We’ve all read about the skinny debate, we know it’s unhealthy for us and that the fashion industry is supposedly to blame for it all. Mind you the fashion industry didn’t force Nicole Richie , Kate Bosworth and co to look like walking skeletons.
Anyway, The Truth About Size Zero follows former Eternal singer and UK TV host, Louise Redknapp, as she shows us a first hand experience of what it is like physically and mentally to go from a healthy size 8, to a size 4. Size 4 is the Australian and US equivalent of a US size zero, and as we learn at the start of Louise’s journey, in which she will drop 2 dress sizes in 30 days.
The fact that they screened this 1 hour show after Australia’s Biggest Loser was questionable to me. First there was a show full of fat people who were so unhealthy because they were too large wanting to lose weight to be healthy. Then seconds after that show ended, there was a show where a healthy woman was also losing weight to become the showbiz “ideal”.
Aside from that, The Truth About Size Zero really showed how a woman can go from a healthy glowing woman, to one that is skeletal complete with horribly sunken eyes and cheeks. Even though Louise was starting to really struggle in the last week or so, she plugged on to show young girls who feel the need to be skinny, that it’s not worth it.
Throughout this process Louise is closely monitored by celebrity nutritionist Dr Adam Carey who warns her of the dangers of crash dieting. Dr Carey says: “I think the current vogue is macabre. I think it is obscene and it is very unhealthy.”
After her first consultation with Dr Carey, Louise says: “Everything he said shocked me. It’s a shame. If every woman in the country, or every woman in the world, that wants to lose weight and become really skinny, if they could all just have half an hour sat down with a doctor telling them exactly what’s going to happen to them, I think you’d get very few of them that would carry on with it.”
She was also was reduced to tears when she came face to face with anorexia sufferers at the Rhodes Farm Clinic, North London which treats victims of eating disorders. One of the girls had said, “I have always wanted to be someone else.” The comment really disturbed me. Is that why people starve themselves?
Later in the show Louise visited former Spice Girl, Mel C, and discussed how Mel’s eating disorder was treated in the press and her struggle to come to terms with being healthy again. You can check out that clip below…
By the end of her experience, Louise was physically ill and barely able to sleep at nights. “I completely underestimated how hard it would be,” she had said.
To read more about The Truth About Size Zero, read Gemma’s thoughts at CatwalkQueen.
What did you think of show? It’s might sound insensitive, but personally, the show made me hungry, watching someone starve themselves on purpose has me wanting more food, even though I had just eaten a big bowl of noodles.
That’s an amazing idea, considering that the media is part of the reason why girls have so little self esteem. So if the media- or even just one show- is turning around and telling them, hey this isn’t healthy for you, maybe that will cause alot of girls to see that their body is great the way it is.
Caught it, great show. There’s no way fashion is not at least a part to blame. It’s so simple: to be fashionable is what a lot of people aim for, it’s why its celebrated and why even those who can’t afford it read with earnest the luxe-to-less or chain store chic parts of magazines. And if the clothes only look good on underweight frames and if the only people in the industry are underweight then people will aim to look like them. If suddenly the fashion industry decided that beauty is a size 12 and the clothes only looked good on people of that size then not as many people would aspire to be a size 6 or 4 as that would be considered unattractive, and who would try to be unattractive? It may be art and beauty in the fashion world but every body involved in producing fashion has to be aware of the impacts, of the power that it has on people. If fashion was not powerful and trendsetting I doubt it would be called fashion.
As dateline shown a little later in the evening, some people in fashion place the blame on celebrities. But I doubt those people would think that celebrities set ALL the trends in fashion. Some of the trends come from celebrities yes, but some also come from the strictly fashion world. It is not a who came first situation, fashion and celebrities are mutually evolving industries.
There’s no point in education or experiments on television when in the wide world beyond that everyone is trying to be fashionable and at the moment being fashionable requires one to at least be a size 12 or 10. Think about the short-to-mini lengths, the tunic styles, the empire cuts of winter fashion: anyone with big thighs would look bigger, and anyone with a belly would look pregnant.
Fashion has to do something it doesn’t like doing much- face reality.
Hi Chen,
You’ve got some good points, but I agree with Gisele’s view on this debate. It comes down to how you were bought up… depending on your family environment, you could be more or less susceptible to societies influences and pressures to be something that you’re not.
My parents bought me up in a house always full of food (my parents are fabulous cooks and my dad is a pastry chef), and they also encouraged me to be happy with my body and I was perfect the way I was born. Luckily, even though my dad was always making sweets, I have been the same size since I was in my teens.
It all seems a bit crazy. I would love to see a Nicole Richie or Kate Bosworth type in real-life because I really have NO concept of this size 0 (AU 4) in reality.
I am a size 12, and for my stature cannot imagine being less than a 10 (which I am aiming to be). Seriously, how could you BE so tiny unless you were short??? It just makes my mind boggle.
I think it is just as sad and just the same as seeing an overweight person – the saddness within.
It is odd that women want this for fashion when men (the vast majority) do not find it attractive – I am sure men like the standard 6-16 the most, just as these are the healthier sizes.
Quoting Emma, “It is odd that women want this for fashion when men (the vast majority) do not find it attractive.”
But you have to understand that most of the time, they’re not doing it to impress men. Having anorexia or bulimia or anything like that where you’re hopelessly obsessed with weight is about control. If you feel like you can’t control anything (ie. you’re depressed or whatnot), alot of times people either overeat and get overweight or stop eating and get deathly skinny. It’s a way to control your body when you feel like everything else is out of your control.
Influence can be defined as the power exerted over the minds and behavior of others. A power that can affect, persuade and cause changes to someone or something. In order to influence people, you first need to discover what is already influencing them. What makes them tick? What do they care about? We need some leverage to work with when we’re trying to change how people think and behave……..
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