Dangers Of The Fashion Industry

In the past, buying a simple white tee or a luxurious plaid skirt was a mindless purchase. However, as the reality of how these items are made comes to light, it raises the question: what are the true human costs of the fashion industry? Well, the fashion industry comes with a serious price: the workers producing these fast fashion items work long hours in horrific conditions, are treated unfairly and inhumanely, and are left behind economically and educationally. The first human cost that comes with the fashion industry is the dangerous conditions they work in.

The Fashion Industry is affecting the way many people look at themselves. In today’s society there is always an ad promoting fast food, clothing brands, Cars. Etc. almost all of them have a model to promote their products. These fashion models are usually, extremely thin, tan, tall, and gorgeous. This set a negative standard for many women on what they should look like and can often cause to self-esteem issues. The Media is having a negative effect on body image by choosing to settle toward an unrealistic persona. In Addition, this has created many young girls, to have eating disorders such as bulimia, anorexia, and fasting. However, some businesses have started gravitating toward plus size models to stop the affects it has on society. Plus, also many companies are limiting the amount of photo shopping and airbrushing. The issues are far from being resolved but numerous people are working toward making a change.

When they say that ordinary people are going to want to become models they make it sound like it’s a bad thing. In reality that is a good thing, the more models the more business. The more models that we have the more clothing and products that companies get to advertise. Also due to that models are meant to be skinny we don’t have many models left, and the models that are modeling as an now many are in serious danger for having eating disorders.

IntroductionBusinesses in today's world raise many ethical issues and it is important to understand which actions are right and which ones are wrong. In this report the focus will be placed on an article about models working in the fashion industry. It explains how models are being mistreated and exploited in many ways which include sexual harassment, lack of rights, overworking and having to face dangerous situations such as taking drugs which include cocaine in order to stay thin. The article also mentions that models enter the industry as young as 13 years of age and definitely need protection from this exploitation.

When Wilkin first set out to be a model, she was turned down because she was not thin enough. “I had expected it to be glamorous and fun, but it wasn’t like that at all. One day I was put in a line-up with 12 models. We were all naked apart from flesh-colored thongs, standing in front of a panel of casting directors. They basically went through us and said ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘yes’, ‘no’, depending on whether we were thin enough. If you weren’t thin enough you were sent out of the room immediately. I was sent out.”(Wilkin 1). After being turned down, Wilkin started to limit her eating and sleeping in order to lose the weight that she needed to in order to make it past the judges. Wilkin was initially encouraged to lose weight unhealthily by her modeling agent. She was not educated on the proper ways to lose weight in a healthy way, so ultimately Wilkin resorted to not eating at all. By having weight restrictions put on models, it leads them to believe that they need to go to extremes such as, binging and purging in order to lose weight. Modeling agents should instead talk to their girls about healthy eating and give them tips that can help them lose weight without harming their bodies in the process. Girls should not have to lean toward the point of starvation or sickness just to be exactly how a designer envisions them to be.

As the media has become a bigger part of our lives, the rate of eating disorders has risen dramatically. More and more, we see smaller models and smaller celebrities. In late 2000, PBS aired a documentary focused on eating disorders, one portion focused on the modeling industry. The average model weighs 25% less than than the average American woman (Dyeing to be thin). In the modeling industry, plus size starts at a U.S. women’s size 8 (Dyeing to be thin).

     "Just Be" is a familiar slogan to the current American culture. It is the slogan of a well-known designer, Calvin Klein, who, in his advertisements, supposedly promotes individuality and uniqueness. Yet, Calvin Klein, along with all known designers, does not have overweight or unattractive people on his billboard ads, on his runways, in his magazine pictures or on his television commercials. Moreover, the movie, music and the mass media corroborate with the fashion industry in setting and advertising a certain standards for a physical ideal of a human body. Such propaganda promotes the public into depriving themselves of needed nutrition and generates eating disorders within people in order to fit the

There is no such thing as the “perfect” body type. The only thing that matters is being healthy and feeling comfortable and confident in your own skin. In the United State’s fashion world and media, the so-called perfect body is a controversial subject, going from one extreme to another. One woman, Liz Jones, has spoken out about how portraying underweight models in magazines and in the media is doing more harm than good in her article titled “What I Think About the Fashion World.” She suggests that when teenage girls see these models, it could potentially be causing eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia.

