Bridget Malcolm and skinny shaming: Why I don’t feel guilty about shaming society when it comes to body image
Instagram/bridgetmalcolm
Last week, Victoria’s Secret model Bridget Malcolm posted something on Instagram that really made me think. Malcolm’s thought-provoking share consisted of a selfie showing off her extremely lean figure and along with the photo came an important message: stop the skinny shaming!
Yes, the 23-year-old Aussie says she’s tired of the online bullies who are name calling her thin physique and making negative judgments. Her post reads, in part, “I’m extremely fit and healthy and not in the slightest way anorexic. I have worked hard to look like this and am proud of my body.”
No doubt about it, body shaming is bad, and the Internet trolls who continually attack others for the way they look are horrible and should be condemned and stopped. My stance on this should come as no surprise. After all, if you peruse the topics of my recent articles, it’s painfully obvious that I am against body shaming. I am staunchly in support of body diversity and celebrating beauty of all shapes and sizes, full stop. I even wrote a passionate article about the lack of diversity at the annual Victoria’s Secret show, of which Ms. Malcolm was a part.
But, as I reflect on my recent work, I realize that in all the pieces I’ve written, none have ever been in support of the thinner side of the body spectrum. I’ll admit it – I’ve defended and encouraged the need to be inclusive of plus-sized models but never written in defense of the sub-zero sizes. Does that make me a body shamer by omission? Upon more reflection I realize that I am in fact guilty of a form of shaming; and, no, I am not ashamed of it.
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I am guilty of society shaming. Yes, I am guilty of shaming the world for allowing and perpetuating such a narrow and unattainable perception of what is beautiful. Unfortunately for Malcolm and her fellow Victoria’s Secret models, they are collateral damage in my crusade to call-out this skewed view of beauty.
While I try to be careful not shame the underwear models themselves, I am certainly calling out what they are forced to look like in order to be chosen to walk the coveted runway.
As I noted in my previous article about this year’s VS show, the look was both very streamlined and very extreme. According to reports, all models are expected to be 5′9″, have a 24 inch waist and less than 18 percent body fat and all but one had long, flowing locks.
But, again, my criticism is not of the girls who walk the catwalk, but of the company for demanding them to conform to this ridiculous standard.
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The reason I can in good conscience call it “ridiculous” is because much research has been done to prove that even for the naturally thin models, achieving the perfect VS body takes extreme and unnatural measures.
Last year a British fitness blogger named Poppy Cross wanted to find out exactly what it takes to get the “wing worthy” body, and the truth was shocking. For four months Poppy chronicled her journey working with a VS trainer and doctor, following the exact fitness and nutrition plan prescribed to the models before the big show. The regimen had her doing vigorous, pro-athlete type workouts, six days a week, sometimes two times a day. It also included eating a measly 1,300-calorie diet, which consisted mostly only protein and fat and even banned her from even eating veggies for the last few weeks of the program.
Shameful and harmful, according to Toronto-based executive weight loss coach, Adele Tevlin.
“Eating 1,300 calories a day with no carbohydrates at all is a restrictive diet and catabolic in nature. It burns muscle, down regulates the metabolism and wreaks havoc on female hormones. Its overall unhealthy and unsafe,” she explains.
Even the doctor Cross consulted with throughout the journey admitted to the unhealthy and potentially dangerous consequences of maintaining this kind of deficient lifestyle, long-term.
So there it is, professional admission from multiple sources that the means these models need to use in order to achieve the “right body” for the show is risky, unnatural and unhealthy.
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So, again, while I’m not shaming the models in particular, I am shaming the process to get to, and the look of, the Victoria’s Secret body.
But, my shaming doesn’t end with the lingerie company. The fact is, the finger must be pointed at all of us. After all, the executives didn’t create this standard of beauty. We did.
Indeed, our approval is at the root of their marketing strategy and in turn the company’s image. According to Victoria’s Secret chief marketing officer, Ed Razek, they choose the models based on how the female customers react to them. He explains, “We’re interested in appealing to women because women do 99% of the shopping in Victoria’s Secret. Women have to say, I want to look like that, I want to have that spirit or that confidence and strength.” T
heir marketing strategy is to appeal to the female sensibility about what is beautiful and enviable, and this is the image we’re creating; the image of a woman who has to practically starve herself and exercise like a professional athlete in order to achieve her body. And, the proof is in the numbers – Victoria’s Secret is a billion dollar empire.
If we fully, truthfully and whole-heartedly rejected the image they’re portraying, the company wouldn’t succeed until it changed it’s message.
So, while I don’t condone skinny shaming or fat shaming or anything in between, I am suggesting we all join the society-shaming crusade. To see real, outward change in the world’s narrow standard of beauty, we must see inward change first. We must truly begin to believe that a healthy body is a beautiful body. Only when that happens will we see diversity come to fruition on the billboards and runways across the globe.