The Centre, P.C. - Plastic Surgery Blog

A Step toward Reversing Bad Body Image - Tuesday, May 20, 2008

For years we have witnessed a paradoxical development in this country. As models have gotten thinner and thinner, the average weight of Americans and the obesity rate has gone up and up. Is it possible that the victory of Whitney Thompson in America's Next Top Model can reverse the trend? In what might be termed a "Reaganomic" solution to body image, perhaps as the models get bigger, the general population will get skinnier and healthier.

Whitney Thompson is a size 10 model, far larger than the majority of model competitors who are size 2 or less, but well below the average body size of women in the United States. However, some experts on health and dieting have said that her modeling victory sends the wrong message to children whose obesity rates continue to grow. They say that Thompson's victory sends the message that "it's okay to be fat."

Thompson points out in response that she is not at all fat. In fact, she says, her body mass index is right where it should be. She is a healthy, active woman who maintains her body weight, but she is, in her words, not going to starve herself, and says anyone who "[encourages] people to starve themselves or throw up after every meal [. . .] should be shot." She points out that being underweight is just as unhealthy as being overweight. She says, some "models are literally starving to death."

And, in a paradoxical way, a trend toward larger models might actually lead to a decline in obesity rates. For years we have had super-skinny models promoting an unrealistic ideal of slenderness, and during all this time the obesity rate has continued to climb. The promotion of ultra-skinny models leads to bad body image, which may inspire dieting and exercise in the short term, but then people find that their diet is either not working or causes them to lose their curves, which is a good indication that they are trying to achieve an ideal that does not match their body. People's inability to reach the model ideal drives them to despair of ever looking good. Despair leads to complete neglect of their bodies and "comfort eating," which in turn causes obesity.

On the other hand, the promotion of healthy models with realistic body types will help people to understand that, even though many of us cannot achieve the artificial ideal favored by the modeling industry, it does not mean we can't look good.

Cosmetic surgeons are lumped together with models and the fashion industry as inspiring bad body image and unrealistic expectations, but cosmetic surgeons know that cosmetic surgery procedures like liposuction cannot make larger-framed people look like models. Instead, cosmetic surgeons promote both realistic expectations and through body contouring and a proper use of proportion, show that people can look good at any size.

Thompson says that the so-called ideal model "[looks] like a hanger," but if you want to look good for more than just hanging clothes on, contact the Centre, P.C. today for a consultation on how cosmetic surgery can help you feel good about your body.