I just saw the cover of the new SI Swimsuit issue, and it frightened me. The face of the model looked like a man in drag. And at first I thought she had a nice body, but when I looked closer she looked so long-waisted that I was a little creeped out.
This is part of a larger issue: if people who like models are so rare, why is that (slim, fine bone structure, etc.) our standard of beauty?
Any thoughts?
I’m looking through Stuff Magazine’s 101 sexiest women in the world, and I noted that they (models) are getting away from the Ultra-thin, ribs-pking-out-everywhere-you-look-angel-wings-on-their-backs-because-their-shoulder-blades-stick-out look… they are looking like Brazilians. Muscular, and not having to worry about being anorexic/bulemic thin…
IMO, I dont think its so much our standard of beauty, that creates these stick thin models, I think its more the designers. i:e, they want a clothes horse to drape their creations on, and this then becomes the norm in the modelling world. But as Ad Noctum says, hopefully we’re getting away from the ultra-thin look and back to real woman.
I hear you. A lot of people are building up Penelope Cruz as the next foreign bomb-shell beauty, and I think she’s frightening. Runway models do absolutely nothing for me.
Maybe I’m weird.
I just saw Christina Aguilera in her music video with Ricky martin.
AAARRGGHH!!!
What a horrific looking woman she is.
My problem is with their legs. Designers seem to think that long legs = great legs.
As a connoisseur of such things I can tell you that shape (of the thigh, calf and ankle) is what makes a leg sexy. I can understand how a tall, tall model with shapeless, sticklike legs might get picked to model, say, a dress or other garement where a striking overall look is most important; but why do they use these women for shoe and stocking ads? Someone’s not paying attention.
It’s irksome because there ARE men out there (and women, for that matter) who are convinced that, because people who are slim and long-waisted with racks from hell exist, everyone is somehow entitled to one.
I used to go BATS, knowing I would never look like that and, thus, would have to take whomever was able to look at me without gagging. My face and body are both FIRMLY in the category, “average.” My legs and arms are skinny, and I’m very short-waisted, so even if I starved myself and worked out every day I would NEVER look like those models.
However, people keep on telling me that the supermodel-type body SCARES them…too many angles, and if it got to serious ugly-bumpin’, they’d be afraid of breaking the poor things in half.
Looking at some of them, I’d have to agree. Their faces look as if they were chiseled from marble…but who wants to kiss marble? They have looooooooong, slim bodies…nothing to hold on to, and if you want for a caress you’d feel BONE. Maybe it’s all nothing but rationalization to make myself feel better, but I think they’re very unfriendly-looking.
Lizard, I think the questions should be “Does anyone not think professional models look strange?”
Have you ever seen a model in person? If you think they look bizarre in photos, remember that the camera adds 10 pounds. I saw Laeticia Casta in a restaurant… this is a model who (as readers of the Victoria’s Secret catalog know) is not as scrawny as some, yet she still looked like a freak. She looked like she was going to tip over onto the table from the weight of her boobs. Ugh.
Me, I prefer the so-called “fitness models” or whatever stupid name is given to the models with some muscle. You know, the ones in magazines like Self who are shown demonstrating how to get a round butt in 20 minutes a day…
Y’know what’s been weirding me out about models? Not their bodies (I’ve kinda programmed myself to put that on “ignore” mostly), but their makeup. I’ve been on a reading-women’s-magazines kick (Glamour, Cosmo, that sort of thing) and have been really shocked by the dramatic and ugh! bright colors of makeup in today’s magazines.
Even when I’m vamping it up, I go for dark makeup…not bright pink or yellow. 
I think, on the street, every day, real people would just look at me funny if I were wearing fushia eye makeup? (I know there’s an arguement that “fashion model makeup” isn’t meant for “everyday” people, but there’s at least been a way to tone it down and make it useful for us average Janes…)
I honestly don’t know any guys that like the way models look despite how hard the media is trying to convince us we should.
