Extreme thinness among models is “not really new — this kind of thing is cyclical,” she said. But this time around, she added, “it seems to echo the current political climate.”
Political???
Peer pressure to diversify the runway in the wake of the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements led to a noticeable shift in conceptions of beauty, [said David Bonnouvrier, a founder of DNA Model Management]. But with D.E.I. now under scrutiny as part of the Trump administration’s war on wokeness, its fashion expression, including diversity of size, is under pressure. A retreat to the most conservative and traditional approach for showcasing clothes means a retreat to old-fashioned stereotypes of beauty. And that generally translates to homogenous, largely white and thin models, despite the fact that such body types are not representative of the fashion-buying population at large.
Hmmm. I would have thought it was the new drugs. Everyone always wanted to be thin, but unable to get there, they participated in a group fantasy that celebrated the place where they found themselves.
I just heard this on the new episode of the Joe Rogan podcast. The guest is Chris Williamson (of "Modern Wisdom"), who says:
But dude, I've been thinking so much about Ozempic recently, and I think the introduction of Ozempic proves how much of a scam the body positivity movement was all along. You look at the Golden Globes and all of the women that were supporting their bigger sisters, as soon as there was an easy route to being able to become a skeleton... it just shows how flimsy your principles are that it was easier for you to say, I can't win this particular game, therefore the game is rigged. Like if you can't get what you want, you have to teach yourself to want what you can get and then proclaim to everybody else that they should get it too....
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76 comments:
Do women secretly like it when other women run around looking like tubs of lard because "I'm not going to be fat shamed?" Sorta cuts down on the competition, doesn't it?
As for models, someone told me models need to be thin because the clothes hang better off them. Don't know if that's true.
Doubly weird because men, generally, do not LIKE ultrathin. At all. Men's magazines tend to show curvy women as their cover models.
The only people who have any preference for an ultrathin look are women. The blame for this cannot be placed upon men.
It’s probably not a good idea to “share progressive values.”
It's particularly ironic since the obese majority won the election.
DEI is anti-merit, anti-individual. DEI is the definition of actual racism -> straight-up.
DEI promotes gender and skin color. The opposite of character, merit, and individual liberty.
DEI is a prison.
Leftists are morons.
Fashion is political if you want to wear a "Die Musk Die" American-Leftist-Terrorist T-shirt. Made in China.
diversity of size?
No one is doing that. Sure - fat is out, and that has more to do with RFK jr. so blame him - poor victims.
Is this just a re-hash of the old "When Conservatives are in power, the skirts go down; When Progressives are in charge the skirts go up?"
Or was it the other way around?
Anorexia is unattractive. Fat is unattractive.
No matter what tho - it's all Trump's fault.
Progressives will outlaw cures for fat women so when their kids get out of college they can make good money at NGOs fighting for those women's rights.
Same reason they put the brakes on MLK's dream.
This is what Progressives always do. Start by saying something kind of reasonable, like having models that look more like regular people, then inevitably, magazine covers feature a fat hoss, a morbidly obese 'woman' with a beard or a tattooed freak show. We are all supposed to say that is beautiful.
Regular people aren't clamoring for ultra-thin models. The current political climate encourages healthy looking women. The first lady is fashion model. She looks great, copy that. Or any number of Trump's people. A good guideline is anywhere from Melania to Karoline Leavitt.
The gay men who dominate fashion prefer heroin chic models. It was ever thus.
I have always wondered why progressives think all "real" women weigh in the neighborhood of 300 lbs. I can see "Not all women look like Heidi Klum in her prime"...but they also do not look like Fat Albert in his, either.
So MAGA is running fashion houses and not bitchy gay men and women? Sure, I totally believe that.
(Bitchy gay men and men have ALWAYS hated fatties and now MAGA gives them cover.)
DD Driver - How does "MAGA give them cover" ?
Explain.
I prefer female models as portrayed in the era of Greco-Roman art. Some things should never change.
Not sure I believe ultra thin is back. I have been seeing a lot of Sydney Sweeny recently, if you know what I mean.
Better too much woman than not enough, is my philosophy.
The Beautiful People's Union? Where do I sign up?
I haven't done any modelling work, but I sure could use the union card as a testimonial that my looks aren't exactly hideous.
I’m not sure why we care what a model thinks. I’ve been under the impression that their only purpose was to get boned by DiCaprio.
- Krumhorn
Sara Ziff sounds like the kind of person the fashion industry would have gleefully blackballed back in the day.
David Bonnouvrier, a founder of DNA Model Management
Do the models call him "M. Mauvaispatron" behind his back?
Howard said...
It's particularly ironic since the obese majority won the election.
