Assignment 2: Media Impact

Having a skinny body shape is an image of women, especially teenagers in these years. Nowadays, there are many advertisements in magazines promoting skinny body shape on girls. So, they will try their best to follow the trend of getting slim. Why people want to become slimmer? Some of them follow just because of the trend; they may think that they should follow it as everyone is following. Some may even think that they can become models and famous if they are skinny. But actually, is it really good to have a SKINNY body shape? We should pay attention to the difference between SLIM and SKINNY. According to dictionary, SKINNY means very thin, but SLIM means gracefully thin. Why people want to have a skinny body shape? Are they having an unhealthy lifestyle to become skinny? Are these magazines which promote skinny body shape making a positive or negative effect to us?

According to www.chacha.com, a "healthy weight" for a woman who is 5'9" is 129-169 pounds; an average 5'9" model's weight is somewhere around 110-115 lbs. This shows models in these days are too skinny, and this actually is making a negative impact to the society and a bad model to us.
http://www.chacha.com/question/what-does-the-average-5'9''-supermodel-weigh

Isabelle Caro, a well-known model in France, died on Nov 17, 2010 because of Acute Respiratory Infection after she finished working in Japan and back to France. A designer told her she needed to lose ten kilos (22 pounds) if she wanted to model when she was only twelve, and she suffered from Anorexia since thirteen. In 2006, she strived for healthy lifestyle after escaping with bare life. Since Isabelle’s body has been badly damaged from Anorexia, she got only 42 kilos when she died.

Here is an interview of Isabelle Caro by singer Jessica Simpson

Jessica Simpson Brought To Tears By Anorexic Model Isabelle Caro

In my point of view, these advertisements in magazines bring out negative effects more than positive effects. Readers would easily to follow the trend of getting skinny body shape by having an unhealthy lifestyle, like control weight by not eating anything. This is really dangerous as we can see from the example of Isabelle. Can these magazines employ some models with a SLIM body shape instead of a SKINNY body shape? And they should also promote some appropriate ways for losing way! These are the better ways to advertise some up-to-date trends.