Comments on: THIS is Beauty?!

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:06:11 +0000

Thanks for returning to comment again, Daisy. I looked at that photo, and Demelza is indeed a very beautiful young lady. I agree with you 110% about the photoshopping!! Boy, that gets my goat. I don’t see why, generally speaking, we women allow ourselves to be marketed as hunks of meat for goggling eyes… and that goes for men, now, too.

Natural beauty IS beauty– fat, skinny, or inbetween. Perverting the human flesh into all sorts of contortions is heinous. I talked more about this with a blog post I did about Chinese footbinding.

By: Daisy

Daisy — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:37:35 +0000

I understand all of that, I just see how it hurts people like my sister when people make fun of her or use her as an example of anti-womanliness.

The industry does have a serious problem, especially in places like Brazil. I think that promoting an extremely thin girl – or any 16 year old girl – as the standard for beauty is ridiculous. As a society, we love to promote the unattainable, yet no one is raising a stink about men with 6% body fat and rippling abs in a time when male eating disorders have tripled.

I understand where you are coming from, but I think the first place to start is changing the overuse of photoshopping. No celebrity is perfect and they are the ones on the cover magazines and the people we try to identify with.

Here is a picture of Demelza taken around the same time as your posted photo. She is definitely not wasting away. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/ffximage/2008/02/27/2702top_model4,0.jpg

And a “fat” girl did win the American competition. Unfortunately, she lied about having suffered from being “curvier” all her life, as she specifically gained weight to be the “big” girl on the show.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:16:10 +0000

Oh dear, oh dear, shame on me. Somehow my criticism of the “beauty industry” has twisted quite unintentionally into insulting a poor 16 year old (what’s left of her). She’s probably a very nice girl. My huge complaint is over the pressure to LOOK that way in order to WIN anything in the world of beauty today. It is not natural to be THAT thin, sorry. And you can’t convince me for a second that her clothing is making her look small here. I do not pick on people because of their appearance– I wear thick glasses and I was homely and gangly as a kid so I know what it’s like to be picked on. I’m defining the difference between being naturally the way you are versus being manipulated to be a certain way and then certain folks calling it “beauty” so they can get rich and powerful.

I think people who defend these kinds of industries should be ashamed- they are essentially using young girls like this to promote and exalt their extremely offensive and ugly view of beauty, and all for the Almighty Dollar (or Almighty Pound). THAT’s what is so ugly here. That girl is not just “skinny” and I am being so “mean” picking on her– that girl is emaciated for the sake of bankrolling her fashion bosses. If that ain’t ugly, I don’t know what is. They throw laurels on the girls’ head, call them “winners,” but who is the real winner here?

Just my two cents: if the young model gained 25 pounds, she’d be a knockout– she’d be a real woman and not a puppet of some cosmetic or fashion business.

I’m not being patronizing to stand up for humanness and against the use and abuse of young girls who are pressured into feeling this way. And like I said at the other site that sees fit to lambaste my opinion– if you guys are so open-minded, why are there no fat girls winning these contests?

And P.S. I used to be in the entertainment business, in Manhattan. So I have some semblance to what I’m talking about here.

By: Daisy

Daisy — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:41:03 +0000

It is interesting what clothes can do. She isn’t actually as skinny as she looks, is wearing tons of makeup, and isn’t supposed to smile like a child as she is selling clothing to adults. I also notice that there are photoshopped photos on this site pretending to be the real deal. My sister is one of those tall gangly girls whom other girls make fun of for being tall and skinny. Shame on you for assuming you know anything about this girl, you are objectifying her, as well. Spare the false pity and stop being so patronizing.

By: Are you replused by this picture? | The Editor's Blog

Are you replused by this picture? | The Editor's Blog — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 05:08:40 +0000

[...] item on main website announcing the winner of Australia’s Next Top Model. The ladies at Freaky Frugalite were not at all happy with this glamour shot of the winner Demelza Reveley, the blogger [...]

By: Amanda

Amanda — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:57:46 +0000

So right. I don’t like the current popular “pretty.” It’s definitely underweight–think Kelly Ripa. Too thin.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:12:50 +0000

At first, I thought she was a mannequin. Frightening for sure!

By: frugalfergie

frugalfergie — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:58:01 +0000

Too thin for me. She doesn’t even look human.

By: My Bug Life

My Bug Life — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:15:06 +0000

The entertainment and modeling fratenity set the “standards” on what’s beautiful and what’s not.This thing about having to be thin and all..is their perception of beauty.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:46:17 +0000

I agree with you. All I can say is…she doesn’t look happy and I have to think she’s miserable. Poor thing.