the New Year by imposing a ban on underweight models so as to address its larger eating disorder. As per a rule, models there will have to maintain a BMI of 18.5 or higher if they want to continue to be employed. It’s not just this eating policing, 20-year-old model Chantelle Brown-Young, who has vitiligo (a skin disease that makes pigments disappear, resulting in white patches on skin), has embraced her condition and says, “It’s those quirks that make you gorgeous.” She has become the darling on social media and has been bagging top fashion campaigns.
Popular doll now comes with stretch lines, cellulite: Worried about the impact that unrealistic body image will have on younger girls, in November 2014, a popular doll that earlier sported ‘perfect’ body proportions and flawless skin, came out with stretch marks and spots. Not just the basic image, the doll also comes with accessories like stick-on cellulite, stretch marks, freckles, acne, moles, stitches, scrapes and bruises, scars, mosquito bites, dirt stains and glasses. According to its website, it is ‘the first fashion doll made according to typical human body proportions, to promote realistic beauty standards’. Its designer, Nickloay Lamm, was quoted in an interview as saying, “Acne, cellulite, stretch marks, are all normal things to have, nothing to be ashamed about. Real is cool.”
Celebs against photoshop: The fight against so called ‘perfection’ has been gaining ground since a while now. Last year, 29-year-old British actress Keira Knightley doffed her top as a statement against altered images in the media. While singer Lady Gaga was irritated about her ‘skin being too perfect’ on a magazine cover, Beyonce reportedly lost her cool after a swimsuit brand altered her body shape. When a magazine cover reportedly altered Kate Winslet’s look, she is said to have retorted, saying, “I do not look like that and more importantly, I don’t desire to look like that.”
Unrealistic body image standards are dangerous: Our perception of beauty is distorted and is bringing up a host of negative beliefs, warns psychologist Dr Seema Hingorrany. She says, “I think people today, especially youngsters, are obsessed with this unfortunate aim to be ‘ideal’. I have seen teens demanding their parents let them undergo cosmetic surgery. Another 18-year-old who has a higher body weight was totally depressed. She said society only liked ‘thin people’ and felt she would not be accepted anywhere or even get a job. This kind of thinking can have a detrimental effect. Having a doll with stretch marks and more realistic images of models and actresses can be a reality check, which is the need of the hour. People must realise personality is not just about physical attributes, there is so much more than that!”
-Internet
