(I’m writing this article while sitting in my small #myCalvins underwear, wearing a push-up Victoria’s Secret bra, eating Nutella pancakes.)
As a generation half enslaved to the world of technology, the media unsurprisingly presses a heavy influence on our lives. However, as the internet re-lives its upset over Myla Dalbesio’s status as a Calvin Klein “plus-size” model in 2014, I pause to reflect on what is still causing such an upheaval almost two years later.
I watch the annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Shows, half gawking at the Swarovski crystals and half at the bodies that wear them. They are beautiful women; there is no disagreement there. However, I am capable of differentiating between my body (the one that spends hours studying for university classes with very little time to plan home-cooked healthy meals and even less time to make it to the gym daily), and those of the so-called “angels,” who are literally paid to spend the entirety of their days working out. Would I like to have more time to sweat, to tone my muscles and thin my figure -- sure. However, I wouldn’t trade that for the grades I’m proud to have; it’s a difference of lifestyle. What the media doesn’t highlight is that these women look as they do because it is their life. Their bodies are their livelihood.
I don’t believe the VS models themselves are the cause of eating disorders in society. Rather, I think it's the careless labeling by the media. As a visual world, it is not the sight of different body shapes that excite one to feel subordinate -- the unhappiness with one’s own body. Yet, it is quite the opposite. It is the very titles and labels given to those body shapes that cause rise to the various problems.
I return now to Myla Dalbesio, a beautiful woman and model. Yet, why is it that the media labels her beauty as “plus-sized,” and the bodies of the VS models as “angelic?” This is the root of the problem.
I have no issue with skinny bodies, muscular builds, or curvier frames -- they should all be advertised and proudly publicized equally. Though, what the media desperately needs to understand is that advertising one “normal-sized” girl in a sea of “below-average” shapes isn’t what young girls need; it makes larger frames feel almost placated -- “Aw, that’s so sweet, they used a fat girl.” I’m sorry, but how does merely billboarding a body make a change? Short answer: It doesn’t.
The change the media needs to recognize is to end the labeling. It is the labels, with intended positivity or negativity, that affect minds and create body-shaming. Labeling in the media incites labeling at home.
Myla Dalbesio along with thousands of other beautiful models, are simply that -- beautiful. No label needed.