*******
Bullshit!
The Amigo riding shoppers around here are all clearly the losers of the last election.
When asked about the change, a spokeswoman for Nina Ricci said that competition for the limited number of curve models meant that the label wasn’t able to book them early enough to allow runway samples to be tailored to their bodies.
I guess the show just sneaked up on them. It's a shame they don't know about these things in advance, while there's time to book the models they want.
What it all comes down to is moving the shmattas.
Progress: one step forward, three steps backward. Progressive values include keeping women affordable, available, reusable, and taxable... and the "burden" of evidence sequestered in sanctuary states. #HateLovesAbortion
Feminists are from Venus, Masculinists are from Mars, and social progressives are from Uranus where Diversity is defined through class-disordered ideologies (e gm racism, sexism, etc), and DEI is systemic, institutional Diversity, a progressive condition in liberal societies.
We are bombarded with Kim Kardashian and Kim Kardashian look-alikes. That could come to an end - and I'd be happy.
"The bigger the cushion the better the pushin'. Who wants to ride on an ironing board? I tried me one it ain't no fun."
Frank Zappa
"Peer pressure to diversify the runway in the wake of the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements led to a noticeable shift in conceptions of beauty..." Maybe in their little bubble, but not really in the wider world.
I recall a few it designers correctly pointing out the model is a hanger for the clothes. Political statements are a distraction.
Plus the leftie NGO money for birkin bags is drying up…
But I've been reliably informed that Donald Trump is an obese 'fat tub of goo'. Somebody please make it make sense!
Who "watches" fashion shows?
Who participates in this niche of society? What percentage of the people in the world give 2 shits about fashion shows?
Nobody cares about how fat the models are. Nobody cares about these shows.
This is a lot like talking about "Art critics." It is a tiny niche for a very small number of people that we are all increasingly ignoring.
Also this was all most likely supported by USAID dollars. So it wont be a thing much longer at all.
As they say, downeast: 'Shade in the summah, warmth in the wintah...'
What isn’t political anymore? I’m sick of the whole thing. You must fall into one of two camps. Reminds me of the scene in Donny Darko where different scenarios had to placed on a love - fear spectrum. Donny disagrees and rightly states that life is more complicated than that. Life is too complex to be assigned to a left - right political spectrum. What is considered attractive is complex and relies in large part on behavior that evolved over millions of years - the sex drive is probably the strongest biological force and isn’t political at all.
“I recall a few it designers correctly pointing out the model is a hanger for the clothes. Political statements are a distraction”
Exactly correct. Runway models in particular are there to showcase the clothes, and not the models. They anll tend to look alike there. Add in that the camera adds pounds.
My partner had a successful modeling career through college, until the got married and started having kids. She had a good figure, but more importantly, was perfect face, but was only 5’7”. On the runway, she got away with it by going (usually) first or last. Then her height wasn’t as noticeable. She was esp in demand for her face and wearing hats.
Fashion is demonstrated with quasi-generic gender models. The woman only matters as a social convention to appease anti-Diversity ("bloc") and pro-diversity ("individual") bigots.
Next do tv commercials.
There are two funny male models on SM: Calum Harper and Kit Price. Both are thin thin thin. All models are thin thin thin. It's part of being young. Clothes look better if they're hanging straight down.
Let's compare the First Ladies of the last several presidents.
Bess Truman -- Democrat, matronly. Mamie Eisenhower -- Republican, a bit less matronly, but wearer of hats and hairstyles that defy description. Jackie Kennedy -- Democrat, anorectic, drug-addicted fashion plate. Lady Bird Johnson -- Democrat, average size, nice dresses, black eye. Pat Nixon -- Republican, aristocratic beauty in her youth, thinner than most, classy dresser. Betty Ford -- Republican, average size, good dresser, attractive, cancer, drug and alcohol addict who admirably became a spokeswoman for recovery. Rosalyn Carter -- Democrat, very petite and slim, casual clothes, but, considering the era, didn't have many good choices. Nancy Reagan -- Republican, slim and petite, upper-class dresser. Barbara Bush -- Republican, obese, looked best in a mumu. Hillary Clinton -- Democrat, obese, looked best in a mumu. Laura Bush -- Republican, slim and fit. Michelle Obama -- Democrat, tall and athletic, inexplicable aesthetic. Melania Trump -- Republican, tall and thin, Eastern European model, traded Eastern European model clothes for classy presentation. Jill Biden -- Democrat, normal size, tacky but normal clothes.
In other words, nothing to see here. But do check out Mamie Eisenhower. She looked like a lot of fun.
Tina, I did a Google image search for Mamie Eisenhower. Surprisingly few hats in the photos, but you're right there were some absolute doozies in there!
