The winner of the 4th Cycle of Holland’s Next Top Model has won again, but this time it’s a lawsuit against Elite Model Management after being fired for being too fat.
“You’re still a person and you can be as beautiful as you want and it doesn’t come down to centimeters, it’s how you are and how you portray yourself, ” As I read the words spoken by ousted Top Model, Ananda Marchildon, my internal dialogue was whooping and cheering you go girl!
But, the more I thought about it, my mental celebration was rather short lived. While I am pleased with the ruling and I think this gorgeous, strong woman was treated horribly, I feel it was somewhat of a shallow victory. Elite got a $98,500 slap on the wrist for unrealistically glorifying and perpetually idealizing a woman’s body.
Elite felt they “were in the right” by their actions. Actions like sending e-mails in an attempt to encourage her to get from the 98 centimeters (38.6 inches) she had become, back to the 92 centimeters (36.2 inches) that she was at the time she won.
“We agreed that you would come by us every two weeks for an evaluation, how it’s going with your diet and exercise and losing weight. We’re going to keep measuring you.”
“Today, March 23 2010, we measured your hips at 98 centimeters. This is a reminder! The goal is that you have a hip circumference of no more than 90 centimeters at the end of June.”
Yet, at the time she won, Marchildon was at 92 centimeters. Elite wanted her smaller. Marchildon heavily dieted and starved herself, but was unable to get below 92 centimeters, leaving a spokesperson from Elite Models to allegedly tell her that due to her “fat ass,” she was unfit for modeling.
The more I learned, the madder I got. Because this woman, with a 6-foot frame and 36-inch hips, has been written off as “too fat”‘ by the fashion industry.
Sure, we all know the fashion industry has unrealistic, waif-like expectations, but where does it stop? The influence doesn’t end there. Society’s expectations are molded by crap like this.
If she is “too fat” to model the clothes on a runway that are the prototypes of clothes that end up in the department stores where you and I shop, where does that leave normal sized women? Women like me, 5’4″ with 41-inch hips? Crying in a fitting room? Wondering why pants ride up in weird places? And why shirts are too short and the fits are altogether wrong for a body type that is not stick-like and Amazonian? Yeah, pretty much that.
If she has a “fat ass,” to what lengths will a 14-year-old girl with a similar build go to change that?
image courtesy The Daily Beast
It’s all just so wrong!
My younger sister is a gorgeous, 5’11″ blond with a brilliant smile who wanted to model, and would have been a great one. She signed on with a local agent who sent her to New York for a couple of weeks to live in a models apartment and go around to various agencies, etc. When she went to to New York she weighed somewhere in the range of 1220-125 lbs, and again, she is 5’11″… She did sign with an agency, I can’t remember which one, but before they would allow her to work she needed to lose 10-15 lbs and a couple of inches off her hips, hips that were already nothing but bone with a layer of skin covering them. I was floored, where on earth was she going to lose anything? Thankfully, my sister was smart enough to realize that anything smaller than she already was would be unhealthy and unrealistic. The experience was eye opening for me, and I am so proud that at 17 my sister was able to make such a mature decision for herself.
Of course, I am five foot nothing on a good day and have to struggle to maintain the same weight as her extra 11 inches easily carries.. sometimes life just isn’t fair.
When I was a junior in high school, I was contacted by an agent who had seen my portfolio (something a friend had talked me into “just for fun”). It of course featured my height, weight, measurements, etc. She asked me all kinds of questions, including what size I wore. When I told her, she made this hmm noise, then told me she was the same height and weight as me and she wore a size smaller. Well, excuse me lady! Not everyone is built the same! It was … confusing, hurtful. At school, people whispered behind my back calling me anorexic and stuff, and this lady wanted me smaller. I quickly decided that that world wasn’t for me.
That’s the thing that really pisses me off about clothing companies – the fit models and how they expect clothes to fit on real women. JCrew claims to use a size 8 model. Maybe a size 8 model who is 5’11″! Not a size 8 who is 5’2″, because those are VERY different proportions. And THEN they photoshop the catalog images. Look, if you can’t make clothes that look good, UNPHOTOSHOPPED, on your size 0, 5’11″ model, then there’s NO WAY they are going to look good on 3/4ths of the population. But in a lot of ways it makes catalog/online shopping easier – because if something makes the models look large I KNOW it’s going to make me look huge and I just stay away.
It’s so true, what Keri said. I am 5’11 and I wear a size 12-16 depending on the day, but I bet that my size clothing would fit someone extremely differently if she was a few inches shorter than me.
Very true about clothing fitting different for different heights. The sister I mentioned above is 11 inches taller than me. We both wear a 4-6 but it looks very different on her than on me, I can look chubby in the same size that she looks like a waif in.
I agree that we need more average, every-day people models; however, I don’t feel the least bit bad for this model.
I assume, going in, you know if you win HNTM that you will get a contract with ABC agency. You can then educated yourself about ABC agency – see what their weight/measurement stipulations are. Don’t go on the show if you don’t want to model for ABC. Just because you won a prize (as opposed to being hired on) doesn’t mean you should be exempt from the agency’s acceptance criteria.
It’s like me winning the lottery, then complaining that people are stealing some of my winnings when I have to pay taxes on it.
Read the fine print, educate yourself going in; if you don’t want to abide by the predetermined guidelines, don’t enter.
Its horrible the unrealistic expectations for wemon. Being 17 myself with a 5’4 frame, and well endowed up top, and weighing around 200 lbs. ITs hard enough to find clothes to fit a ( not stick) figure. I have spent tons of money already investing in gurrdles, spandex, diet pills, diet meals, anything to be able to get me into “normal” clothing that is cute for people my age.
Comments on this entry are closed.