And the cycle starts again.
As a marketer, I want to analyze and nail down what it is the VS team does to keep me, someone who doesn't even like their product, coming back.
As a human being, I think the root problem actually can be found within me. Body image issues. No, I don't want to look like Heidi Klum. Nor do I think wearing a swim suit Heidi Klum hawks will make me look like her. But if it could somehow magically turn me into a shorter, slightly chubbier, older version of her, I wouldn't mind.
Why? Why am I not happy with my body? I'm fit and healthy with an average BMI. However, I can't remember ever not thinking I was fat.
One of my sisters recently posted a picture of the four of us on Facebook. I think I'm about 10 or 11 in it. I know I thought I was grossly overweight, but, looking at my little stick arms and legs, I have no idea why I thought that. Even younger, my parents have a picture of me in a swimsuit at 4 or 5. I'm sitting with my arms and legs crossed over myself. I remember vividly thinking I needed to try and hide all my fat rolls.
Blame the media; blame the diet industrial complex; blame the designers and department stores; blame the marketers and ad agencies; blame myself.
I don't have the answers, but I do have lots of questions. If you possible answers I'd love to discuss them.
Nov 15 added note:
I want to be clear I don't think body image issues are a "woman" problem. I recognize that men/boys struggle just as much with feeling like they need to meet an ideal (usually a tall, dark, muscley ideal) in order to be good enough. They just express it in a different way.
I remember thinking I was so fat and feeling ashamed enough to not wearing anything that exposed my young figure - I weighed in at 115 pounds at 15... crazy, huh? Blaming yourself isn't really a solution, especially since this started far before your accountability kicked in. This abuse is like most - (a means to control that is so powerful and effective and meant to perpetuate the cycle...) - make someone feel bad enough about themselves so they can be manipulated, over and over and over again. An answer? Take back your power, speak out, don't perpetuate the culture with your dollars, unsubscribe to things that make you feel bad. What you're doing right now. oxxo http://vimeo.com/18985647
ReplyDeleteCompletely unprompted, B talked at dinner about a "feminist rant" he overheard at the community play center we take M to. The mommies were complaining about how gay men control the fashion industry and they want women to look like 12-year-old boys.
ReplyDeleteI've heard that argument before - and the accompanying complaint that all models have the curveless bodies of 12-year-old boys because of the oppressive power of "the gay man". Yet another of my complaints with VS: they claim to cater to women with real curves, but don't carry in stores anything larger than a D cup.
B would have none of it. I told him about this blog entry and asked him to post a comment. Hopefully he will; I don't think I can correctly convey his perspective.