Role models, not runway models

     Actress Jamie Brewer became the first model with Down Syndrome to walk at the New York Fashion Week. Brewer not only made history but took a giant step for women with Down Syndrome and even plus size models who don’t have the “ideal” body image. Brewer said that she believes seeing her walk as Fashion Week will make people rethink what a model can be “in a massive way”. And she is right.

Who makes the rules about what a model should look like? Our society. It’s time someone defied these rules and Brewer took that chance. Of course with Brewer’s  current role as a witch on American Horror Story and being on the red carpet several times, she has been known to work it down the runway.

As the use of plus-size models on a magazine covers and runways becomes more popular, it is refreshing to see the fashion industry embrace a variety of shapes and sizes. But in trying to strike a balance, are some designers going too far? Australian department store Myer hosted a “Big is Beautiful” show during Sydney Fashion Festival in 2011. But while some girls looked healthy modeling sizes 16-24, others appeared overweight. Adopting the slogan “Big is Beautiful” seems to me to encourage women to remain unhealthy. This could be just as harmful as promoting the controversial “size zero”.

According to the University of Bologna, researchers Davide Dragone and Luca Savorelli, came to find that if we are surrounded by images of people who look heavier, it “induces people to become more overweight,”and that impairs their health. They warn that this trend will only worsen the “obesity epidemic”. Another study done by Arizona State University came the conclusion that women of all sizes felt even worse about themselves after looking at images of plus size models compared to the size zero models.

There is nothing wrong with promoting big boned women who’s hourglass just contains more sand, but promoting an unhealthy lifestyle as “beautiful” is not ok. In every magazine, it’s always size negative zero or way too big. Where does the in between fall? Where are all the healthy, toned, muscular women at? It’s like they don’t even exist. It’s sad that so many people are influenced by the pages in a magazine. The models are just there to model the product, not to make you feel good or bad about yourself. If we all just stopped comparing ourselves to a photoshopped thigh gap, life would be so much easier. Next time you’re looking through a magazine, look at the clothes instead of the model.