England’s MiLK Modeling Agency took note of Tess Holliday because of the massive popularity of her Instagram account, with its racy photos and her #effyourbeautystandards hashtag. The size-22 model became an affirmation to many women of their own beauty and value regardless of their size.
Many on the internet, however, didn’t see it the same way. Suddenly, everyone was concerned about the “health” of plus-sized models and the influence they may have on young women.
How, exactly, did fat-shaming become justified by saying “I’m just concerned about her health”? Are we truly concerned that young girls will see photos and advertisements featuring Ms. Holliday and suddenly begin gaining weight in order to meet a particular standard?
For Holliday, it’s about combating a standard that?creates widespread body dissatisfaction for women?and redefining those standards to include every body type. In an interview with Here & Now, Holliday said that:
“Glamour magazine recently said that 97 percent of women are unhappy with their body in some way. That’s huge. I mean, that’s nearly every single person, that there’s something that we don’t love about ourselves and I feel like that’s what we should be talking about. I mean, yes, people can talk about health, but I feel like what we really need to be talking about is the fact that women of all ages and sizes and shapes are feeling the need to kind of, live up to unrealistic expectations. I feel like there needs to be more diversity so that we have people to look up to and we don’t feel the daunting task of being perfect.”
Like many other young girls, Holliday was teased mercilessly in school about her weight until she felt forced to drop out. Redefining beauty standards, for her, is not about being beautiful at a size 22, but about showing women that they can be beautiful even when they aren’t a size 2.
“I’m mostly passionate about speaking to young girls about what it means to be body positive. I mean, I always wish that I had someone when I was 15 telling me the things that I know now and that’s what I’m most passionate about is to stop bullying and to start the conversation about loving your body.”
Just as being very thin does not necessarily equal a healthy body, being overweight does not necessarily equal an unhealthy body. Being shamed, teased, and taught to hate your own body certainly does, however, take a toll on mental health and an ability to feel good about oneself. Eating Disorder Hope, an online support site for parents and adolescents affected by body-shaming that leads to eating disorders,?warns of the hazards of featuring only?very thin bodies in popular media as the ideal.
“Spend an afternoon watching your child’s favorite shows, or looking through fashion magazines for teens. Do you see anyone who looks like your child? Probably not, because the ?ideal body? of today’s TV star or fashion model is generally a product of dangerous starvation diets and plastic surgery…only 3 in every 100 women has a fashion-model figure ? meaning that 97 in 100 girls think their bodies are ?abnormal? compared to the artificial ideal promoted by the media. This dissatisfaction rises as children enter their teen years and become more interested in looks and aware of their own appearance.”
The effects on young girls who see images of models like Tess Holliday are not unhealthy ones. They are healthy effects in terms of mental health and self-esteem. They are healthy effects in terms of body image and combating body-negativity. Changing the ideal image for women will involve changing the onslaught of images we already see as ideal because those unattainable body types have been so singular in the modeling industry for so long. As far as this writer is concerned, I whole-heartedly welcome Ms. Holliday to the modeling world.
