The introduction of more body types into the media is often applauded as it can help to challenge restrictive beauty norms, increase representation, and spread body-positive messages. However, objectification is perpetuated due to aesthetics being prioritized over personal health through the management of models, an association of bodies with internal characteristics, and the maintenance of unrealistic standards.
Models are at the mercy and control of their agencies. Agents have a booking board—a visual representation of the type of model they are looking for (Czerniawski, 2023). These booking boards are harmful since it requires “…these models to develop their bodies to meet fashion’s faddish demands” (Czerniawski, 2023, p. 234). With a fast-paced and ever-changing fashion industry, agents push for hair, makeup, and diet changes. However, by continuously changing models’ bodies, agents are objectifying them and disregarding their health outcomes.
Consumers see the results of these agencies through runway walks, fashion magazines, and social media. The ideal body is emphasized through the media where we learn to “…associate thinness with all manner of positive things” (Erchull, 2015, p. 165). Alternatively, “those who are fat are unhealthy, androgynous, asexual, incompetent, jolly, lazy, and ugly” (Czerniawski, 2023, p. 231). Plus-size models are representations of how to love your body, but never representations of the beauty norm. The fundamental attribution error explains that we overestimate one’s behavior to dispositional characteristics and underestimate situational factors. Viewing body size as an internal attribution makes us not only succumb to the incorrect assumptions about thinness as goodness but also makes us unattuned to the situational factors like eating disorder, pregnancy, and normal weight fluctuations. The internal attribution dehumanizes the woman to an object that is on display for others—as long as they look good, who cares about their health?
Both the media and our implicit biases maintain the unrealistic standard of what women’s bodies should look like. Through positive reinforcement, “women are reduced to their appearance and taught that it is, largely, the source of their value” (Erchull, 2015, p. 166). The focus is always on other people’s gaze. It is never about how accomplished, intelligent, or happy a woman is. Even with many well-known plus-size models, their fat is distributed in a very particular way that the media wants to emphasize. The objectification of women is further enforced within our communities and the media through a singular and unrealistic expectation. Our appearance is prioritized over our physical health, mental well-being, and worth.
Although the inclusion of plus-size models is a step in the right direction, we cannot neglect the underlying issues that are present within the system—objectification through the prioritization of aesthetics over health. And healthy looks different for everyone; our bodies should not be subjected to a static ideal, but rather appreciated for all the ways in which it functions and changes to meet the demands of our everyday lives. Women are far more than the ever-changing trends, more than a singular aesthetic, and more than sexy, docile bodies (Czerniawski, 2023).
References
Czerniawski, A. M. (2023). Sexy, Docile Bodies. The Contemporary Reader of Gender and Fat Studies, 229–240. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003140665-23
Erchull, M. J. (2015). The thin ideal: A “wrong prescription” sold to many and achievable by few. In M. C. McHugh & J. C. Chrisler (Eds.), The wrong prescription for women: How medicine and media create a “need” for treatments, drugs, and surgery (pp. 161–178). Bloomsburg Publishing USA.