Said Sara Ziff, who's grift as a "models’ rights" fat activist is being deactivated.
Read the room, sweetie.
Being healthily thin is good. I am gaining weight and quality of life is slipping. "Body Positivy" speechifying is easy. Telling people they are fat and need to be healthier is hard, but it is correct.
AI generated models? They still need a human model that can be transformed to meet expectations and quality control.
Tina Trent - I love you, but Barbara Bush and Hillary were not obese, were they?
Kirk: much like Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Mamie lived a very tough and even dangerous life as a military wife, moving dozens of times under terrible conditions. While she is described as being a "subservient" wife who did little in the White House, a deeper dive shows that she did a lot to press her husband on his civil rights agenda, and equal rights for blacks was her passion, which she acted on domestically at the White House by inviting black actors and other celebrities and politicians to formal events. She also really liked pink dresses.
rehajm said...
I recall a few it designers correctly pointing out the model is a hanger for the clothes.
I imagine that it’s harder to design clothes that hang well on a woman with a B or C cup than a woman with bee stings on a board. You wouldn’t want a designer to have to work, would you?
Whether it's through planned parenthood, AI, or spreading a Green blight, progress demands decarbonization of the economy. Forward, backward.
Fashion show aesthetics are completely controlled by high status women and gay men for the most part. Where straight guys' preferences have an important input the models tend to be healthy weights and more athletic (see Victoria Secrets models, S.I. Swimsuit issues, and pornography- the former two more in the more distant past than the last 5 years at least).
Political Junkie, that was the nicest thing I could think to say about either of them. They did both have to tolerate their husbands' sexual betrayals. Clinton did stay pretty slim during her White House days.
Happy wife, happy life, any life, the world is a binary conception corrupted by class-disordered ideologues.
Doesn't every high fashion designer want to hang his or her latest creation on a bone thin tall walking clothes hanger?
Body diversity.
Yeah - I'd say that Hillary looks best in a shower curtain.... or a casket. I'm kidding! (not really)
I think I speak for 95% of heterosexual men when I say we find anorexic women almost as unattractive as the obese. Women have been bamboozled about this by a cabal of homosexual fashion designers and art directors whose ideal of beauty is an ectomorphic 13-year-old boy.
The ideals of physical attractiveness are hard-wired into mens' brains by millions of years of successful evolution. Heterosexual men are attracted to women who appear to be able to give birth to healthy babies. Women with about 18% to 24% body fat seem to be in the sweet spot. Fit but not emaciated, with enough cushioning subcutaneous fat to smooth out all the sharp angles, but not so fat as to be prone to gestational diabetes and other threats to pregnancy. When we say we like women to be a bit "curvy", that means Kate Upton, not Lena Dunham.
In addition to appearing to be able to have babies, it's also the case that an "attractive" woman is one who appears WILLING to do so, and also seems unlikely to cheat on her mate. Bizarrely-colored hair, strident left-wing feminist political opinions, libertine sexual adventurism, and a shrill, shrieking, perpetually indignant disposition are big turnoffs to men who are inclined to want a family. Tattoos are also a red flag for most normal men. They are a reliable marker for risky, impulsive behavior like promiscuity, and it's been thoroughly demonstrated that the more tattoos a woman has, the more likely she is to have a sexually transmitted disease that could affect her baby's health.
I am of course engaging in some outrageously sexist objectification and judgmental body-shaming here. I don't care. These preferences are baked into our DNA and are not something that can ever be altered by political pressure or persuasion. Certainly they are no more deplorable than the preference for tall men that most women express without shame, even though height is not controllable by a man's voluntary action, unlike everything I've named above in regard to women.
Nor are these male standards of attractiveness any more odious, in my view, than the average woman's revealed preference for men who show financial success, a muscular build, and an aggressive, domineering, possessive personality. (I say revealed preference, because what women say they prefer and what they actually do in the dating & mating marketplace are so often at odds on these metrics.)
Women in the modern world, unlike our stone-age antecedents, carry an additional burden. They can be greatly attractive by all of the physical and behavioral standards I've mentioned above, but now there are social factors that can make them of much less interest to marriage-minded men. The pressure to be a "girl boss" with a high powered career, for example, and the related burden of student-loan debt. The obsession with social-media plaudits and "selfie" photos, for another. And let's not forget the disadvantages men face in divorce court, which is another huge factor in destroying mens' desire to commit to marriage even with a woman who is otherwise wildly attractive and highly compatible.
A common piece of advice these days is that "Men prefer debt-free virgins of healthy weight without tattoos". This fact -- and it is an iron-clad fact -- makes a lot of women insanely angry, but there is absolutely nothing they can do to change it, not even with a thousand years of coercive left-wing social engineering.
