http://www.care2.com/causes/womens-rights/blog/should-super-skinny-celeb-photos-have-a-warning-label/We're all familiar with the warning labels on packs of cigarettes; they inform us, somewhat sternly, that the product we are about to buy or consume could kill us. The labels reinforce the culturally accepted fact that smoking is a deadly practice. The warning label serves as a reminder.
What doesn't seem to be culturally accepted is the fact that being too thin can also cause early and unnecessary death - our magazines, movies, TV shows and advertisements are splattered with pictures of people who represent an unrealistic standard of beauty, often one that is digitally enhanced. Younger and younger women are being affected by these graphic representations, and they interpret them to mean that their body is inadequate unless it takes up as little space as possible.
A solution to this problem is a thorny challenge - some advocate for realistic-sized models, while others propose disclaimers on photoshopped ads. In an editorial for the Daily Mail last week, Rosalind Pomarenko-Jones has another idea: what if we put warning labels on pictures of super skinny celebrities?
Pomarenko-Jones writes, "Food is no longer a simple pleasure. It exerts a disproportionate influence on us. And for the super-skinny celebrity, this fixation has become grotesquely exaggerated. My real fear is that millions of impressionable young women will seek to emulate this new breed of 'twiglet' celebrities." Pomarenko-Jones' daughter, Sophie, died of anorexia at 19, and her mother indicts "glossy magazines" full of pictures of "dangerously thin women" for their undue influence over her daughter.
So she proposes a radical solution: warning labels on these images. "Perhaps they would consider also running a health warning alongside [images of very thin women] - an extended version of those you find on cigarette packets. 'Being this thin could lead to death,' it might say. Then it could list the symptoms - shrivelled ovaries, brittle bones, wasted muscles and foul breath - of starving oneself. Not remotely alluring or sexy, are they?"
I certainly agree with Pomarenko-Jones that images of extremely thin women have a serious impact on women's self-esteem. I know that I often feel guilt after seeing photos of slender celebrities, and wonder vaguely what I could do to look more like them. But warning labels seem, at least to me, like an impossible solution, especially on photos of celebrities. Who gets to decide who is too thin? Pomarenko-Jones seems to be operating on a very subjective model, one that can't be standardized. And I'm sure the issue would quickly be turned on its head: what about the few actresses who could be considered "overweight"? Do they get a warning label too? Wouldn't that send an even more problematic message? And what about women who are naturally thin? How could we ascribe motives to celebrities' body weight, when the issue often much more complex than the fact that they're starving themselves?
Pomarenko-Jones' story is heartbreaking, and I deeply admire her efforts to raise awareness about the illness that killed her daughter. But this solution simply doesn't seem practical - and might even inscribe more rigid ideas about what a "good" female body looks like, if editors are asked to subjectively label the celebrities in magazines. And what about films? Advertisements? TV shows? This issue extends beyond "glossy magazines," and needs a more probing solution than a slapped-on warning label.
Topic: Should Super-Skinny Celebrity Photos Have A Warning Label? (Read 443 times)