Taylor Swift vs. Ashley Graham and what really comprises Body Shaming

I sort of recalled Taylor Swift having some fun poked at her regarding her ‘thigh gap’. This is a female feature that has become quite popular in recent times but when I looked at both pictures, the humor (at least to me) was obvious but it is time to take a different look at this topic; this is from the perspective of a middle aged male who is tired of the usual run of magazine models.

How could a male find an anorexic looking beanpole attractive? I have seen models whose legs aren’t any larger than my arms; don’t you think that is rather unhealthy? I see that Taylor Swift is 119 pounds in weight for 5’11” in height… that isn’t even slender; that is anorexic. Considering how many girls probably consider this singer their role model, her anorexic looking physical form is body shaming every girl who sees Taylor Swift as a role model. When you are that skeletal in size, of course you will have a thigh gap… look at the human skeleton in the picture if you don’t believe me. Not enough is being done to educate girls regarding healthy body weight and normal appearances; Taylor Swift is NOT an average female and shouldn’t be referred to as such.

Now we will consider a model named Ashley Graham. She is featured on the cover of the Sports Illustrated 2016 Swimsuit Issue. She is around 200 pounds for 5’9” height and I say…. Hallelujah! While she isn’t skinny by a long shot, she appears to be more of a mainstream female regarding her stats. (Actually, she is quite attractive; you don’t get onto the cover of the SI/SI unless you can rock a bathing suit… and she can and does.) This is what we need to see a lot more of in the future. If more plus sized or average sized women were to appear in mainstream venues, perhaps some of the anorexia/bulimia issues would abate (where the REAL body shaming occurs.)

I remember how my niece was upset that she would never look like a Barbie Doll; I wrote her a short story to assuage her feelings on that matter. Dolls do have that much impact, as lammily.com has shown. Not only are their dolls of varying skin shades but (most importantly), they have realistic body measurements (the inventor uses actual human body measurements of real people). They have become rather popular.

In conclusion, mainstream celebrities have a very strong effect on society and the demographics to which they appeal. Taylor Swift needs to gain about twenty five pounds to lose that anorexic look because it simply isn’t cool (The graphic above is meant to be grimdark humor). BMI (Body Mass Index) enforcement needs to be both uniform and unrelenting with serious penalties for violations on both sides of the modelling business. A slant towards more average looking models should be the ultimate goal. (Why not do so for male models? If a male model wants that buff look for the magazines, they will have to eat in order to keep that look. Anorexia/Bulimia is far less common for males versus females.) You can have more average bodied females who are still attractive.

Lastly, this comment is targeted specifically at two companies called Woman Within and Roaman’s. If you are targeting the plus sized female market, you should be using appropriate female models for your clothes versus the anorexic beanpoles I have seen both on your sites and in your catalogs. How is a female going to know how a garment will fit her in size 16 when a model is wearing the garment in a size 0 or 1?