Gisele speaks out on the skinny model debate...

...and it turns out she should have kept quiet on the subject.

According to a report from Reuters,  Gisele, 26, apparently thinks that weak families are to blame for anorexia -- not the fashion industry that has been widely criticized for promoting waifish silhouettes.

"I never suffered from this problem (anorexia) because I had a very strong family base. Parents are responsible, not the fashion industry," she said in the Friday edition of O Globo newspaper.

*****

Hmmm.  In my opinion the blame can't all be lumped in one place.  Eating Disorder specialists believe that diseases like anorexia are caused by several factors, among them family influences, genetic predisposition, personality type, and--Sorry G-Bund--cultural influences.

What irks me about her perspective is that she doesn't seem to be able to put herself in someone else's place.  Just because SHE wasn't influenced by media images or comments from boys or some other cultural influence doesn't mean that another girl might be as lucky. 

And just because her family  might be strong and supportive and amazing when it comes to reaffirming how their daughters felt about their bodies growing up doesn't mean that every girl gets that support.

If I had been the reporter interviewing her, I would have pressed her with questions like:

• "So what role DO you think the fashion industry might play in all the turmoil that some girls and women experience regarding their bodies?"
• "How do you feel about the desire your images are used to create in both men and women?  What about the effect of that on girls?"
•   "Where do you stand on the fact that fashion (as she notes in the Reuters article) is closely connected to thinness?  Especially when the majority of women on the planet don't have that body type, so the clothes you model and image you try to sell isn't achievable for the very people who are your customers?"

I'd like to hear her, and others in the industry, tackle issues like that--instead of just saying 'well, I never had those problems, so they can't be real.'

Comments

She may never have had those problems, but being naturally thin and petite, I have been having problems in America with becoming a sudden scape goat. I find that many (not all) Americans have an unhealthy lifestyle that supports obesity, and while their body changes, it becomes easy for them to point their fingers at skinnier people, models included, and blindly blame someone else for their lack of health awareness.

Activity level, food quality, and dare I say it nutrition education is diminishing rapidly in the States. Of course it's ridiculous to have a heroin-addict on the front cover of a magazine and slap the "beauty" label across that image, but at the same time, it isn't all right to glorify obesity and blame ones' overweight issues on thin people.

Quite frankly, my fiance and I are thin because we walk and eat a balanced variety of food. Maybe we're lucky, living in Rome means that McDonalds is less convenient, but how hard is it really to boil pasta, add oil, onions, tomato, garlic, and mozzarella cheese? Yeah, that's right, cheese and pasta. People can actually eat real food and still stay healthy. He did the fastfood every day and night lifestyle for 3 months, gained 20 lbs. We started making real food at home, not measuring or rationing carbs, calories, fat, sugar, whatever... we walk to convenient places, and that's it - he lost 18 lbs. Wow. Revealation? It shouldn't be.

When are there going to be articles about models that don't have anorexia or bulimia? When are people going to mention that the majority of models and actresses in an image industry are also following a food and exercise plan? Never. God forbid anyone would have to look in the mirror and think that they possibly put themselves in their own heavy positions.

[Matt]

- Matt

P.S. I forgot to sign the previous post. I'm not just some anonymous asshat trying to cause trouble. It's another opinion.