A friend of mine used to photograph models. He said it was amazing all the touchups they had to make in order to give them a healthy appearance that they did not have in real life.
Last week was “Fashion Week” in New York, and all the papers ran daily full pages of photos of the new Spring clothing lines from the big designers. I always read through these pieces, being obsessively interested in women and what they’re wearing, and I was struck by how terrible the models looked in some very attractively-designed dresses, skirts, and tops.
It looks like the hemlines are going back up to around mid-ass range (Hallelujah) but, as the runway models didn’t seem to have any asses at all, the effect in the article photographs was somehow diminished.
I’m another one who feels that bony-assed models look awful. An unrealistic expectation is created, and unfortunately many young girls feel that they need to achieve this look.
What I find just as weird are some of the so-called “fashions” that these women model. Yeah, some of them look nice, but most of what I see makes me wonder who in hell would ever wear this stuff. What are these designers thinking when they come up with this crap?
Lizard - you assume that models are chosen because they fit our ideal of beauty. They are chosen because they make clothes look good, and quite often because they make fit a standard size. Frankly, a skinny woman will look good in nearly anything, whereas any normal person will only look good in some clothes, not all of them. And they are chosen because they are photogenic.
In addition, models are often chosen to help create an atmosphere for a certain type of clothing, much like a stage setting is designed to enhance the atmosphere of the play. In this respect they are not so much beautiful in the sense of desirable, as they are beautiful in the sense of an exotic animal, or a remote landscape.
I have always suspected that supermodels look like pubescent teenage boys because that’s what most of the male designers go for.
[flamboyant]
Oh, honey, if I could have thirteen year old boys walking down the runway in my creations, it would be ffffabulous.
[/flamboyant]
Fashion models would be much sexier if they put on about 30 pounds each. The whole fashion industry, and entertainment industry, for that matter, is sick. We need to get away from this morbidly thin image. Some girls take this to heart when they’re growing up and develop eating disorders.
I’ve always been attracted to thin women, personally. One of my ex-girlfriends is built like a model (5’10" 115lbs), and it’s natural. Her metabolism is extremely high, and she’s been skinny (but well proportioned)her entire life. People tell her all the time to eat something, which I’m sure many models also hear. Some undoubtedly do suffer from eating disorders, but I doubt they all do.
I just joined your fan club, my man. Didn’t all women everywhere sign a petition that you should not wear brown lipliner and red lipstick!?! I think so. Apparently Christina missed that missive. Yuck.
As for the Brazilian thing - well, I have to disagree. I read Vogue and Elle regularly, and they too are saying that “the real woman figure” is returning now. Real? Gisele Bundchen, Model of the Year, is 5’11, 120 lbs, and has c-cup boobs (I’m just guessing, that’s what they look like to me, but the weight and height are accurate). How is that real? It’s not malnourished, yes, but it’s still not normal.
The day I see a size twelve model on the cover of Vogue in sexy Gucci pants is the day I die happy.
Well, according to The Daily News, one of the biggest hits during Fashion Week was Lane Bryant’s show. From what I saw there didn’t seem to be any model over a size 14 (Lane Bryant sells sizes 12 to infinity), but the show was very popular. I’m not so optimistic as to believe this will start a new trend, but I can’t imagine this happening 5 years ago.
Did anyone see today’s Wall Street Journal fourth-column story on the latest popular operation among young Korean woman? It’s slicing off part of the calf in order to have “more shapely” legs. And I thought Michael Jackson was nuts . . .
It’s not just models. I’ve met a number of beauty queens (a couple Miss Illinois and a Miss America) and, once I mentally dug past the Spackle, realized that I knew MANY women MUCH better looking. Better features, better figures. Maybe not better teeth, but smaller, less threatening teeth.
Okay, the Miss America was okay looking, but she just seemed to be so NICE that it didn’t matter what she looked like.