German Women's Mag bans Models

The editor-in-chief of Germany’s most popular women’s magazine, Brigette, is banning professional models and opting to use “real women” in their pages in an attempt to combat an unhealthy standard of super-skinny bodies.

Beginning in 2010, the magazine will feature a mix of prominent women and regular readers in photo spreads for everything from beauty to fashion to fitness.

Editor Andreas Lebert said the move is in direct response to readers who have given the magazine feedback that they’re tired of seeing “protruding bones” from models who weigh far less than the average woman.

“We will show women who have an identity — the 18-year-old student, the head of the board, the musician, the football player,” Leberts said.

http://mygloss.com/chic/2009/10/05/german-womens-mag-bans-models/

:rofl:

:toast:

Is that a REAL beer mug? If so, I am in love... :)

(say the 'a' like the a in calm, "Mass") Or 1 whole litre of beer!

:rofl:

Who knows? Maybe this indicates a sea change of some sort.

It's about time.

By today's standards, Marilyn Monroe would be fat.

:rofl:

The comment presupposes that a woman's way of being interesting is only through her looks.

The comment presupposes that women read magazines only for the pictures.

The comment presupposes that ordinary women are not interesting enough to be photographed for illustrations in a magazine.

How is the poster's comment any more sexist than the concept of women's magazines themselves?

This is certainly not the first time that "realistic women" have been used to replace standard models.

It's been tried before. It's failed before.

The reason magazines use skinny models is because that's what consumers want.

That's the whole point, silly.

Advertisers want to offer the consumer a fairy tale: buy this product and you will be just as beautifull and successfull as the pictured woman/ man. Hence the model.

This advertising is helped if the entire magazine, including its article's illustrations, feature models - the reader is led to believe that the entire world consists of the fairy tale, and (s)he is the only one left out. What do do? Oh, there's an advert!

The German magazine will henceforth feature healthy women in its article's pictures. If the advertisers prefer to keep using models, the editor in chief will let them. But the magazine refuses to feature anly fairy tales; and rightly so. Women are interesting enough without missing 23 % of a regular woman's body fat.


And as an afterthough:
May I kindly ask you not to call me silly? Thanks.

Just stop being silly.

while muttering something about unapologetic people.

It's odd how women's issues draw the most interesting responses from some of the men on this site. Posting gratuitous pictures, mocking the subject, etc.

I'm sure it'd be much worse elsewhere. I wonder what causes it.

Perhaps you're just looking for something (anything) to label offensive so you can get your professional offense-taker poutrage on?

experience too. I will be shocked if this experiment succeeds.

or Woman's Day end of the spectrum than the Cosmopolitan or Vogue end of the spectrum.

About time we did something about photoshopped models leading girls on the path to self-starvation. Now if only the rest of the world would follow, we could save ourselves from a lot of self-esteem issues.

Do you have evidence that

1. The use of photoshopped models lead girls to self-starvation. Widespread use of photoshop in magazines is a phenomenon in the last 15 years or so. Photo retouching existed longer than that, but was muy expensive. So has the self-starvation rates increased since photoshop? And what does the increase in BMI for all levels of Americans over the last thirty to forty years impacted by your thesis?

2. What sort of self esteem issues does the world have? Too low? Too high? Is having high or low self esteem a good or bad thing?

I know it best in Dutch, my native language.

First and formost, there is the study - also mentioned on the following link (Groesz, 2002).

Link:
http://www.proud2bme.nl/beauty/Media

Translation:

Today's young woman is supposed to be as flat as a steamrolled Barbie doll. If not, you don't count in Western Society. That seems to be the adagium most girls grow up with.

This rapidly leads to a negative self-image. Research among youngsters (Groesz, 2002) showed that girls, after being confronted for five minutes with adverts featuring models, reported to be a lot less satisfied with their bodies and more insecure. Similarly, girls (and increasingly boys) who watch TV a lot feel more unhappy and complain about their bodies. The slimmer the models in the media, the bigger the negative effect.

The beauty ideal is understandably considered an inportant contributor to the developement of anorexia and boulimia nervosa. This effect is found in countries like Japan: as the influence of Western culture waxes, the number of anorexia and boulimia cases increases. The weight of models is declining. About twenty years ago, a models weight was roughly 8% less than that of an ordinary woman. By now this is 23 %

A TNO research commissioned by ZonMw showed 80% of all girls between 13 and 18 years old are at some point on a diet, half of them to an unhealthy or extreme extent. Teen girls go on a diet in case of a healthy, regular weight, even in case of underweight.

Twenty-five percent of teen girls maintains an unhealthy diet. They skip meals, use anti-fat pills, and drink slimming beverages. Another 25 % opts for extreme - and dangerous - measures. These girls sometimes don't eat for days, laxate, or stick a finger in their throat.

Even girls in primary schools have been diagnosed with anorexia. Young children with anorexia often abruptly stop eating and drinking. Girls over 14 usually emaciate more gradually. Young anorectics grow either not or badly. This interrupted grow can never be compensated in later life.

Obsessing about diets and body weight imortantly increases the risk to develope eating disorders, especially in cases of no or little overweight. Anorectics take their dieting too far, boulimics have been driven to eating frenzies by their diets.

The prevailing beauty ideal reaches girls at ever younger ages through fashion and media. The number of anorectic teens has sharply increased these last years.

Why ban professional models? Why not just resolve to use women who look like "real women" regardless of what they do for a living, and if it encourage those who aren't super skinny to get into the modeling business, all the better.

Why ban professional models? That's why I was wondering if it had something to do with union busting.