‘Plus-sized’ model shows how media idolizes unnatural appearances
As part of Carolina Beautiful Week, a plus-sized model who won the reality TV show, “America’s Next Top Model,” visited campus on Tuesday night. Whitney Thompson, who is by no means overweight or unhealthy, gave an inspiring talk that served as a reminder of how young people need to learn to love their bodies. The model addressed eating disorders, her journey through the modeling world and the falsified images that the average person compares herself to.
In the United States, there are no laws setting a minimum BMI or age requirement for modeling. This sets a standard for a very thin and unrealistic image that the typical woman can never achieve. American society creates a world where women believe from an early age that they are supposed to have that perfect body in order to attain happiness.
Many people brush this issue off as trivial, or a phase that all young people go through, but it is a daily reality for females across the nation that leads them toward unhealthy lifestyles. Ads in magazines, on television and online display extremely thin and heavily edited women.
It is frustrating to hear girls talk about their hopes to transform into Victoria’s Secret models. They fail to recognize that these models are airbrushed and have had plastic surgery, and it does not help that society puts these supermodels on such a high pedestal either.
There is so much for students to focus on in college; it is a shame to think that people waste any bit of their time obsessing over body parts and pant sizes. It is unfair to hold yourself to a number standard to evaluate your health and attractiveness. As Thompson said, “Beauty is not a size.”
What people forget is that bodies are supposed to be different. We all have different heights and weights that match up to corresponding body types. It is more attractive to be unique and look healthy than to have the “ideal” appearance of a stick.
Thompson also mentioned the importance of surrounding oneself with positive and accepting people. There are people that will love every last inch of you because of more than your physical appearance.
Young people need to aim to break the standards and start to idolize the females that are successful and beautiful for what they do with their minds and souls, not because of their bodies. Until more people like Thompson speak out to fight against the standards, the future is grim for creating a healthier, happier America.
I congratulate Carolina Productions for this event. This topic is one that all too often gets overlooked by the time teenagers enter college. But it is never too late to transform your self-perception. Society must continually fight to ensure that people understand and appreciate how hard their bodies work to keep them going every single day.
Learning to love and value your body is just as important of a skill to gain in college as academic success and without this skill, academic success can become impossible.