Better question: why is the fashion industry so compliant?
I'm a lucky man. I woke up this morning and the soft light fell on my wife's sleeping face and I realized all over again that she's quite beautiful.
Pix have never done her justice.
Wow Narr. You are a romantic and she is a lucky woman.
"Political???"
For some people, everything that they don't like turns into politics. Politics now is very binary and each side sees a clear "good vs evil" scenario that can be applied to non-political things.
"If you're not with us, you're against us."
I hear the cold wind blowing and my husband typing. This morning we talked with our dogs in our laps (they believe they are lap dogs) about the flaws in wordle, and the French Revolution, and he let me go on about the circumstances that screwed up the Warren Commission, though he is a Medievalist and could not care less. He tolerates me. Who else is so lucky to have a husband let you rant about the Warren Commission?
Who else is so lucky to have a husband let you rant about the Warren Commission?
Yes, but what about the Dingel Norwood bill?
Gemini in gabardine. Perplexifying progressive processes. Evolution... chaos, that is. Grok it.
I’m puzzled by the “models rights” conjecture.
Women have been bamboozled about this by a cabal of homosexual fashion designers and art directors whose ideal of beauty is an ectomorphic 13-year-old boy.
Old joke:
Q: Why are runway models so thin?
A: So they look like the 13-year-old boys gay designers want to fuck.
So fashion has a white/POC cycle and a fat/thin cycle as well as a hemline height cycle? Surely the goal is to make money off whatever is popular or can be made popular, rather than anything sensible. Give me some comfy worn jeans and a polo shirt, with a jacket for winter, here in Austin, and I'll do fine for the rest of my days. I think this story is made up, as it ignores the fashion shows where the models wear only some electrical tape, and other fashion extremes from swimsuits to body armor. And what about the transexuals? Who speaks for them in high fashion other than Ru Paul?
Is emotional manipulation of vulnerable demographics so that they buy far more disposable products than they need or can afford one of those progressive values?
One of the biggest LIES told by our cultural elites is the LIE that men only like skinny women and even worse, that men demand PERFECT women with PERFECT bodies. Nothing could be further from the truth - I won't tell you how I became convinced of this as Ann would probably remove my post. A LIE!
"Everyone always wanted to be thin, but unable to get there ... "
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes
Well, you just might find
You get what you need
--The Rolling Stones, 1969
Just a little factoid from a woman. When the catalogues showed what an average woman would look like in any particular set of clothes, I had no desire to buy those clothes. And, now they've reverted to dreams, disguised as clothes - and rightly so. I can do real life on my own.
Another GLP1 trade? Who would've thought.
They can't define Fascism, but everyone on the Right is a fascist, especially Trump.
Every headline or byline in the "newspapers" now infers Trump is the worst thing since the plague.
You can't placate them. You can't debate them. Facts are meaningless.
Body Diversity - in color, class blocs - or body diversity as in individual, minority of one?
It’s political because modern leftism cannot exist if there are objective standards. Peace must be war, men must be able to be women, fat people have to be beautiful… When we acknowledge objective reality, the house of cards behind “progressive” political systems comes crashing down.
Howard said...
"It's particularly ironic since the obese majority won the election."
Dude. Have you been to a public beach? From Venice to Coronado nobody looks like Bay Watch. Overweight, smug and liberal? Take a stroll along Laguna Beach on a Sunday.
The characters in Star Trek the Next Generation all wear incredibly skin tight uniforms. When it premiered I wondered out loud how did fat crew members handle it. My mother told me "Oh, in the future, they exterminated all the fat people."
The purpose of thin women: why is a fat girl like a mini bike, they are fun to ride if no one is watching.
"Mamie pink" was a color for a while.
"Obese": Did that word start out as a euphemism and become adopted by scientists to describe gross overweightness, or did the scientists have control over its meaning from early on, before the public started to use it? So, is calling Barbara Bush "obese" more or less insulting than saying that she was "fat"? I'd just call her overweight. Hillary Clinton wasn't fat or obese. She was noticeably "pear-shaped" though.
"You can never be too thin or too rich" wasn't something gay designers forced on women. Whether models were "boyish" or not was secondary. Women didn't want to be fat -- or men didn't want women to be fat -- so Westerners evolved a different idea of beauty from cultures where full figures and wide child-birthing hips were the ideal.
Political my fanny. Follow the money. Fashion magazines, the SI swimsuit issue, whatever, see sales drop when they put obese models on the cover. Fashion is a bit of a fantasy, and fewer people want to be (or be with) an obese cover model than they do with your "typical" skinny cover model.
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