Buying into the "Skinny" Way of Life

After seeing the photo of the extremely thin Ralph Lauren model, I thought dieting and weight would be an interesting topic to discuss. I think that it is interesting how many different diets are out there today and how many different diet pills a person can take (safe or not). I just thought that this idea was kind of interesting and wanted to discuss it in terms of false consciousness. After looking at ads for Jenny Craig, Nutrasystem, etc. it is obvious that losing weight is something we should focus on if we are not a size 2. At least this is what the ads want us to think (and the media industry for that matter). People buy into these fads which may or may not work. My favorite part is the line at the bottom of the advertisement that says, "Results not typical." If shedding 35 pounds isn't typical then what is, losing 5? Because that certainly would not be acceptable. I can't read through a magazine without finding at least one ad for weight loss, not to mention an article attacking or praising a celebrities weight. I thought this idea had something to do with false consciousness. We are being told that skinny is good, fat (well not even fat, just normal) is bad and ugly. This is clearly not the case, and most people who are that skinny are either sick (have some sort of an eating disorder) or are just naturally thin. The majority of people do not look like the people in the ads. We are buying into this idea that skinny is good by participating in weight loss programs and buying pills. Why can't everyone just go out and do a little more exercise and watch what they eat? This seems to be the most logical thing to me. I do know there are people who these programs do benefit though, who are seriously overweight and I applaud that.

We buy into this concept of skinny but it does not benefit us. In fact every year it is a detrimant to millions of people around the world who begin or continue their eating disorders. It also gives many people a poor self image of themself. We know that this is happening and that the media is putting these sickly thin images out there, so it is not only our responsibility to realize that maybe they have been airbrushed and maybe that isn't real, or we need to just accept that people come in all shapes and sizes. The people we see walking down runways and in ads are really skinny and that is ok if they are healthy, but it is not something that the majority of the public should be attempting to attain, because it is not realistic or healthy. We are being bombarded with these false images and buying into the idea of skinny when most people would be better off just eating right and exercising, not attempting to attain supermodel weight.