Throughout the years, models have been progressively been getting skinnier. "Size 6 (UK size 10) was a normal size" (Littlejohn). There are many downsides to the super thin models of today. They cause unattainable standards of beauty for people which leads to eating disorders such as bulimia, anorexia, and binge eating. This is affecting models and teenage girls the most, peoples health is being sacrificed for "fashion", and it needs to stop.

One may believe that slim celebrity pictures make people avoid being that weight, while it is also believed that these celebrities may be causing a weight drop in people around the world. Kelly Cutrone, owner of People’s Revolution, states that models are born with the characteristics needed to model, and these models are not unhealthy. Also, Psychologist Douglas Bunnell states that stars simply show the horrors of eating disorders, and how people should avoid disorders of this kind. However, it seems as though the models are underweight as many have passed out because of dehydration. In refutation to Bunnell, it seems, through studies, that smaller celebrities inspire young people to become the same, in turn, these people would become beautiful too. A transcript mentioned at the end by Larkin Mcphee proves this refutation with evidence from a model with an eating disorder named Kate Dillon. Often, many skinny celebrities or models have pictures taken that affect the insecurities of average people and trigger an eating disorder gene.

The fashion industry plays a huge role in portraying bad images of ideal beauty, which in turn affects today’s society perception of their own body image. Not only are women affected by what is seen and heard about how the perfect body should appear, children of young ages are now feeling insecure and obsessed with their bodies before they reach teenage years. This ‘ideal image’ the fashion industry continues to enforce only focuses on very thin models who seem to be in shape and are very healthy. Furthermore, many people think of the influence from the fashion industry as being human representations (models). Because of the rising problem with the image of beauty within the fashion industry, it is shown that even mannequins and non-human representations (mannequins, dolls, photoshopping) of bodies play a significant role in women’s body image; which causes problems to the individual. (Anshutz & Engels, 2010). Body image and self-satisfaction, eating disorders and non-human representations all can cause harm to the individual, if prolonged.

Fashion is everything to society and the media, but everyone wants to look good while feeling beautiful in their own way. Everyone believes that fashion is an easy, fashionable, and sophisticated style. Today, the modeling industry has become negative for older and younger women. The people in the industry do not prefer unhealthy body images such as pictures of overweight women. Women suffer from depression and anxiety. The modeling industry has been very harmful towards women in America. It effects women by not achieving a healthy, being strong, and confident body image regardless of shape and size.

When Victoria’s Secret is allowed to have models prance around on screen but Lane Bryant Ads (lingerie for plus size women) is banned then there’s a problem. The media is portraying these models who are thin to the point where it is unhealthy. And the media is feeding society lies. A perfect example is of Gerran Tyler. Tyler was a 12 year old supermodel. She walks the run way for clients like Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein, and Betsey Johnson. She’s tall, thin, the perfect model because she hasn’t hit puberty yet. She walked during New York Fashion Week and posed for these designer brands advertisements. This body type is unachievable for almost all adult women (Roberts). Somebody in their twenties or thirties doesn’t have the ability to look like a twelve year old girl, but this is how these designers are telling us to look. Tyler had an amazing career and high expectations but the fame didn’t last long. As she got older and hit puberty she began to develop boobs, hips, and curves. She began getting less and less bookings. Her supermodel career was virtually over. “Eighty percent of 10-year-old American girls say they have been on a diet” and the, “Number one magic wish for young girls 11-17 is to be thinner” (Missrepresentation). This self-esteem problem with young girls is a result of these unobtainable ideas of beauty. Jennifer Siebel, creator of the documentary Missrepresentation, says

In today’s society, fashion rules the teen and young adult generations. Billions of dollars are spent each year on designer brands such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Off-White. At the same time that these large amounts of money are being spent of materialistic aspects of fashion, people in third world countries are struggling greatly. Instead of money being spent on expensive clothing, it could serve a greater purpose by being donated to countries who are in dire need. Absurd amounts of money in first world countries are spent on designer brands, while third world countries struggle to even get their hands on any clothing.

Photo editing to get the “perfect” body makes women turn to eating disorders to obtain that look