Give this girl a break

So recently Kate Moss was quoted saying “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” and caused a minor publicity storm. (although the full quote was “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels -you try to remember, but it never works.” She goes on to discuss how she likes making jam.)
Online columnists claimed she she was encouraging anorexia and comments from people ranged from calling her “tragic” to “pathetic” –and those are the nicer ones. I’m bringing this up because I am tired of people thinking it’s okay to constantly criticize how women look –whether "too" skinny or "too" fat. These are some of the main points that are being made and my response.

• Unrealistically thin women promote anorexia.

Ummm….our culture that values women more for how they look than their accomplishments promotes extreme behavior from anorexia to breast implants to putting make up on 5 year olds and parading them about in beauty contests. You can’t blame this solely on models! If girls got as much attention for their artistic and athletic ability we’d have less anorexia (and probably fewer middle school girls giving BJs)

• Women should have curves. Like Beyonce and Scarlett Johansson for example!
  

Isn’t this just another standard of beauty? And one that is as unrealistic to attain if it doesn’t come naturally as is a model physique?

• Fashion should be about “the average woman”

News flash: fashion is a fantasy. It is fulfilling a designer’s vision and a fashion show is not just the clothes and model but hair and makeup that “the average woman” wouldn’t normally wear. If this vision is in sync with the public it may be successful. No, models don’t have “average” bodies. But neither do ballet dancers who are also underweight and conform to a certain aesthetic. If you don’t like it don’t go to fashion shows. Or the ballet.

And instead of attacking one another for being too skinny or overweight, or listening to a Britney Spears song one day and calling her a slut the next we can challenge what we don’t like with how we choose to consume. Stop watching television shows that seem too limiting in their representation of women and cancel your magazine subscriptions if you want. And then make sure you let the Editors or Producers know what you’ve done and why. Better yet, make a petition with friends and send it in.

And don’t vapidly buy into something because a celebrity with minimal talent is wearing it. Writing Style Defined I get emails almost daily from PR people requesting I promote their products and the majority of the time there is a celebrity name attached to it. By principal I won’t promote it. I don’t believe that a paid sponsor validates a product –and I am mildly insulted that someone thinks I will be impressed with such endorsements. But this is the culture we live in. And if we don’t like how the media represents women we need to respond with how we buy things because that’s how we’ll get their attention. And as for Kate Moss: the quote was taken out of context and it’s her opinion. So let’s give her -and each other- a break already and stop judging.